Fuel Prices and General Aviation

AFSS5602 Junior Member

In the past few years I have seen some drastic changes in the general aviation sector due to fuel prices. The spring and summer of 2007 was extremely busy like it normally is. 2008 was a drastic change however. We all remember the near or in some cases $4.00+ gas prices. Pilots got hit even worse having to pay double in most cases. A lot of general aviation aircraft have very inefficient engines as well. Flight service saw a 50% reduction in traffic last year due to this. This year with low prices again we are crazy busy as ever like we normally are this time of year.

I think that the summer of 2008 needs to be a wake up call for this country. Our economy simply will not support those high gas prices. It is extremely destructive for not only general aviation, but also the major airlines. Flying is expensive as it is and I hated seeing so many people who love to fly being grounded. I know it was hard on many controllers as well since facilities have lost facility levels in the past few years.

I'd like to know what you all think of the high fuel costs of 2008 and what should be done.

scope dope Trusted Member

100LL is 3.28 at my home field. Cheap compared to last year but still not cheap when you're burning 15 gallons an hour lol.
I read somewhere recently that the number of licensed pilots is down something like 25% from the 1980s.

mjohn47 Senior Member Holbrook, NY

I haven't flown in a year because I can't afford to put gas in the damn thing. Soon enough I'll get back to it since prices have gone down, but the past year has sucked.

rewgupko Junior Member America

That's why I get my flying fix on the governments dime. I fly just enough to keep me sane, and I get paid for it! Go Guard! ha. I'll burn 800 lbs. per hour in a Blackhawk easy, that's about 120 gallons per hour of JP8!

scope dope Trusted Member

I haven't flown much because I haven't made the time or funds available, oh well.
I do remember freaking out in about 2003 because avgas was 2.33 a gallon.

Rosstafari Daaaang. /X

Hybrid planes. The left will love it, and you can put a little "Go Green" sticker on your T-hangar's door.

Oooh, or really long extension cords. It'll work fine for local flights.

scope dope Trusted Member

UND had an ethanol test mule flying around even when I was there, in the early 2000's.

irishcarbomb Moderator Houston, TX

they've recently been testing algae based fuels, continental and JAL have done test flights already.

on topic, at the flight school i used to work at you wouldnt know anything changed...it slowed down a bit but i think that was more because of the slowdown in hiring.

scope dope Trusted Member

it'll come back around, when I graduated there were no CFI jobs to be had, it was too close to 9/11 and none of the regionals were hiring so none of the CFIs were leaving. when I graduated 80 of us applied for 11 jobs.

randt Junior Member

15 gal an hour, that kind of cracks me up. We get Jet A (no prist) for around $2.00-$2.50/gal (contract fueling), and of course, Retail gas in California could cost upwards of $6.00/gal. We burn an average of 2300#/hour on a long flight (since first hour burns more, subsequent less) on the jets and only 750#/hr on the turbo props.

We had a fuel surcharge of almost 70% at gas' highest price. Our flights were WAAAAAYYYYY down when prices were so high.