All good points, and you've answered your own question.
In the US (and many other countries), General Aviation is seen as a vital means of transport for local communities and businesses. They believe that thriving GA is the cornerstone upon which a thriving aviation industry as a whole rests.
Therefore they have an active policy of promoting GA, even to the extent of subsidising airports and the FAA. On top of this they have a sensible approach to regulation. This means that US GA and associated industries have an economy of scale that keeps prices down. Cheap land and good weather (in much of the US) are also factors.
Now let's look at the UK:
- The government does not contribute a penny to GA.
- GA activities including all training are taxed as a luxury.
- AVGAS attacts an extra tax.
- The industry is over-regulated, recently been made worse so by handing over control of the regulations to a bunch of unrepresentative Eurocrat lawyers in Hoofddorp with minimal thought to impact and cost/benefit.
- Local Government is generally anti-GA as it is in hoc to the NIMBY lobby.
- Land is expensive (can't help that one).
- The weather is unpredictable (can't help that either).
- Markets associated to GA are small.
Therefore UK GA struggles. The same goes for much of Europe. So the net effect is that much training is imported from overseas, further damamging GA. And the response to that from European governments is, not to address the root problems that make your own market uncompetitive, but to erect import barriers by making licences difficult to convert.
Last edited by foghorn; 16th Oct 2002 at 15:49.