Evening star., 1951-08-05
t Operators Watch Steady Decline in Private Flying
Area Airport
By ChorIes J. Yorbrouoh

TURN a Well-Worn phrase, amt
what it used to be-and never was
From quiet operations offices on
10 of the IL airfields which ring
the Metropolitan area, operators
are watching the air rush out of
a punctured bubble.
The runways of one closed field
are waist deep in weeds and even
the boards used to brace sagging
windows are sagging. Another has
been sold for a real estate devel-
opment and three-fourths of still
another is being covered by ware
houses and stored new cars.
Private flying, needed by the
glamor of the wartime hyboys
and adrenalinized by the aircraft
induStry's glowing promise of
cheap, safe and easy-to-f1y air.
craft, scared high on the wings of
the CT Bills educational provi-
sions.
There, apparently, it has ended.
Private airport operators have
little need for statistics to tell
them of the pail of diSinterest and
money consciousness which has
settled over pilot potential-not
only in Washington but over the
Nation as well. But. from the
Civil Aeronautics Administration,
are some figures:
194S Was a Peak Year.
In 1948-one of the peak years
OF the GI Bill activity-there
were 86,838 private pilot licenses
issued. In 1949, there were 3d.
278. BY 1850 it slumped to Is, ,96s
and for the first five months of
this year, the licenses totaled only
1872.
Commercial licenses, up to 1928
in 1949, were down to 2,170 for
the first five months of this year.
Airline transport licenses -
which reflect a trend already
viewed with great concern by the
commercial airlines-are down
from LILO in 1949 to 815 last
year and $50 for the first five
months of 1851
Experienced pilots - preferably
young ones - are in great demand
by the commercial lines. Some
are taking on co-pilots in their
40s because no younger men are
available. One Of the great rea-
sons for this dearth is the expense
Iof training. Oficials estimate
that the expense of obtaining a
transport license and time re-
quired to get job would approx
mate 100000 if the flyer had to
pay for it himself.
Thus far, the commercial lines
decline to take on the risk and
expense Of training pilots only to
have them grabbed by the mill
tary.
Word Subsidy" Avoided.
Subsidy is a word carefully
avoided by private airfield oper-
ators, who regard that means of
training pilots-particularly as it
was done under the CT Bill-as
something too temporary.
The act which set up CAA does
not permit that agency to set up
civilian pilot training as such,
but amendments are milling to
establish enabling legislation. CAA
frankly would like to have such
legislation on the books-just in
case.
Whether such a program is
needed now is another question
entirely" a spokesman said.
Some of the area S private fields
sprang up shortly after the close
of World War II on the strength
of the CT Bill training and the
boom which was expected.
But one of the II is still in
business at the same old stand
where the Wright Brothers set
up their first pilot training for
the Army Signal Corps Aviation
section. George Brinkerhoff's Col
lege Park airport was in business
in 1909. From the field flew the
first air mail planes.
In 1946 he had Is instructors,
500 students and 81 planes. Today
he has three instructors. possibly
100 students. His answer to the
decline: There isn't enough vol
ume to go around. Before the war
we had about four fields operating.
Five or six would be enough now"
Cost Factor Blamed.
All operators get the same point