Demise of General Aviation

[pilotyip]

Interesting article in the latest issue of AIN. In 1978 there were 799K active pilots in the US, 72K students, Pvt 338K, 144K ATP's, and 95K CFI's. In 2009 there were 595K active pilots in the US, 72K students, Pvt 212K, 145K ATP's, and 52K CFI's.

More CFI's than students, all the growth in ratings in the CFI and ATP. Both of these are the professional end of the pilot population.

A lot fewer people are getting their private, and those who have their Pvt tickets are aging out of their medicals.

They did not mention age, but I look around my T-Hangar area and at age 70 I am not that much older than the guys in the hangars around me.

Gas at $6.00/gal is killing GA.

 

[rettofly]

Interesting article in the latest issue of AIN. In 1978 there were 799K active pilots in the US, 72K students, Pvt 338K, 144K ATP's, and 95K CFI's. In 2009 there were 595K active pilots in the US, 72K students, Pvt 212K, 145K ATP's, and 52K CFI's.

More CFI's than students, all the growth in ratings in the CFI and ATP. Both of these are the professional end of the pilot population.

A lot fewer people are getting their private, and those who have their Pvt tickets are aging out of their medicals.

They did not mention age, but I look around my T-Hangar area and at age 70 I am not that much older than the guys in the hangars around me.
Gas at $6.00/gal is killing GA.

Sad to see the numbers.

What are the chances that most of the shrinking PPL numbers have been replaced by Sport and Rec pilot cents? One can hope.

 

[jmreii]

Interesting article in the latest issue of AIN. In 1978 there were 799K active pilots in the US, 72K students, Pvt 338K, 144K ATP's, and 95K CFI's. In 2009 there were 595K active pilots in the US, 72K students, Pvt 212K, 145K ATP's, and 52K CFI's.

More CFI's than students, all the growth in ratings in the CFI and ATP. Both of these are the professional end of the pilot population.

A lot fewer people are getting their private, and those who have their Pvt tickets are aging out of their medicals.

They did not mention age, but I look around my T-Hangar area and at age 70 I am not that much older than the guys in the hangars around me.

Gas at $6.00/gal is killing GA.

Before moving from Cali all up and down the state were Asian students from ab initial programs from Asian airlines operating in the state. If a instructor is good at his or her craft and in some cases speak a language other than English you will be in demand. Many of the students I have seen out west are from foreign countries.