The backbone of aviation is a healthy GA industry.
It is flying schools turning out new pilots, young people deciding they want to fly and working through a CPL, heading out to try and get a job with at least the incentive of hearing of a previous crop of new CPLs getting a job up north or with a good chance to build hours instructing because there is a need for instructors.
It is the maintenance operators who can make a buck because there are enough aircraft flying that need to be kept airworthy.
It is folks wanting a PPL and can afford to do it, who keep the schools going, giving those new CPLs with a grade 3 instructor rating a chance to get their hours and experience up and willing to slog it out to get a leg in the game. And some of those PPLs thinking... maybe I could get a CPL and do this for a living?
It is charter operators who have enough work to pick up CPLs with a bit of experience and are hungry to step up.
It is enthusiasts restoring old planes and flying them and haunting the nooks and crannies of airports across the country but who inspire youngsters who think... what a cool thing to do! - go flying!
It is country towns having an aerodrome that employs a LAME or two and a little flying school and some Ag operators and with luck a scheduled passenger service all that bring some money into the community.
It is airlines who can draw on the pool of CPLs who have done their time in GA and are hungry to step up.
It is a whole ecosystem. Cut out bits of it and it gets sick. It is sick now.
My recollection was yes, there was always either a boom or bust in the numbers of pilots needed to fill the posts at the higher end of the food chain but hey, if you could afford to hang around during the lean times and build hours in the less glamorous parts of the industry, your chance would come.
The difference back then (I believe) was the cost. I don't know how young people can afford to get a CPL and pay their rent at the same time. Particularly if there is not a guarantee of a job at the end.
As less new blood comes in, the whole ecosystem dies. Flying schools close up. Look at how many schools at Bankstown today compared to 20 years ago. Flying schools disappear. Smaller maintenance operations start to disappear. Operating costs go up as they compete over less work. Charter gets expensive. Jobs get fewer and the ecosystem gets sicker.
When the median house price in Sydney is heading towards a million bucks
, why, as a young person, get a massive debt (the money for a CPL now could've bought you a house 20 years ago) to earn a CPL where your career path is anything but a massive gamble, where you may never make enough money in GA to pay it back so pay it back doing a job where at least you get paid a decent wage?
So when the top end of the food chain needs new pilots there is nothing much in GA anymore so they either look overseas or train up green newbies who can play computer games and program a GPS under the eyes of older folks who worked their way up from C152s at the bottom... until even the captains will be computer game players who wouldn't know what carburetor heat was if it burnt them on the bum.
How to reverse this? How to keep GA alive? Wish I knew but it is not simply a matter of "make medicals easier" or "cut costs" or "cut red tape" or "pay pilots more" or just whinging.
A more lenient medical and less red tape aren't going to reverse that. May help a bit but it is not going to save GA on its own. Hard to pay pilots more when you are struggling to pay the hangar fees.
30 years ago I could afford to rent my house and pay for hours to get a licence with an average job and a little bit of money I had saved. I also could rock up to Bankstown briefing office and chat with a meteorologist and go over the NOTAMS in the briefing office and have someone check my flight plan and suggest maybe I plan a different route. I am not saying I want that level of service back again but now 30 years later we pay our way, get less and it costs more.
And so flying schools turn into Bunnings and Direct Factory Outlets and weeds build up under the old aircraft sitting on the grass (where it remains) in what was once a busy and humming aerodrome that once had bright eyed young new blood walking in the door every day and champing at the bit to become a pilot (or LAME or ATPL or instructor or buy their own plane or run a flying school or dare to try and set up a regional air service and maybe go broke but have a go).
Like I said - how to reverse this? How to keep GA alive? Wish I knew. Tired of whinging. Wouldn't it be great if we could get it back again?