Is it really that bad?
I keep hearing and reading that the Australian GA scene is going through a bit of a rough time. There was a leaflet kicking about my flying school last week trying to encourage its members to ‘keep flying through these trouble times’, ‘keep the aircraft in the air’ etc. Today I saw an article in Australian Flying asking ‘where are all the Australian pilots?’ It went on to describe how schools over in the East Coast were closing due to lack of students. I often see posts on PPRuNe where pilots seem to be struggling to get any work, even as an instructor.
It all seems to paint quite a bleak picture which makes it difficult for me to understand why I’m struggling to finish my PPL because I can never seem to book in for any lessons. My instructor, and most of the other instructors seem to be fully booked a lot of the time, I struggle to get a lesson booked most weeks. I’ve had a look at some other schools in the area and they also seem to be operating at quite a high capacity (especially for ‘winter’). I know that flight instructing is just a small part of the GA industry but it makes me wonder if things really are that bad???