The demographics observation is certainly true. There are graphs in the back of Flight Training News (a free aviation trade rag) in every issue. I've just chucked out the last copy but the average age of a PPL holder is about 50. The CAA license issue data (on their website somewhere) confirms this, from how many licenses are issued to which age group.
No doubt, it is due to most people not having
both time and money until later in life.
In my case, I started around age 42 but only after I got divorced - before then the wife would not have allowed it. 10 years later, I am about the youngest of the people I meet with.
The suggestion that the PPL scene will die out is a separate thing, and I don't think it will happen. I think the GA airfield scene will always be dominated by old codgers
Like the cloud forming above a hill, in constant airflow, we will always have that age group being dominant.
I don't think flying has ever been cheaper than today, relative to the cost of living. It's not a hugely expensive hobby but it's not a cheap one either, and that cost will always select the participants pretty sharply by age and type. Look at the yachting community - similar. I wonder if sailing has as many Walter Mitty types though
While the median is clearly 50+, the age distribution (the standard deviation, if you like) is actually wider than most people think, when you look at the FTN graphs. I suspect the reason we see a rather narrower age group around airfields is because the younger ones don't hang around the "anorak scene" very much.
There have been many threads here over the years, on how to bring more "normal" people into GA.
It is a tough assignment. Improving the social scene (more young single women are badly needed) and improving the wreckage scene (the planes, I mean
) is what it will take. Plus decent club facilities, and allowing experienced pilots to hang around as mentors.
It's a catch-22 though. The business as a whole is not interested in turning out pilots; each school has a narrow business view of how much they can extract from each punter before he vanishes for good, and being businesses without any other mandate one can't blame them.