4 ms·

It's not the certification: flying is an expensive hobby, with a huge time commitment. People have moved on to other hobbies and fads. We see the same with din

by aredox 4y ago

It's not the certification: flying is an expensive hobby, with a huge time commitment. People have moved on to other hobbies and fads. We see the same with dinghy sailing. It used to be a big scene with hundreds of ordinary people showing up for regattas. It was killed by windsurfing (at least here in Europe) and just people moving on to other things ,not regulation of any sort.

yetanotherloser 4y ago
I dunno. I'm pretty sure the lack of barriers to entry, inconvenient and costly certification, and safety nannying helped windsurfing get ahead there too. That and dinghy clubs inevitably devolve into race clubs that revolve inexorably around the race safety boat, and if you just want to noodle about or explore you're out of luck unless you are geographically lucky or you can afford a yacht. (which is great. But it's an uncommon privilege)
outworlder 4y ago
> It's not the certification: flying is an expensive hobby, with a huge time commitment. People have plenty of expensive and time consuming hobbies. All hobbies are at least time-consuming, that's what a hobby is. All certifications add to the expenses. It's the reason why one can't buy a headset off amazon and have to pay 1k for a used headset. Sure, safety requires certifications but I guess we went overboard. It's also the reason why GA aircraft are expensive to this day, even those build 40 years ago. It's pretty expensive to keep maintaining old tech at low volumes. I'm rooting for Diamond and their car-derived engines (as well as the Experimental aircraft scene). Note that boats are also notoriously expensive. There's a very good parallel to your example: gliders. You want to fly cheap (just to fly, not to go places)? Go soaring. Problem is, it's even more location-dependent.
rlpb 4y ago
That's a circular argument. Recreational flying is an expensive hobby because of the certification barrier. Most of the price is in fuel inefficiencies and expensive maintenance of ancient engine designs. Airframe parts are expensive because they're obscure and certification requirements prevent modern equivalents from being used instead. And so forth.
concordDance 4y ago
> It's not the certification: flying is an expensive hobby, with a huge time commitment. Why is this worse than the 80s?

by aredox 4y ago

yetanotherloser 4y ago

I dunno. I'm pretty sure the lack of barriers to entry, inconvenient and costly certification, and safety nannying helped windsurfing get ahead there too. That and dinghy clubs inevitably devolve into race clubs that revolve inexorably around the race safety boat, and if you just want to noodle about or explore you're out of luck unless you are geographically lucky or you can afford a yacht. (which is great. But it's an uncommon privilege)

outworlder 4y ago

> It's not the certification: flying is an expensive hobby, with a huge time commitment. People have plenty of expensive and time consuming hobbies. All hobbies are at least time-consuming, that's what a hobby is. All certifications add to the expenses. It's the reason why one can't buy a headset off amazon and have to pay 1k for a used headset. Sure, safety requires certifications but I guess we went overboard. It's also the reason why GA aircraft are expensive to this day, even those build 40 years ago. It's pretty expensive to keep maintaining old tech at low volumes. I'm rooting for Diamond and their car-derived engines (as well as the Experimental aircraft scene). Note that boats are also notoriously expensive. There's a very good parallel to your example: gliders. You want to fly cheap (just to fly, not to go places)? Go soaring. Problem is, it's even more location-dependent.

rlpb 4y ago

That's a circular argument. Recreational flying is an expensive hobby because of the certification barrier. Most of the price is in fuel inefficiencies and expensive maintenance of ancient engine designs. Airframe parts are expensive because they're obscure and certification requirements prevent modern equivalents from being used instead. And so forth.

concordDance 4y ago

> It's not the certification: flying is an expensive hobby, with a huge time commitment. Why is this worse than the 80s?