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You don't need to be rich to fly. You can buy a older used aircraft for the cost of a nice car. Sometimes cheaper. (Note: Not the Cirrus they're talking about u
by tjohns 6y ago
You don't need to be rich to fly. You can buy a older used aircraft for the cost of a nice car. Sometimes cheaper. (Note: Not the Cirrus they're talking about upthread.)
They're working on replacing leaded fuel. The challenge is mostly regulatory, since they won't certify any of the replacements until they're sure it's 100% safe. It's still a work in progress.
As for what you'd lose: Search and rescue, medical transport (both commercial and volunteer), transport of blood samples for lab testing, high resolution aerial photography on your smartphone, powerline inspection to prevent forest fires, crop dusting. I could go on...
- NikkiA 6y agoSearch and rescue is almost soley helicopter traffic, and very rarely requires leaded fuel (a turbine doesn't need leaded, it can run on it, but it'll run just fine on unleaded too). The number of places still using non-turbine helicopters for anything other than training and very light sightseeing is very small, probably close to 0% worldwide. Same is true of Medical Transport except possibly for Australia where light aircraft are used more frequently than turbine helicopters. Same for powerline inspection, although there could be a couple of companies using Robinsons somewhere I guess.
- dreamcompiler 6y agoSearch and rescue in the USA is mostly done by the Civil Air Patrol, which almost solely uses fixed-wing aircraft.