Nobody yet has added the Scholarships that GAPAN offers to Ab Initio students and to other students both for PPL and for Commercial courses. It also offers assessment courses at Cranwell to establish whether a student would be likely to be successful in a commercial career or not. That sounds VERY much like supporting and encouraging aviation to me.
Gin and Tonic swigging ageing and retired aviators eh.?? Hmmmmmmmm. Well what a put down on a body of people who have put their life into aviation, and often put their lives on the line in combat and in test flying. (The immediate Past master is Duncan Simpson who took the Hawk into the air for the first time and did test flying on the Harrier)