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My co-worker is taking flight lessons to get his PPL and the cost is $300 per hour, it's very expensive just to learn to fly now a days

Decline started in the 70s when the USA defaulted on the dollar after Nixon removed gold backing in 1971. The fiat dollar has been printed into oblivion ever since. Enabling a rapidly expanding government bureaucracy and regulation (FAA). Fix the money, fix the world.

Like every new thing. It becomes oversaturated and overregulated with time and development. Especially in modern times where the slightest accident causes uproar with the advent of social media and fear mongering.

Product liability insurance drove the price out of reach by the late 70’s.

Then the Ultra-Light aircraft made its debute. The novice s.c. pilot took to the air and many didn't live to tell their dream as so many took their dream into eternity. I was one of that bunch of dreamers and I lived to tell how great flying is and was. After 30 years and 1600 hrs in the left seat of my B-Y-A Merlin Advanced U/L here in Canada I am happy to have done all that safely. Fly safe...

It was also a time when GA was dangerous.

I was flight instructing in the early 1970's and ended up being a first officer in a 1900. A friend said aviation was 95% nonsense. I totally agree. The airlines have been saying they are short on pilots all this time but there were furloughs, and very hard to get hired. I quit around 1975 because there was no money in it. That was very hard to take after all that work and expense. If I had it to do again, I would get the single engine Commercial and instrument rating and stop there. I didn't like the airlines anyhow. I wanted to fly fighters but it wasn't to be, even with the Viet Nam war at full pitch. (Glad I missed it). Lack of sleep is the worst of it. Having parts falling off Boeing aircraft now days doesn't help.

Just like everything else, the government screwed it all up.

Stuff was also way cheaper to store back in the day, ramp parking / hangar rental has also tracked with real estate cost. Monthly payments just to park the plane are there if its flown or not.

Government corruption The FAA, NTSB' money grabbing lawyers. Phony fuel crises. Inflation, Manufacturing sent overseas, Deep state controlling the people from freedom. Government shutting down technology for aircraft (General aviation) and making it not affordable.

Case in point Flight sims have never been mainstream but in the past 5 years they very much are. Why? A large portion of young people have a need for speed and respecblity in a way Call of duty and Fort night just don't have... So I'd argue their is no shotage of people who want to be pilots but their is a shortage of ways to be one.

5:39 I mean I think we will... How and why? Dirt cheap titatium manufactor... Like just being a fan of the material I've noticed the stuff has drastically came done in price for what something is... 5 years ago you could not get a tiaum spoon for under $100 now they come in packs of two from amazon for $30 and an entire camping kitch set up with wine gglasses for under $1k... Which why would dirt cheap tianum make for faster jets? make a 100% tiatum engine will burn hotter for much longer then steel and make a body out of that stuff... well Hypersnic is easy.

When you land off field in a Piper and flip over your dead, even worse on fire. You’re not going to get out of a Piper “upside down” because the upper door latch is always jammed against the ground and no one is going to be able to turn it to rescue you. Your done. All the kiddies that just want to fly have no idea what a coffin the Cherokee aircraft are, not to mention the very poor wing spar in all those aircraft. Just bad, very bad.

We also had the postwar prosperity which lasted until the early '80s. It was purposefully dismantled after that.

Remember those days well. The Aircoupe, safest aeroplane ever made. Could send a student solo after 3 hour of flight. The Piper Pacer. Was going to teach a student about tailwheels and this girl asked if she could come for a ride. She became my wife. Flown all these little planes and DC3 & 4 up to four engine jets. Respect your aeroplane. A little aeroplane can kill you just as dead as a big one!

I did all of my PPL and IFR training in a 172. I JUST finally flew a PA-28. To me they fly fairly similarly as you'd expect. Landing sight picture is a tiny bit different. Main differences to me are that in the PA-28, preflight on the ground is harder. You don't realize how easy a 172 is, until you preflight a low wing. The single door is also inconvenient. Getting two people in and out of it with your flight bags isn't super hard, but compared to the ease of a 172, it seems like a total PITA and would seem to add more wear and tear on the interior. I was flying in actual, so I didn't get to experience the improved visibility in turns, but I imagine that is a genuine advantage in VFR. I still prefer the downward visibility of the 172 though. Oh... and the sun sucks. It was overcast and a fairly mild day, and that cockpit still got hot quickly. Way easier to just open a couple windows on the 172. Gotta say I prefer the high wing, but I'm going to fly the PA-28 some more just to get used to it.

