A close friend, pilot and former aircraft owner is fond of reminding me that general aviation “as we know it” is going away. He laments losing the GA industry as it existed in the last 20 or so years of the previous century, mainly because fewer pilots today use their airplanes for personal transportation. (Business use of GA continues, of course, with its fortunes tightly tied to the overall economy, which is another topic.)
We often will discuss the differences between GA then and now, but rarely agree on a verdict. We do agree one of the major challenges is today’s relatively high cost of aviation fuel. It’s an expense directly reflected in how much we fly, and when its price rises, pilots fly less. It’s not rocket surgery.
