Everybody in General Aviation is worried. If it isn’t the economy that has them down it is the TSA power grab, the depression in the airplane manufacturer section of our flying economy or just a sad, cold and tired feeling brought on by winter.

I’m not saying that things aren’t bleak. I’m just saying that all of this is nothing new and that this too shall pass.

My short career in aviation is rife with rumors of ruin, bankruptcies, high-jackings, crashes in frozen rivers, crashes into buildings and the ATC system going “foom” while PATCO committed suicide.

I’ve been around for the Carter years with their gas shortages, general aviation gas rationing and I somehow managed to get hired by an airline during a year that they said nobody was going to be hired – ever again – by an airline.

I’ve seen the general aviation manufacturers completely shut down their production lines due to product liability craziness. I’ve been around to watch the entire airline system totally fall on its collective ass in a frenzied race to the bottom of the economic pile by cutting costs so far below what it cost them to produce a flight that we lost money every time we pushed back with a full airplane.

I’m still here and when this current orgy of economic wackiness ends, you’ll still be here too. Business guys and politicians will start flying their bizjets again when they think nobody is still looking. Movie stars will stop driving their electric cars and resume flying their G-V’s to gigs and before you know it, record numbers of new aircraft sales will begin to be announced once again by Cessna, Piper and all the other airplane makers.

Don’t panic. Keep your powder dry, your Jepps up to date and your battery charged. The clouds will part someday soon, the sun will come out and we’ll all be lighting our cigars with hundred dollar bills soon.

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