What are your thoughts on general aviation? Are you a private pilot? Do you know anyone who is a private pilot?

32 comments

  1. I know one person who’s a private pilot. I’ve done a discover flight and would love to get my pilot’s license someday. But it’s time consuming and very expensive in the US, so not a lot of people do it.

  2. I’m interested enough in the subject that I listen to a weekly podcast about aviation incidents(Black box Down) but that’s probably the extent of it.

  3. I have my private pilots license, but I haven’t logged any time in 30 years. It’s awesome, but it just costs way too much to rent a plane with any regularity.

  4. I have a fear of heights and motion sickness when in a plane. BUT, I don’t know why, I just think they’re really cool. Fun to learn about. The history of aviation is absolutely fascinating. And fighter jets are sick as hell.

    I think one of my childhood friend’s dad was a pilot. That’s the extent of my connection.

  6. I know a few pilots. One is just a hobbyist. One was a flight instructor and now is in commercial aviation. The other is a pilot for FedEx. One is a my wife’s cousin who is a helicopter pilot who does SAR and firefighting in Oregon and California. Lastly, I know two pilots that are military and fly KC-46A refueling planes out of Pease ANGB in Portsmouth, NH.

    I have gotten to go on private flights in small crafts with the first two guys. It is pretty awesome. You can see sooooo much more from a small plane than a big commercial airliner.

    The FedEx guy used to fly for Republic Airways and a couple times I would board a plane and see him in the cockpit, always a fun surprise. The two military guys I probably see pretty frequently because if you are ever in Portsmouth, NH or the nearby beaches you will see the KC 46As doing training or missions.

  7. I have a couple friends who have their licenses. One died about a year back on his first solo flight. I don’t have any strong feelings either way, seems like a hobby like any other.

  11. I know a couple of people. Its basically unaffordable anymore for the layperson to participate in GA. There’s a healthy ‘experimental’ aviation community for people to fly ultralights and the like but they have different rules.

    Getting your pilots license is expensive but not unreachably so. Owning (or even renting a plane), maintenance, and compliance put it out of reach of most people.

  12. I know a couple of people who are private pilots. One of my friends’ dad has a PPL, and a girl I went to school with has one now too.

    Definitely want to get one myself someday.

  13. I am a low time (125 hours) private pilot. Everyone in my immediate family is a private pilot as well.

    GA is obviously rare in the US despite it being one of the easiest countries in the world for it. The fact of the matter is that it’s a very expensive hobby. It cost me roughly $180-200 an hour in the Mountain-West due to needing higher horsepower aircraft at the altitude here. It was cheaper for my brother in the Midwest.

    My opinions on GA are obviously biased but I feel like the general population wishes it would go away. There’s a constant push to close GA airports across the US like [Santa Monica](https://www.flyingmag.com/city-council-votes-to-close-santa-monica-airport/) and Reid Hillview in San Jose because the land is now incredibly valuable. Once they’re gone, they’re gone and very few people appreciate the economic impact. The film [One Six Right](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Six_Right) is a great watch on the topic.

  14. I earned my license a few months ago.

    General Aviation is a crucial first step to training airline pilots and I think it’s really cool how permissive general aviation is in the United States compared to other countries. Anyone with a pilot’s license can fly circles around the Statue of Liberty, cut across Central Park, and then head down to Kitty Hawk to land at the same plane the Wright Brothers flew the first plane.

    That said, current incentives make the FAA excessively cautious and (little-c) conservative which means that changes take a very long time to happen. Like they’ve certified shocking few new engine designs in the last few decades and the GA fleet is still mostly running on leaded gasoline. This is unacceptable for 2023.

  15. I knew maybe a dozen private pilot’s. But only two of them had the cash to own a plane (well one had a plane and one had a helicopter)
    I would love to do it. But my God it’s expensive.

  16. My great uncle used to fly a biplane. The rumor was that he was running drugs. The rumor was also that it killed him.

  17. I have a PPL. Shit is expensive and hard to keep proficient at depending on your current life situation, but it’s still fucking awesome when you do have the time and money to fly

  18. I know 2 people who have their private pilot’s license. One is a friend in Florida. He works as a private pilot mostly to rich people who own their own small planes (like 2-4 seaters). This allows him to have access to their planes for very cheap or free (just paying for fuel) if he asks and they aren’t using it. He took me up flying when I visted him.

    The other is my older brother who I am not in contact with and don’t really know anything about.

