GA is doomed – Minister believes safety is more important than cost
I'm involved with a club which owns a school and MRO facility. We have endured and grown our training hours flown but mainly because under previous ownership it wasn't run very well.
However, the cost of keeping ageing aircraft online is significant (even though we own the MRO facility) and there is an increasing reliance on cross-hired aircraft to prop up the fleet. Hourly costs have had to increase but we aren't really making any extra margin overall. Red tape is out of control. It's very hard to pass on cost increases to our members and customers.
I get the feeling that if actual training hours in GA are similar to what georgeeipi has posted then the decline in 'traditional' clubs and schools has been offset by the rise of foreign pilot training academies. I highly doubt qualified private pilots are flying more hours than they were 10+ years ago.
However, the cost of keeping ageing aircraft online is significant (even though we own the MRO facility) and there is an increasing reliance on cross-hired aircraft to prop up the fleet. Hourly costs have had to increase but we aren't really making any extra margin overall. Red tape is out of control. It's very hard to pass on cost increases to our members and customers.
I get the feeling that if actual training hours in GA are similar to what georgeeipi has posted then the decline in 'traditional' clubs and schools has been offset by the rise of foreign pilot training academies. I highly doubt qualified private pilots are flying more hours than they were 10+ years ago.
@Jonkster, Can you replot those graphs with the y-axis going 0 to 2000 hours*1000 on the first graph and 0 to 30 mega litres on the second graph. You might find that the noise in the numbers disappears into insignificance if you do that--I'd be interested to see what those graphs look like.
One thing that did concern me when I was plotting the GA-training graph was the number of hours that has shifted from GA to RAAus in that period. I have been weighing up about whether I should embrace ab-initio training in GA aeroplanes and I am leaning towards not doing that, mainly because I think that segment has probably been absorbed by RAAus aircraft. At the moment I'm immersed in studying regulations and AIPs etc and it's hard to tell from my position from outside the industry as to how that is playing out. But if RAAus has been absorbing much of what used to happen in GA training then a decline in GA may not be as bad as it looks. Does anyone know where you get RAAus hours flown?
One thing that did concern me when I was plotting the GA-training graph was the number of hours that has shifted from GA to RAAus in that period. I have been weighing up about whether I should embrace ab-initio training in GA aeroplanes and I am leaning towards not doing that, mainly because I think that segment has probably been absorbed by RAAus aircraft. At the moment I'm immersed in studying regulations and AIPs etc and it's hard to tell from my position from outside the industry as to how that is playing out. But if RAAus has been absorbing much of what used to happen in GA training then a decline in GA may not be as bad as it looks. Does anyone know where you get RAAus hours flown?
RAAus data is here in annual reports. https://members.raa.asn.au/governance/reports/
If any BITRE figures are "rubbery" or suspect, blame the aircraft registration holders who submit the info each year.
If any BITRE figures are "rubbery" or suspect, blame the aircraft registration holders who submit the info each year.
RAAus data is here in annual reports. https://members.raa.asn.au/governance/reports/
If any BITRE figures are "rubbery" or suspect, blame the aircraft registration holders who submit the info each year.
If any BITRE figures are "rubbery" or suspect, blame the aircraft registration holders who submit the info each year.
Last edited by georgeeipi; 20th Jul 2018 at 04:55.
They don't break down the hours into activity types in their annual report.Why not email&ask them? They reported 164 schools, 9000+ members and nearly 380,000 hours flown in the most recent annual report 2016-17
