HOW'S THAT! FOR AN EXPENSIVE HOBBY--

I miss flying.  I really do.  So, recently while doing lunch at the Vero Beach airport, I grabbed this slick ad piece from a lobby table.

After being seated in exquisite view of the transient aircraft ramp and background runway in CJ Cannon's, one of our favorite Vero Beach restaurants located right on the airfield--I took a close look at this ad.

The first thing that amazed me was the Cirrus aircraft's whopping rental price of $175 per hour.  Whoa!  I remember Cessna 172's and Piper Cherokees being in the rental range of $30 to $40 per hour when I started in the flying business back in the mid 60s.

"(wet)" by the way means the price includes the cost of gas and oil.  Or, at least, it used to.  Maybe today it means you are all "wet" to inquire about that modest price including gas, silly boy!

The next thing I found amazing was the major production facility for the Piper Aircraft Company also was located on this same airfield--about a hundred yards or so from where we were seated.

That just didn't seem right.  In my active flying days the big-three producers of general aviation airplanes were Piper, Beechcraft and Cessna.  Cirrus didn't even exist then.

So, after lunch, I wandered over to the Piper plant to inquire about a tour and maybe a little catch-up with recent history in general aviation.  Immediately I was rebuffed by a sign in their lobby that welcomed me to take a tour but--no pictures allowed.

I turned around and left.  A few nice pictures in my intended blog story for readers to enjoy was hardly a threat to the Piper folks I reasoned.

They should have been paying more attention to folks like Cirrus who evidently have bitten off a fairly hefty chunk of the general aviation market.

In fact, here are the latest figures I could find from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, 2010:

Total piston engine airplane's sold that year:  Cessna 239, Cirrus 264, Beechcraft (Hawker) 51 and Piper 135.

Cirrus sold its first airplane in 1999 and, by 2010 had nearly doubled Piper's production.