AircraftOwner Online

I was thinking today about my own start in aviation, and how different it would be today versus the 1960s and 70s.  I was the proverbial kid at the airport fence, but, back then, there really weren't too many fences.  Nowadays, it is pretty tough to get up close to aircraft at the local airport.  The freedoms associated with getting in touch with new experiences have been significantly impacted by the security concerns of the nation after 9/11.  This was illustrated just the other day when John and Martha King were placed in handcuffs at gunpoint, and put in the backseats of police cars in California -- all because somebody saw what appeared to be an improper registration number on their rented Cessna 172.

Much of the wonder of flight has been deleted or hidden.  Perhaps the two biggest stimulii in recent years to renew interest in aviation, the Space Shuttle program and the Red Bull Air Races, appear to be coming to an end.  The last Shuttle is now slated to launch in February, and the 2011 Red Bull Air Races are not at all certain to take place after the truncation of the end of the 2010 series.  Flying commercial has become an ordeal,from the bait and switch on-line booking programs, to the TSA's violation of the privacy and dignity of travelers, to the ever-shrinking seat pitch, to the hub and spoke system -- all of which have combined to make the total time travelling from door to door equal to or longer than the time it would take to DRIVE from your house to your ultimate destination, on all but the longest flights.  Airplanes are modern-day time machines, capable of leaping great distances in a single bound, at speeds considerably faster than a locomotive; of taking you from sun-soaked beaches to snow capped mountains in a matter of an hour or less in many cases.  But we have, in the name of inexpensive tickets, corporate profits, and national security, put so many obstacles in the way, that the best capabilities of modern aviation have been lost.

About the only way that one can truly enjoy the full majesty of aviation these days is by private flying, but it has become inordinately expensive to fly privately in the modern era.  Even the LSAs cost well over $100,000.00.  Getting a pilot's license costs in excess of $7,000.00 almost everywhere -- in some cases, substantially in excess. Operating a business jet is a luxury only the truly rich can afford.

Most pilots I know have a belief that they have earned the "right" to fly by having been determined to be qualified to hold a pilot's certificate.  But it is NOT a "right".  It is a privilege.  And, unless we can find a different way to balance public safety against the needs of the flying community to get the most from their aircraft, that privilege will become more and more rare.  Unless we regain some of the attributes that make young kids want to be a pilot someday, we will very-quickly lose the pool of political influence (small though it may be even right now) necessary to preserve our hobby, avocation, vocation and industry.  I don't know what the answers are; but I do know that unless we acknowledge the problems, find answers, and continue to push for the political protection of the benefits of aviation, there may no longer even be local airports, with small, private planes, for kids to stare at, except in the history books.