TheOddOne,
You have it right, the costs of flying have actually fallen over the years - it has rarely been so cheap!
Of course the price, in pounds and pence, is higher - but compared to retail price idexes, wages etc etc, it has fallen quiet significantly.
In fact, I was surprised to hear on the radio the other day that mogas is cheaper - in real terms - today than it was five years ago!
But why is flying losing popularity?
Because the facilities are cr*p! The aircraft are shagged out, the stuffing hangs out the seats etc. The airfields have damp portable buildings. When you get there there is nowhere to go (because there is no ground transport), etc ect.
Why are they cr*p.
Well, perhaps because every corner other than safety has been cut to try and keep prices down.
Yet it costs 3k a year to park a static caravan (which you have actually paid for) on a caravan park. It costs 4k a year to park a boat in a marina on the Clyde.
Yet Cumbernauld's 4k a year to park a light aircraft indoors is seen as a rip-off.
And a landing fee of a tenner is a rip-off. (Yet people pay a fiver to park a car when shopping, and how many cars per square metre of concrete car park do you get compared to aircraft per square metre of runway?)
So if you want to invest, I'd choose a car park over an airfield.
And if no-one invest, you get cr*p. And then you lose customers!
Lok at successful golf clubs. Look at the annual membership fee and then the fee per round. That's dearer than the same aspects of flying, but you get a lot more for your cash. (of course, a set of golf clubs is cheaper to buy than an aircraft, so if you factor that part in, flying gets dearer, but I am trying to compare like with like).
As long as people - but it is human nature - want something cheap, they'll get what they pay for.
And as long as desperate flying school/club operators keep trying to compete on price and not quality, everyone will be dragged down to the lowest level.
So, to be blunt.
If you can't afford £100 an hour, either work more to earn more or study more to be able to get a well-paid job in a few years time.
There have been some good offers, like washing planes (ie work more), if you can't wait for the study more route.
Personally, we all go on about getting young people involved.
I don't give a stuff about that.
I want enthusiastic people involved - of any age and fitness. (We have just trained the world's first pilot who has had a heart transplant)
I want staff and students prepared to commit to aviation.
I want the staff to be able to earn the national average wage - not something that will make them rich, not something that will bankrupt their families. But something that should enable them to make ends meet and stay working as instructors etc in a job they love.
And I want students to be able to bond with their instructors in the knowledge that these folk will still be there in a few years time to help them build and build their aviation skills.
I want people to have fun with their flying.
And that is beyond price.
Happy 2008!
XA