Honestly I have a big hang up on Piper's only having one door to enter/exit the cockpit. On top of that it's on the passenger side. If you're by yourself or with another pilot I don't think it's too bad but if you with someone not familiar with airplanes (especially the two latches on the door) you can be in some real trouble.

Well, in my country (Denmark) I can't seem to remember a time where I saw a Piper. It's always a Cessna. I remember my grandfather saying: "There goes a Skejby fighter" of a Cessna. That was a humorous saying of his, the local small airfield were in Skejby 5 kilometres from his house. It was always a Cessna.

Training in the pa-28-181 , in Florida as well…after pre flight all I can think about is getting those vent fans turned on lol it’s extremely brutal heat

Not a pilot but if I was, I would want a two engine plane.

Nice discussion. I agree with your good & bad for each. Did initial training in the 150, taught my way through college in the PA-28 and was with the airlines before the traumahawk came out. Cessna just felt better to me but haven't flown GA in over 40 years, so what do I know! Thanks for the memory lane video!

I trained in the late 70's in 152's and occasionally 150's. After I got my PPL, I got checked out in a Tomahawk. Only flew it one time. I prefer the shade. But I did get my instrument rating in PA-28-181. But when it came time to buy an airplane, I got a 1960 Cessna 150. Great little plane with the manual flaps like the Cherokee's.

Always thought the Cardinal was a sweet aircraft but never had a chance to fly one. The 172 was nice to fly but I didn't like the electric flaps.

Interested to see what the comparisons are. I'm a student pilot training on Archers currently.

I prefer the 172 as it has a high wing and you can easily see the ground. Very useful when you're dropping off your breakfast in bag after doing some steep turns under a hot Florida sun. Look out below!

Around the 11:11 mark you show 3 different Aero Commander aircraft. First is the AC100 which I accumulated some 150 hours in and then comes the AC200 which I had the pleasure of some 3 hours in to satisfy the complex aircraft requirement for a commercial license. Don't see either one of those very often, so they caught my attention seeing those. Thanks for the memories!

1970 moony ranger. 15000 minus radios

I got my private pilots license in 1554 and had to take a 50 question test true or false for my license

don't forget the manufacturers having to protect themselves from the inevitable downrange lawsuit... IMHO

It still is affordable. I saw a Luscombe for sale last year for 13K. They burn about five gallons per hour and are simple to maintain. No, you can't sit on your duff and expect to fly. It gets really expensive really fast but there are plenty of airplanes out there which can be had for 15-20k. If you can't afford that, you've got other problems.

I knew a guy who never got a license he was self trained.

I learned to fly at an Air Force Aero Club. In 1966, the club at Sheppard AFB, TX had two 1959 Cessna 150's. Cost per hour ? $5.00 ..WET. My Instructor (a S/SGT) charged $1.50 per hour . TACH time ! The club also had a T-34 , but that crashed in Utah on an XC . I understand the Cost per hour (Hobbs Time) has gone up a bit ..........into the stratosphere....since . Of course , I was only making $300 a month.....

"I can't believe he crashed. I spent a whole hour with him in the air."

I received my pilots license in 1975 when I was 20 years old. A new 172 Cessna to rent was 40 bucks. The 68 Mooney mark 21 rented for 60 bucks. And I was flying. But not today. Its cost prohibitive. Its sad. My German Sheppard enjoyed flying.

