Turn on a rap video.

Check out Instagram and FB.

Everyone wants their own airplane. It sells itself. It's good to want things. Makes you work harder.

Well, I live in THA ATL so rap videos are just part of being here. I speak fluent "Atlantan" too.

Like was just said in the post above. "Affording it" is just 50% of the battle.

Coming from you I'll take that as a compliment.

I agree with Todd's idea that the fencing is an issue.
We're going to break ground on a new "Observation Building" that's aligned with Runway 6/24.
Problem?
The other runway, 2/20 is the one that gets used by probably 90% of the traffic. You can't SEE it from the observation building....at all.

All of this (fencing) is to keep people away from the airport, outside of it's boundaries. Net effect is that no one can see the planes landing & departing, & they are just further separated form the airport & it's environs. I realize you have to protect the airport, I get that, but no GA airplanes have ever been used in a terrorist attack, and chances are, none ever will. Gigantic waste of taxpayer money, and bad unintentional results, too.

I believe one of the more powerful things we could do to improve GA, would be to better educate the business traveler of the power and convenience of GA travel. If the industry made a concerted effort to reach out to these folks more directly and explain the advantage, I believe we could attract far more folks to our world.

I use my airplane 90% for business and am flying 2-3X per week. I absolutely leave my competition and colleagues in the dust in business development activity and closed business because of how far I can go and how fast I can get there. I absolutely could not run my business to anywhere near the effectiveness I can today without an airplane. If more business travelers, owners & sales professionals truly understood the real advantage of owning an airplane, we'd attract far more to GA.

Exactly right, sir.

For most of the last couple of months, I've only had a Husky available to me...but it has an IFR panel. No GPS (other than my 396). I've flown quite a bit of IFR, done a lot of cross country, shot several ILS approaches....at first I groaned, but I figured out quickly it was a lot quicker, and cheaper, than driving. No, it's not Bonanza speeds, but it works.

I think one of the things we've done is convinced ourselves you have to have a lot of equipment to have a useful IFR machine...and that if a plane doesn't do 200 kts it's not useful. (okay, I'm being a bit tongue in cheek...)..but people used to fly IFR trips in Pacers, and a Cherokee was a useful flying machine.

Now, my iPad allows me to brief and file, my 396 gives me a lot of useful backup info, and it's more a matter of deciding to use the plane, than anything else.

At the prices of twins these days, if I had the hangar space, I'd buy one just for grins.

In the 80 year history of our airport we never had a break-in or damage to airplanes. All of the planes are hangared, not tied out. There is no reason whatsoever for a fence. I'm someone wants in the airport they sinply drive through the fence. My plane is in a locked hangar with an alarm. If someone gets in I will know. If they damage my plane I will call the insurance co. BTW, we have had a fence now for 10 years. It is 10' tall and ugly. I dislike it completely.

I agree 100%. GA is a tool. We're teaching prospective pilots how to operate the tool, but we're not teaching them how to use the tool. Whether the purpose is flying for business or for recreation, getting prospective pilots into a plane is only an initial step. The other two steps are teaching them how to use GA, and then getting them to show their families how effective GA is as a tool.

I agree that we might be more effective reaching out to non-pilots and illustrating the benefits of GA.

It's a shame Microsoft abandoned Flight Simulator. It is/was a great way to spread interest.

Getting back to the title of the thread though. Really. Twins are no-nonsense traveling machines. If you don't need a machine that gets you from point A to Point B efficiently as possible, you don't need a twin. Crazy in the pattern; sightseeing at 120kts? Really.

My dad was a Boomer. Car dealer. Party down, had the first radio-telephone: had a Commanche. Put a GTO engine in a LeMans with just headers...No good reasons really. Those days are long long gone.

I will tell you this much though: in my area driving traffic is over the top:'everyone bumper to bumper 85. There's nothing like flying right over it at 185 in quiet. That's where GA has a chance. But nothing's going anywhere with our tort laws and the FAA.

In the 60's and 70's all the aviation magazines had full page advertising about fun places to fly and great stories about how GA planes were good for business. Now all you see are avionics from a couple of manufactures. What happened and why did things change?
Over the last 40 years I have owned several twins, but there is one I still have that has great transportation value. My 1962 A55 President two can go Bonanza speeds for an extra 4 GPH or over 200kts on 30gph. I have continually upgraded the avionics over the years so it has a modern panel and is very efficient and economical transportation for a twin. On trips less than 300nm I will take the Baron and leave the 421 in the hangar.
Cheap prices on 55 Barons are a great for pilots that want a twin for business or family travel.

Hard to beat a 55 Baron with 550s. Best airframe / engine combination a piston twin ever had.

Don't feel bad. Or at least don't feel alone. I did the same thing two years ago. No way I'm ever going to get my money back out of that bird. But the thing is she's a pure joy to fly and every time I take her up I still can't believe that I own such a marvelous machine.
Besides, the wife wants to run to Austin this weekend and I don't want her packed in a sardine can with the Ebola infected masses so I suppose I'll have to fly her out there. Darn it.

Turn on a rap video.

Check out Instagram and FB.

Everyone wants their own airplane. It sells itself. It's good to want things. Makes you work harder.