If your household is anything like mine, the new year ushers in a host of holiday bills, the pledge to be a little more cost conscious, and (in many parts of the country) winter weather that somewhat limits the days available on which to fly a typical single-engine airplane. To make financial matters worse, our Cessna 172's annual is due in February, which adds another cost burden early in the year. Whether you own or rent, the cost of flying continues to be the number one concern of all general aviation pilots, be they students or seasoned pilots. As one of these pilots for almost 30 years, I am not about to claim that flying isn't expensive, but I would like to share with you some interesting insights AOPA gained from some recent research.
For many years we have known that while flying is expensive and while the cost has gone up in absolute terms, in "constant dollars" — with prices adjusted for inflation — it is only four percent more expensive today than 20 years ago. As an example: In 1975, flying lessons in a Cessna 150 cost $28 per hour; today, at the same airport, an hour goes for $78. Converting to 1995 dollars, that $28-per-hour lesson would be $77 per hour.
We learned that the ups and downs of the pilot population and decline in student starts cannot be explained by cost alone. The research shows that the real cost of single- engine piston ownership, operation, and maintenance dropped 27 percent from its peak in 1981 to 1993. With this in mind, AOPA sought to look for a deeper meaning within the cost-of- flying issue.
My own flight training experience started in 1967 and closely matches some of our findings. I was the most unlikely candidate from an economic standpoint to learn to fly. I had just graduated from college, had two small children, was buying my first home, and working nights. You're either there or have been there — living from paycheck to paycheck, when any unexpected expense creates what seems like an insurmountable economic crisis. Yet there I was, with no background in aviation, poking around Sacramento, California's Executive Airport, investigating the prices of rental aircraft and primary instruction. One small flight school fit my needs exactly. Don't ask me whether it was a Part 61 or 141 school, or any of the other educated questions that I should have asked. But on the window of the door were two important decals for what are now MasterCard and Visa. Four months later, and with the credit cards maxed out, I was the proud holder of a private pilot certificate.
Our research shows that people become student pilots for the romance of flying. They define romance as challenge, goal achievement, fun, enjoyment, childhood passion, adventure, control, speed, and a host of other emotional responses. Most important, each and every one of us gained some perceived benefit when we began to fly. In my personal case, this benefit outweighed all cost considerations. For instance, a 1994 survey done by Flying magazine and Sporty's Pilot Shop showed that 81 percent of private pilots learned to fly for challenge and excitement; only 14 percent did so for personal or business transportation. Without the romance benefit, even the career- oriented airline candidate doesn't get into flying.
Learning to fly and staying in general aviation does cost money and is expensive, but it must have some perceived value — if not, why in the world would my wife and I have been wiping three inches of snow off our airplane late yesterday even though we weren't planning to fly that day? It's the perceived value that one should focus on when the cost question arises. We all pay a price to become pilots and remain active pilots, and we do so to derive benefits. The value we receive from this activity is a function of the cost versus the benefit. For example, if renting an airplane were half the cost it is today, the benefits wouldn't change (it goes at the same speed, gets you to the same places, etc.), but the value to the pilot would go way up. Or, if the benefits you get from your flying increase — like suddenly being able to use an airplane for business or taking family vacation trips — and the cost remains the same, flying's value increases.
To a student pilot the romance benefits are the key factor in generating the early value of flying. At first, there are few benefits, the cost is high, and yet student pilots are among the most enthusiastic of us all. The private certificate brings new benefits that help to increase the fading value. Recreational trips with the family, and perhaps even a few self-piloted business trips, help on the benefit side of the equation.
But let someone schedule your favorite rental aircraft during a period when you'd hoped to use it for a family weekend and the benefit goes way down.The value is reduced, although the cost hasn't changed.
Perhaps earning an instrument ticket would reduce the inconvenience of canceled trips because of weather, further increasing flying's benefits. Reflecting on the cost issue in this manner indicates that dollars are not always the deciding factor in giving up flying.
Through good and bad personal economic times, it is now evident to me that the value I receive from piloting an airplane is that the benefits have always outweighed the cost, whatever it is. It's also up to those of us with this realization to share the benefits with students and pilots who may be on the verge of giving up flying.
During this past decade of flying, I discovered downhill skiing and have looked for locations in the Northeast that are accessible by private airplane for winter weekends. I often think of skiing when someone tells me how he dropped out of flying because of the high cost. Ever calculate the per-run cost of coming down the mountain at your typical resort, or the cost of a one-hour private lesson (at almost $100)? Compare that to the hourly fee for a flying lesson or recurrent training. Yet, during the 1980s, ski area visits increased 20 percent and merchandise sales doubled; that industry is booming.
It is obvious that we are not selling ourselves — or those outside our aviation community — on the value of flying. Why not make it your new year's resolution to help someone to realize and sustain the romance of flying?
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