Sorry guys but flying just isn't sexy any more.
The re-development of aerodromes and the public apathy isn't a conspiracy... it is just reality.
To my Father's generation (now 65-80 years old) aeroplanes were an incredibly sexy machine that saved the world as they knew it. Pilots were hailed as heroes. Air travel was glamorous and private flying was gritty and technical and adventurous, for a generation of men that were (like Dick Smith) gritty, technical and adventurous.
Those of us aged maybe 40-65 have inherited some of our father's interest in the gritty, technical and adventurous but the last 20 years of GA have seen massive changes.
1/. No such thing as acceptable risk (for matters of public liability);
2/. No interest in dirty hands and little exposure to, or interest in, machines generally;
3/. The rise and rise of the safety/quality auditor and the uber-emotional response to the "Safety" red card.
For people with some money and a technical bent, things like motorbikes and jet skis provide a fun outlet for a fraction of the entry cost and a fraction of the regulatory embuggerance.
...and despite the hand-wringing faux outrage over the term "affordable safety", Blind Freddy can see that "Safety at any cost" (usually only incremental safety at exponential cost) is now regulating small aviation out of existence.
There is such a thing as "unaffordable safety" and this country is living it - and drowning in it.
Regulation, "unaffordable safety", audits and indifference have replaced the values that made Australia the great nation of the 1950s-1980s.
Where once we had integrity, public service, thrift, and common sense practical skills we now have corruption, self interest, profligagte spending and a nation of unskilled impractical housemaids incapable of making a decision for themselves or thinking their way out of a wet paper bag without googling the answer first.
I keep saying here that Dick could help revive public interest in aviation through a media campaign and sposorship or spearheading an EAA-style Young Eagles program in this country, but Dick never answers.
