infotango
Line Up and Wait
So as I reenter the world of the Internet after a nice long break to study for the bar, I'm just overwhelmed with how much good news there has been coming out of GA in the past few weeks. I remember reading the aviation magazines as a kid in the pre GARA mid nineties when general aviation was just about totally dead. Exciting stories in Flying magazine included minor updates to Loran, and mostly announcements from a variety of aircraft manufacturers that models would be discontinued. Every once and a while some vaporwear corporation would make an announcement about resurrecting some long dead aircraft. It was pretty glum.
Contrast that with the last few weeks, we have heard just about every major manufacturer announce new products, Cessna has been back in the business for almost ten years now, and there are now aircraft makers nobody had even heard of in the early 90's like Eclipse, Honda aviation, Diamond and some group of people called Cirrus.
There is finally new engine technology coming along (the diesels) and the cockpits on the newest 172's would shock even airline pilots from just a generation earlier. Change is in the air.
Obviously there are still major problems to be tackled, the ADIZ still exists (although it's getting smaller) and there still exists the specter of user fees (although the new house and senate bills should leave GA relatively unmolested for a few years) and new student starts are still down.
However as I've been looking over the new sites for the Cirrus and Cessna LSA's I can't help but imagine that these aircraft hold the future of GA.
I'm really looking forward to flying the 162, and I'm going to start nagging my flight school owner about buying one. I can't wait to fly a Cessna with a stick, and I'm really can't wait to fly what is basically a 152 that happens to be as wide as the 182 I normally fly. Maybe all that new technology in the panel will help drag my tech crazy friends into the cockpit and away from their flight simulators. I really think that once these cheap, fun to fly, and high tech aircraft come onto the market and start being sold and flown in serious numbers, prices might just come down.
I'm pretty optimistic!
Contrast that with the last few weeks, we have heard just about every major manufacturer announce new products, Cessna has been back in the business for almost ten years now, and there are now aircraft makers nobody had even heard of in the early 90's like Eclipse, Honda aviation, Diamond and some group of people called Cirrus.
There is finally new engine technology coming along (the diesels) and the cockpits on the newest 172's would shock even airline pilots from just a generation earlier. Change is in the air.
Obviously there are still major problems to be tackled, the ADIZ still exists (although it's getting smaller) and there still exists the specter of user fees (although the new house and senate bills should leave GA relatively unmolested for a few years) and new student starts are still down.
However as I've been looking over the new sites for the Cirrus and Cessna LSA's I can't help but imagine that these aircraft hold the future of GA.
I'm really looking forward to flying the 162, and I'm going to start nagging my flight school owner about buying one. I can't wait to fly a Cessna with a stick, and I'm really can't wait to fly what is basically a 152 that happens to be as wide as the 182 I normally fly. Maybe all that new technology in the panel will help drag my tech crazy friends into the cockpit and away from their flight simulators. I really think that once these cheap, fun to fly, and high tech aircraft come onto the market and start being sold and flown in serious numbers, prices might just come down.
I'm pretty optimistic!
