Aug
24th
The (costly) future of aviation...
By AircraftOwner Online
In this month's Pilot, What's Your Story?, Ev Lake shared his
dismay with the encroaching obsolescence of his instruments and the
cost to the average aviator:
"I have a concern about the future of aviation for those of us that use an older aircraft that may have a selling price of about $60,000.00 or less. Some of us feel a strong pressure to replace our ‘entry level avionics’ with very capable expensive avionics. The pressure comes from the decommissioning of many VOR and NDB navaids as more GPS based approaches are added. The loss of the VOR and NDB approaches makes it more difficult to justify a used Skyhawk, Warrior, etc. for a small business and/ or personal travel. But, it is difficult to justify spending $12,000.00 or more to install a WAAS capable GPS receiver in an older aircraft. (NextGen will likely be even more difficult to justify.)
Certainly this pressure to use expensive equipment must drive the cost for training upwards. A $250,000.00 glass cockpit aircraft must be more expensive for private pilot certificate training than a $60,000.00 ‘steam gage’ aircraft. That cost is bound to discourage many potential students from even taking an introductory ride."
Pilots: what are your feelings about this? Do you share Ev's concerns?
Sound off below.
REMEMBER: You must be signed in to comment or post videos.
"I have a concern about the future of aviation for those of us that use an older aircraft that may have a selling price of about $60,000.00 or less. Some of us feel a strong pressure to replace our ‘entry level avionics’ with very capable expensive avionics. The pressure comes from the decommissioning of many VOR and NDB navaids as more GPS based approaches are added. The loss of the VOR and NDB approaches makes it more difficult to justify a used Skyhawk, Warrior, etc. for a small business and/ or personal travel. But, it is difficult to justify spending $12,000.00 or more to install a WAAS capable GPS receiver in an older aircraft. (NextGen will likely be even more difficult to justify.)
Certainly this pressure to use expensive equipment must drive the cost for training upwards. A $250,000.00 glass cockpit aircraft must be more expensive for private pilot certificate training than a $60,000.00 ‘steam gage’ aircraft. That cost is bound to discourage many potential students from even taking an introductory ride."
Pilots: what are your feelings about this? Do you share Ev's concerns?
Sound off below.
REMEMBER: You must be signed in to comment or post videos.
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