  19. It’s always been an interest of mine, but I’ve got some personal constraints that make a PPL unachievable. Might go for Light Sport at some point.

  20. My dad was a private pilot and was upper middle class. I flew some with him when I was a teenager, but I didn’t fall in love with it. And now that I have a lower middle class/average income, even occasionally flying would destroy my budget.

  21. Wish it was a bit more regulated. There’s been a spike in crashes lately due to failed communication and traffic systems (if they have it at all).

  22. I looked into getting my pilot’s license as a hobby during Covid and it was egregiously expensive. I’d like to do it, but it just isn’t practical right now.

  23. I come from a family of pilots. My grandfather, uncle, and cousin are all airplane pilots. Pretty positive.

  24. I think it’s great. I am not a private pilot, but have friends who are (mostly my fellow fliers from my days as a B-52 Electronic Warfare Officer).

    It’s something I’d really like to do if I lived in an area that wasn’t so congested (I’m in metro Atlanta) where I could have a small bug-smasher I could fly off private land or a small community strip. I subscribe to a few channels like that, where I can live vicariously through them.

    However, I don’t have the time/money/motivation to do it properly. Maintaining currency to be a halfway good aviator takes a great deal of regular stick time, so it’s not something I’ll likely ever take up.

  25. My brother is a private pilot and I plan to get my license as soon as time allows.

    It’s an expensive hobby, but the freedom is unmatched. Being able to travel across the country at almost 200 MPH is fantastic.

  26. I have a friend right now who finished flight school and is getting his pilot’s license. He lives across the country but we chat every week and he is considering a career change to be a commercial pilot.

    I had an “uncle” (or close enough) who had a big beautiful house in Fort Lauderdale and worked as a private pilot. I don’t know much about his job though, and it had him flying to the carribean and South America frequently.

    At a company I used to work for, the owner had 2 private planes. A handful of times I got to travel via the turboprop. It seated 12 people, and took off from a private airstrip so there was no security past the parking gate. I just got out of my car, handed my bag to the pilot, and we took off a few minutes later. I never got to ride in the jet, though.

  27. i come from a line of aviation enthusiasts, i was working on my license a while back but unfortunately stopped due to scheduling issues. i practically grew up at the airport though and could pick up pretty much where i left off.

    my grandfather was a WWII pilot (volunteered from Jamaica to fly with the RAF), was a member of the Jamaica flying club,he and his friends later built the first Jamaican built plane to fly in 1970 (Pitts Special S1-S).

    my dad was a Jamaica Defense Force Air Wing Reserve Officer, is an Embry Riddle alumni, built 2 airplanes in my basement (Pitts S1-S and Glasair RG1), has ratings for commercial, high performance, sea plane, aerobatic, multi engine, is a certified flight instructor (CFI) and certified instrument flight instructor (CFII). his current plane is a Mooney Ovation.

    my BIL is a former Gulfstream G-450 pilot with ATP rating, CFI/CFII, A&P mechanic and has basically every certification and rating you could think of. he was also directly involved in the King-air Easter miracle where ATC talked a passenger down in a King Air 200 after the pilot died mid flight. (Dennis Quaid is making a movie about it to be released this year, )

    my sister is a newly certified A&P mechanic and has her PPL. she has one of the top Cessna-152 Sparrowhawks in the country. she was also president of her local chapter of the 99’s for a while ( all women flying club founded by Amelia Earhart)

  28. My father was a career Army pilot (24 years, both plane and helicopter), then worked as a continuing education flight instructor (not sure if that’s the right term – basically he was training professional pilots certified to fly certain aircraft to get their certifications in other specific aircraft) and medivac after retiring. He was grounded by a heart attack before I was born though (my parents were older when I came around) but had been considering getting a small plane before that. I think he was planning to do occasional charter flights to offset the cost but it’s surprisingly less expensive than I would’ve thought to buy a small prop plane.

    A couple other relatives are military pilots currently and some of my dad’s friends worked as private pilots after their army days.

    I am not a pilot and have no real interest in it myself.

  29. It would be cool to be a private pilot, but when I think about the cost of even a small airplane and the amount of maintenance/pre-flight checks, I realize that it’s probably for the best that I’m not a pilot.

  30. I know one or two people who are. I’ve always loved planes and even went to flying camp as a kid. I’d love to get my license but there are other things I’d rather spend the $13k on. Plus then you have to keep spending money to stay in practice. It’s an expensive hobby.

  31. I am currently training to become a pilot. I know many others who are doing the same or have done the same. This is much more common than in probably any other country.

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