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in 2024, recreational aviation is in sharp decline.  Fewer and fewer younger people are joining aero clubs, signing up to Facebook aero groups, and certainly very few are spending money to buy aeroplanes.  Arguably, financial times are tough, and disposable incomes are being eroded by the rising cost of living.  Yet go along to the waterways on any given weekend, and you will see young folks whizzing by on jetskis…

 

Not an insignificant investment – yet this seems to be no impediment to younger enthusiasts.  And why is this?  Quite apart from the financial investment – consider the very much easier pathway into the sport.  No 40 hours of flight training, and numerous theory exams to pass.  Just about any waterway can be your playground (no trailering your new toy to one of a declining number of out-of-the-way airfields).

Foilboarding is another sport to which younger people are flocking.

Again, they’re not cheap (if one ignores those on offer at Ali Express).  But they’re exciting, there are no restrictive training or licensing requirements, and you can just slide them into the back of your car and go play.

My point is that personal aviation, once the exciting, cutting-edge passion of young men and women has given way to other more accessible sports.  And cost of entry doesn’t seem to be a significant barrier.

Closer to home, however, is the exponential growth of the Radio Controlled planes and drones.  You can buy a drone for under $100, but hundreds of new drones are sold daily around the world for $1500 plus, as people flock to the sport.
Why?  They are relatively cheap, come with all manner of flight stabilisation, onboard telemetry, cameras, navigation – you name it.  It’s exciting.

My local RC field in Brisbane is crowded to capacity every Saturday (and most evenings also) with drones and fixed wing RC planes buzzing around.  Interest in flying, per se, hasn’t diminished.  It’s alive and well.  It’s just the over-regulated, expensive and red-tape bound “recreational flying” secor which is dying on the vine.

And as interest in recreational aviation dwindles, the pace of innovation slows down, and the torch is being taken up by those sectors of aviation which currently attract high numbers.

Take the PPG world for example.  A good Powered Paraglider will set you back just short of $20k.  There are cheaper options, like the excellent Parajet for about half that price.

My point is that both the cheaper RC/drone sectors and the more expensice PPG sectors niches are booming, with hundreds, and in some cases thousands of new participants each year, even as the ranks of fixed wing rectreational aviation thin, leaving by and large old men dreaming of yesteryear.

And nowhere is this withering away more true than in the sub-genre of the Pou du Ciel.  It’s glory days are over, and increasingly, Facebook groups dedicated to this wonderful little airplane are peppered with photos of old planes, comments and photos of old designs newly built by aging builders, and a hardening of opinion ranged against anything which emerges which might not be strictly according to the “Formula”.

But this is NOT the case at rtfm-aero.

We’re not interested in strapping a parachute to our backs.  We love the quirky little Pou du Ciel (or “Flying Flea), and all our efforts are devoted on a daily basis to advancing the design.  I strongly doubt that we will ever relive the glory days of personal fixed-wing aviation, because history has moved on.  But we can aspire to attracting a whole new generation of would-be aviators to an aircraft which is:

  • Cheap to build (under $15k)
  • Safe and easy to fly
  • Full of modern technology
  • Able to spark the imagination again.

As a 2-axis plane, the Tiny Cedar Flea uses a single control stick to fly.  No ailerons, no hand/foot coordination in turns, and it is impossible to stall.  Wings which can fold in under a minute for transportation.  Easy trailerability.  Tundra tyres for rough field landings.  Very short take-off and landing.  In fact, everything which would make the TCF a delight to own.

Add in a digital screen showing all pertinent engine readouts, altimiter, airspeed, and full moving map navigation.  We’re looking at different wing configurations, different construction methods and a thorough investigation of alternative powerplants.  I’ve already written about our new construction method (drawing on the rich experience and expertise of cedar strip canoe/kayak building), and I’ve written about better wing configurations (Nanadovic, Axel Darling and Jean de la Farge have all influenced our design choices.