By Steve Weaver

It must seem to newcomers in our world of aviation that the pilots who were flying back in “the day,” must be conspiring to weave a universal tall tale about how aviation was in the old days. Then they take turns telling the tale while the rest of the codgers nod in solemn assent.

In these times of six and seven dollar avgas and single engine piston aircraft pushing three quarters of a million dollars, it’s hard to visualize a world of 40 cent fuel and affordable airplanes, which the factories were pumping out like popcorn.  Imagine a time when we had the freedom to fly just about anywhere in almost anything and when almost anyone who was working could afford an airplane of some kind.

To those of us who lived and flew during those halcyon days, it seemed normal at the time because we hadn’t known anything else. Most of us thought that it   would continue this way always and that was just the way it was supposed to be. It also seemed to us, to me anyway, that aviation was probably about the same in every progressive country. I had no clue what an oasis of aeronautical privilege we were living in.