Has anyone seen the stats on the number of licenced pilots?
(ref.
http://www.casa.gov.au/fcl/fcl_req.htm)
Just a quick rundown;
In 2001 the number of current private pilot licences was 18425, in 2002 this dropped to 15860 - and has slowly declined from this large drop...
What could explain this - lack of interest in flying, Sept 11, aging population, not enough schools servicing smaller towns (being a bit of a country boy I think this may be a factor - my town has an aeroclub with several interested in flying, but no plane at the airport or instructors to service the area)...
Overall, the less flying the more everyone has to charge to get by, the more people charge the less that fly... and on and on it goes...
TMP