Americans :hmm:

A culture that accepts failure as success and exalts ignorance as patriotism.

Nice anthem though.

This is not a piggy back to the post above but fact.

The comments above are from active and, in the main, desperately dedicated pilots using the GA system in the States. It is biased, partial and flies in the face of facts.

GA in America is in desperate straits in its hinterland away from cities and overseas student areas. The small fields I love and spend my time visiting are the ghostly, barren haunts of increasingly elderly men pottering in their T-hangars. For every Chino, Flabob, Apple Valley or other hive of activity there are 500 ghost fields.
Has been the case for years and the paucity of students, lack of retention and increasing age of the equipment and pilots has been a staple of editorial pages in American magazines for 10 years or more.

Yep, huge freedom but only in contrast to other places and, even worse, now unable to sustain its own significant pilot base. Americans increasingly ingnore air sports and activities and spend the same or greater amounts of after tax income on every conceivable alternative activity.

Rebuttals please but you'll have to suffer 10 years of respected US editorial thrown back in your faces.

Regards
Rob

PS: If Unmanned Transport really is discussing GA standby for the moderator of this forum to move it somewhere more suitable. This is most definitely not the place for it.

Anybody who takes Michael Moore seriously has SH1T for brains.
V1:8 :8

@ V1 Rotate,

does that mean you trust your government?

Wow, way to revive a long dead thread. Bush, Moore....ahh, who cares, Nothing is ever as it seems anyways...

As for the original point of post. I've spent the last two year logging roughly 1000 hours in Northern Manitoba. It's been pretty neat, lots of cool stuff to see. I would say that I'm priviliged to see some of the things I've seen.

i'm about to start flying around the coast of BC. I can hardly wait...

Cheers

Dep Chief Pprune Pilot

Why on earth do you take that stance over what Unmanned Transport said?, sure there are GA fields over here that are run down but the majority that I see (albeit mostly here in N. California) are doing well and are busy, maybe its the weather.
As to your threat to move his post, that seems like childish bullying to me IMHO, jeez, lighten up! :*

I agree that the GA fleet in US is a bit rusty and old fashioned, but it is still a great place to fly .
In 99 , I needed to build up 200 hrs before starting my CPL training in UK (the 700 Hrs business ... )
I went in California to rent the cheapest C152 in the world ! and I had great fun all around the west coast . IFR, Night Flying, great landscapes ... no or few landing fees (and very affordable ! )
Here in Europe, I can only fly to live, since it became unaffordable to fly for fun ...
I still have in mind to buy a nice plane over there, and to fly it during vacations across US .
GA in Europe is dying under bureaucracy, even flying gliders is turning expensive and complicated .
It's really sad .