Killing General Aviation

[bsdaddict]

More fees!  Higher taxes!  gooooooo Bush!  Sounds like it's gonna get real expensive to fly pretty soon...

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=01f63e14-c892-41bb-9698-ae2310fe940a&

"While we won't know the specifics until the actual FAA reauthorization proposal is released later this month, we have strong reason to believe it will increase GA fuel taxes by nearly fourfold,"

"As if a huge tax increase isn't bad enough, the budget makes it clear that the FAA will charge user fees for GA operations in 'the nation's most congested airspace,' which sounds like Class B airspace."

more info:  http://www.aopa.org/faafundingdebate/

[Maverick]

The real killer of GA won't be FAA fees. It will significantly limit the folks who fly to those that have lots of excess cash but it won't kill it. What will kill it is the insurance industry. Once the industry decides they won't insure aircraft older than "x" years the main fleet will go away. Average age of a GA bird right now is about 35 years old.

[Chairboy]

I'm betting the demand for auto-fuel STCs will spike sharply if this passes, and there will be more pressure brought against ethanol being added as a result.

Long term, relatively fuel agnostic engines like Diesels will replace AvGas engines in new planes.  

If the certified plane biz folds, I'd expect that the amateur built experimental category would grow significantly, there's always going to be a demand for planes, and the experimentals aren't as centralized as the certifieds, so maybe they'd be less vulnerable to this.  Being able to use auto-technology doesn't hurt either.

Monoculture can mean a strong herd of supercows, but the first virus that's shaped just-so can wipe 'em out to the very last.  The same applies to any industry.

[moneyguy]

Originally posted by bsdaddict
...Sounds like it's gonna get real expensive to fly pretty soon...

 

i thought it was real expensive to fly already