There are several factors that have lead to the downfall of production in single engine / piston engine twin airplanes. First I would like to address the fact that a lack of innovation in piston engines is one factor that has been ignored. The engines in general aviation piston powered aircraft, are tech from 1940...consider your automobile at that time, and how engines today are more powerful, computer controlled, just about everything goes 100K before spark plugs are even changed. Not back in the 40's, low power, carburetor, 40K engine work, etc. Second point is the cost of labor, it was much cheaper to build an aircraft back in the day, with so much government regulation, along with airplanes not being an automated build, it's going to be expensive, no matter how many you build, the economy of scale isn't going to affect it. But one of the biggest challengers, is the fact that after deregulation of the airlines, it's cheap to fly! GA had always been marketed as an alternative to airline travel back when the schedules weren't very good and it was expensive. Once flights were cheap and convenient, that sealed it for the buyer who had a need, and not just a want.

I want to fly. I'm reading AIM. It's 966 pages. Then there's CFR. I don't see how to afford a certified airplane so I plan to build a garage then build a plane. I'm hoping to get my cpl and have the aircraft finished by the time I'm 65.

As others have mentioned, "affordable" is a relative term. Our flying club had a Super Cub you could rent for $5 an hour not including gas in the early 70's. But min. wage was $1.60 so those folks were not flying back then and still can't today at $15 an hour. Owning a brand new plane was only enjoyed by doctors and business owners. But for sure there was a robust used market and the tarmac at any local airport was full of planes. Something you hardly see today. I was fortunate to have a dad who flew. And the club had a flying Navion which was exciting to fly. I question if kids are really all that interested. They have no real interest in cars and I suspect that even cheap flying would not draw them to flying.

GA died because of frivolous freaking lawsuits, just saying.

I flew a Funk! It was for sale, based out of Livermore CA. About 1981 I think. The owner was a great guy. And thank you for the video.

Got my private license at age 16 and bought a Luscombe 8A for $1500(borrowed). Squirly airplane. Loved to take high school kids up on hot days. The school smart assed got nose bleeds, some puked and at least two shit their pants. Word got around and kids quit asking for rides. Avgas was 50 cents gallon for 80 octane. Hanger $25 a month. Instructor, $5.00 an hour to get inst. ratings and cpl at age 18. This was 1961-1964. Sold plane 2017 for $32,00. Had full electric and Narco nav-coms, updated panel. Great airplane and if anyone can handle a Luscombe they can fly anything.

Traumahawk P-38 1984 $30/Wet $10/CFI. Pre placarding for spins. Ex-Nam CFI. Those were the days.

I love watching the ten planes you can buy that are affordable. You the sport aviation one made from toothpick and tissue paper for under $80k. Let's not mention insurance storage and operating costs! Here is a tip. There is no such thing as affordable Aviation. It no longer exists unless you are talking about the 1%.

Really good vlog. Appreciated the research and the matching the video background to the story. Started my flight training in June 1970 finishing a bit over a year later with a commercial multi engine IFR. My multi time was on a 160 Apache that would climb single engine but it did a number of things that, as I understand, most of them didn't. Thank you.

What about the LSA , light sport aircraft, license? I thought that was supposed to make flying more affordable and attainable for the average person.

I saw a republic rc-3 seabee, i love those airplanes, we own 2 of em

I own/fly 5 aircraft and make $ by the hour to support this. The key is being a proactive owner: shop around for the best deals and keep after maintenance & cleaning. Renting thru clubs is the best avenue, no headaches or ownership worries, plus it’s affordable.

I was raised on a horse ranch in the 60's. I started driving off road in a 2ton truck at 13. Got my DL at 16. I worked on and rode motorcycles in my teens. I spent a day watching airline crashes. I was amazed how many pilots didn't even know basics so when auto pilots or hydraulics fail they had no idea how to save the plane from crashing. One pilot didn't know how to check what direction he was flying in clear daylight and ran out of fuel over the Amazon!

I watched a woman fly 1500mi in a 1940's plane with an ipad and hand held radio. Older planes don't need $15,000 in Avionics

When life was afford. Trump gave major TAX credits to jet owners.

On the airplane Triangle. The most perfect example of the Triangle is... drum roll... The DC3. Imagine any transportation device, or any machine really, designed NINETY years ago, and *still to this day* routinely purchased and put to use as a *business tool* to make money with. The runner up would be the DeHavilland Canada Beaver, designed maybe 14 years later, and today not only still viable to make money with, but still the *preferred* option for many bush operators.