what do you think the future of Private Flying and General Aviation will be in the UK?
It'll be whatever people really want it to be. Even with the recent sudden rises in fuel costs, flying an SEP is relatively cheaper than it was when I started 26 years ago. There was only one school at our airfield, now there are 2 and another outfit doing a good business in post-licence type conversions. There is demand to keep all these businesses going.
When I'm flying, I can't help but notice all the farm strips that have sprung up in the past 15 years or so. Plenty of literally 'grass-roots' flying there, too. You can still take off, fly around and land without having to seek or recieve permission from any official or even talk to anyone on the radio. I don't hear that anyone is planning on changing this. You can't have much more freedom than that, surely!
Don't want to fly SEP? Why, just look at the myriad new VLA types, not to say the very capable microlights, in fact the edges around all these types is blurring.
Of course, there will always be people who seem to take a perverse satisfaction in being doom-sayers who enjoy nothing more than saying
'there, I told you so!' Just don't be one of those, retain a positive outlook and we'll be flying for just as long as we want to.
Cheers,
TheOddOne