Jay...
You say anyone who can afford an Escalade can participate in GA? Last time I checked, the average rapper and NFL player are the only people buying Escalades. LOL.
Definitely not the average family of four. The upper end of that demographic might buy in their late 30s or early 40s on a seven year debt note or lease.
Seen any RV leases lately?
Karen and I are above average/median earners, no kids, and extremely blessed/lucky/whatever sentiment phrase keeps the PC crowd happy these days. I agonized for months over whether or not to buy 1/3 share in a spamcan. And I LIKE spamcans.
After a long and careful discussion about whether or not to be significantly poorer in retirement, we purchased.
It's ALL about the money, contrary to your assertion.
There comes a point where the fun-to-dollar ratio isn't balanced. For most folks that'd start at the first look at a 30 year old piece of aviation history in need of a new interior and lots of expensive plastic fairings that costs more than a new Escalade, to use your analogy. Where's the entertainment system and fine leather? Ha.
You're the lucky recipient of someone's basically free labor building the RV, and that's great. They feel they got a win, you feel you got a win, but you said it yourself that to own a new RV would have you taking on a debt load you're not comfortable with, and you're a successful small business owner. Your business would tank if you had to take the time to build it.
None of your employees will ever be in a position to purchase an aircraft, ever. That's not a whine or any "class warfare" type complaint, it's just simply economic fact.
Many have pointed out that this has always been the case in aviation, that middle class folk have to give up a lot to aviate and pay homage to the aviation addiction demons in their heads. True.
But I think the 70s had a perfect storm of high dollar value, and manufacturing capability to mass produce aircraft that will never be repeated, after WWII, and just prior to the liability realities of building 30 year old designs came hammering down on the industry.
Prices adjusted back to where they probably should have been all along after the lawyers got paid. The effects of certain lawsuits are still rippling 25 years later. Cessna paid to install a cute little seat belt retractor locking device underneath my pilot seat this year on an aircraft that left the factory over 30 years ago.
We're almost all flying something of that heyday's vintage or maybe an 80s restart in Certificated and some are flying homebuilts that are newer. The industry gets all giddy these days when 100 new aircraft are sold per year.
Aviation isn't healthy, but it's a reflection of the overall economy and lack of personal profits. The majority of folk are indebted up well above their eyeballs to banks deemed "too big to fail", and scrambling to maintain the outward appearances of success. A seven year car loan was unthinkable in my youth, for example. Just drive your beater and be happy you have wheels. Grab a timing light, some tools, and some spark plugs and oil and filter and work on it half a day on Saturday to keep it running.
That Escalade goes into the shop, you'll pay $150 just to ask the computers hooked to one of the most boringly simple V8 power plants of all time, what's wrong with it.
Our all-in costs on the aircraft run roughly $150/hr in round numbers. I flew to Sidney, NE last weekend for absolutely no discernible reason at all, other than fun. The tach said 2.4 hours. That is $360 to enjoy the view out the window and say hi to Ed Nelson.
There just aren't many folk fiscally capable of that, and a mechanically sound Skylane with a 30 year old interior, isn't exactly the dream, or even interesting to the few folks who have $360 lying around to quite literally, blow, on a Sunday. That's a car payment for most folks.
I feel incredibly blessed to have had the ability to spend that kind of cash and not end up living in a van, down by the river, but it's so far from most people's reality, it's embarrassing to pitch flying outside of the already self-selected affluent aviation community. Your assertion that pilots come across as elitists is probably more an indication of reality than an insult.
When you figure out a way for your staff at the hotel to participate in GA on a regular basis and afford it, you can whine that other aviators are elitists. Seriously. Welcome to the 1%.
Along those lines, it's amost insane to give a kid of a $40K-$50K a year single-parent or single-wage-earner household, an airplane ride and hook them without explaining to dad that he need to go sell a kidney to put their kid through flight training. Especially knowing they really only take home maybe 2/3 of that or less after the tax man gets his cut.
Medical bills or retirement savings? There isn't anything left in the piggy bank for most people to spend on aviation.
You can't be serious saying it isn't about the money.
