Dear Joe, Larry & all, I appreciate all your feedbacks about my observation & questions, and I fully understand your explanations concerning why there is only a small fraction of GA enthusiasts who fall into #1 group!
For Joe's question, why achieving the goal of being in the #1 group is so important to me? Simply because that's what motivated me to get into GA, and especially involved in this KR group - looking for something faster & fuel efficient! I was working at JSC Houston for many years, and I jumped on the great opportunity to support the military when Trump created the USSF a few years ago, so I had to travel frequently between Texas and NM as my daughter doesn't want to transfer to the school system in Albuquerque.... So, my goal is crystal clear: looking for transportation aircraft that is fast & affordable, especially the fuel economy is better than my car while reducing my travel time from 12 hrs to 5 or even less... I understand people want to fly as sporting activity for fun & entertainment or even for excitement, and nothing wrong with that! However, please believe me that there are too many people who have needs in personal transportation to travel much much faster than driving with no significant increase on cost! GA can do much much better than satisfying folks with their entertainment needs only, and it could certainly be a game changer if more people can join this revolution in personal transportation, correct?! If technologies (such as GA) could only be utilized by a small group of people, and if it doesn't elevate humans from a lower level species (stick to the ground and fighting car jams) to a higher level species (like those in #1 group), then such technology is limited only for the extremely few and is for entertainment or hobbies at the best....! I am afraid that I don't share the same views as Larry commented about GA being non-practical for personal travel if more people get involved?! Isn't that one of the reasons we have EAA and this group and the FAA is to promote GA and wish to bringing more people (especially more young eagles or KRers) into the arena of aviation?! Fearing of air traffic congestions or accidents can not be the reason to limit the number of folks in group#1, because the correct approach is to curb the accident rate by furthering the GA technology development and improvement, and not by putting more FAA restrictions & government red taps only...! The following are a few obstacles I believe must be removed in order to see a mass increase in populations moving into group #1: (1) Reform & transform FAA from primarily a regulatory agency only into a government org that truly promotes GA as well. So many red-taps are unnecessary or doing little or nothing on safety but rather induce the cost increase significantly! (2) Encouraging extensive R&D investment on GA related technologies, especially on safety technology and modification of air craft designs such that to reduce or eliminate human errors. Many fail safe or collision avoidance safety technologies could be utilized to reduce accident rates, such as use of autonomous & AI technologies for air traffic control, instead of continuing use of nearly a century old air traffic control paradigm - talking almost constantly between pilot & ATC, a receipt for human errors to occur! Also, the traffic congestion in the air should be orders of magnitude better as compared to driving under the confinement of the earth surface for obvious reasons! (3) Encouraging R&D on new designs and use of new material to cut GA cost and affordability drastically! This is not impossible if resources and government support becomes available. No technologies could have any significant impact to human lives and society if only a few could afford it...!! (4) find ways to reduce the cost and training requirements for PPL applicants. The huge cost and time involved in getting a PPL is rediculous and it has turned away or discouraged a large number of folks from trying to getting into the GA, much less chances for them to become a privileged or prestigious member in the #1group. I believe by doing all of these, especially by implementing (1) through (3) above, we will see a paradigm shift on how humans live and travel on this planet... Agreed? Kindly, Dr. Hsu On Sun, Sep 19, 2021, 7:27 AM <bjoenun...@gmail.com> wrote: > Dear Dr HSU, > > I belong to groups 1 ,3, and I was a 4. > > I don’t believe that the government has much affect on my flying as I am > familiar with FAA requirements and limitations. I can work within or > around these. If no ads-b don’t fly into class b or c airspace. There are a > lot of government requirements like annual inspections, medical > requirements, all in the name of safety. These barriers probably won’t go > away. > > Regarding #1; using airplanes for transport. This is a wonderful aspect > of aviation. I can fly to my daughters house to see my granddaughter in 1.5 > hours or drive in 4 hours. A real time travel machine. This weekend was > stormy weather so we drove for 4 hours. Thunderstorms, low ceilings etc. > were the deciding factors. Weather effects my airplane travel quite often. > I am upgrading my panel to ifr next month which should help. > > #3 fun. Please don’t underestimate the value of a plane for entertainment > purposes. I often fly just for fun with nowhere to go other than up. We > fly to breakfast on Saturdays with friends, or to other airports to visit > friends. Most of my flying is just me and the airplane with nowhere to go. > > I don’t understand #2, not flying. I fly several times a month. #4, I > loved building and working on my plane, any reason to be around planes. > > This is my perspective. Why Dr HSU, is #1 so important to you? > Joe Nunley > Yellow River Airport Florida > > Sent from my iPhone > > > On Sep 18, 2021, at 11:35 PM, Dr. Feng Hsu <fenghs...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Being a rookie just entering in the realm of GA, here are some of my > > observations since bought my planes, and it is due to these troubling > > observations (or statistics) my confidence of becoming someone in the #1 > > group (which was precisely the motivation I bought my aircrafts) has > taken > > a sharp turning to the south, unfortunately....! > > > > Out of 100 GA enthusiasts who own aircrafts (either homebuilt or > certified): > > > > #1, About 10% or less of the folks use their aircraft as truly a > > transportation vehicle, and they fly to anywhere as they want, and feel > as > > easy as driving on the road! > > > > #2, About 30% or more who simply leave their aircraft in the hangar and > > paying rent without even touching it for months or years. > > > > #3, About 40% or more who simply fly their aircrafts as entertainment or > > hobby on the weekend or during leisure times, and they hardly use it as > > private transportation tool. > > > > #4, about 20% or more who are builders and they keep building > experimental > > aircrafts one after another but hardly fly much of their aircraft at > > all...!! > > > > My question here is, how can we change the statistics (based on my > > observation) so that we can significantly move all the folks into group > > #1?! I know there is no easy answer to this question, but I think it will > > take huge efforts from both sides of government agency (FAA) and GA > > enthusiasts to work together in order to change things around... right?! > > > > I may have some ideas or proposed solutions to tackle this ugly reality, > > but I would first hear discussion and ideas from our fellow KRers, > > especially from those who belongs to the #1 group....?! > > > > Kindly, > > > > Dr. Hsu > >> > ________________________________ -Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html -Change list delivery options at https://list.krnet.org/list/krnet.list.krnet.org/ Affinity List Info Board -Search recent KRnet Archives at https://list.krnet.org/empathy/list/krnet.list.krnet.org/ -Search John Bouyea's decades of archive at https://www.mail-archive.com/krnet@list.krnet.org/
