Ultra,
you hit the nail on the head, where are the up and comings?
Way back when, my local aeroclub had monthly club days, families would make a day of it, playground available for the kids, barbie in the afternoon. There were also regular fly aways.
Flying unfortunately is just not fun anymore, its become a highly stressful, very complicated to get into and very expensive exercise, there are far easier to access and inexpensive things for young people to get their thrills.
Overregulation, an overbearing regulator, and placing profit orientated development sharks in control of our airports has made aviation so "safe" its unaffordable.
The point of the airports act was to reserve land for present and future aviation use, yet at every turn that principle has been eroded in pursuit of the holy dollar.
The "user pays principle" so vigorously applied to the aviation industry could also be applied to other public utilities. I'm sure McBank would love to get hold of our national Parks for example and turn them into tax free cash cows, all for the public good of course.
Take a tour round a few country airports in the USA and see the level of activity that proper regulations can do, and they achieve better safety outcomes than us.
Twenty five years or more and half a billion dollars to half finish a regulatory suite, that is gobbledegook, and is decimating the industry.
Whats the point of expending another half billion and another 25 years to finish them if there's not going to be an industry left to regulate?
The bloke who famously said if he had his way the only aviation in Australia would be the RAAF and RPT.
He's still there at fort fumble, so are the people who oversaw Part 61.
The solution is so simple, for a few million dollars Australia could adopt Kiwi regulations, the industry could get on with it, generating jobs, producing innovative exportable products and making a huge contribution to our GDP. The Kiwis showed the way, aviation is now their third biggest contributor to their GDP.
Last edited by thorn bird; 6th May 2016 at 22:11.