The first time I heard of a moving map GPS personally was in 2001 or so, in relation to one being installed in a King Air. I thought it was the cleverest thing I’d ever seen. 
The use of portable moving map GPS/EFB in combination with ADS-B traffic is for sure the most significant change I’ve seen over the ensuing period. Very little else has changed in my flying world.
Did my first glider lesson in 1982. That’s 42 years ago. Now I feel really really old
The last 20 years is only since 2004. Has anything really happened since then?
Fuel prices have increased manifolds. It used to cost around € 0.5 (100LL) Now I have seen prices of up to €3.5
Mogas used to cost around €1-ish, now it is around €2
Ethanol
Satnav existed also back then, but nothin like the moving maps we have today.
Lots of cool glass and gadgets of course
Rotax 912 iS, 915, 916, ULPower, EdgePerformance
STOL bonanza, but that’s mostly the last years.
ULs and experimentals have conquered the GA world, most places at least when thinking about new aircraft
Cessnas that already were old 20 years ago, and offered for sale at €10k, are 20 years older today, and offered for sale at €100k, hmm. At least they last.
I would say the biggest is fuel cost (100LL) and cost of a decent certified aircraft. Nothing has changed there, except the cost which has skyrocketed. All the other points have steadily developed, become better and better. More expensive too, but nowhere like 100LL and certified stuff.
I would not rate fancy avionics as game changers in GA. Once you get a GPS moving map, you are pretty well done. Instrument procedures are flown by reference to panel mount avionics anyway and those had that capability in the mid-1990s or so. The main change is the availability of easy to manage lightweight tablets, around 15 years ago. The apps are older – how old is PocketFMS (became Easy VFR)? I have been flying behind 1990s avionics without any problems at all, around much of Europe.
LPV is a new one though!
One of the notable trends is normalization / regulation. There was a huge regulation effort starting around 2008 in the EU, and it shows in GA: processes have been streamlined, I think it’s fair to say it’s become slightly more difficult to obtain a PPL (many mandatory steps, no solo before passed theory, and as more seasoned instructors from my club put it, you – literally – need to “tick a lof of boxes”). But I think this shows most in parts availability, manufacturer diversity, and avionics.
The second trend is cost. Rental costs have not moved that much for me (comparison 2013-2024), but acquisition cost seems to have gone way up. Costs of modern certified new aircrafts are insane IMO, and when the price for a 2-seater is 300k€ and 500k€ for a 4-seater, the market is not very big. The (maybe rose-tinted) sprawling era of the 60-70s seems far gone. The US is (and always has been) much cheaper, but costs for new aircrafts are the same there.
Covid has really revealed the gap between certified and non-certified in terms of part availability and general uptime, while, as has been said above, the difference between the two in usage, components, performance etc. is very small. In the club we’ve had 30% uptime last year on DA40s. A broken prop can easily set you back more than a year. Although the shop is partly to blame, this seems unimaginable pre-covid. Non-certified mitigates this issue by a lot.
And finally, the generalization of modern avionics in new planes. How this will play out is uncertain, since, like cars, electronics get obsolete much more quickly than the rest. Despite the value they add, they are a form of recurring (sometimes huge) cost, and here as well there is a huge barrier to entry for manufacturers, because of certification.
In a word, it feels like it’s become harder to become serious about (certified) GA. Especially compared to 50yrs ago (but it’s just a feeling, I wasn’t there…)
+ Skydemon
+ Autorouter
+ Glass
- Less qualified maintenance people / less maintenance outfits (e.g. Gama at Fairoaks)
- Less CI airfields in France
Inflation is of course a big minus, but not restricted to aviation…
From the viewpoint of VFR touring, things are far far better now than 20 or 30 years ago:
1) Tablet based moving map. Take it to the hotel, plan next days route, go to the plane and fly it!
2) Online weather from any device you happen to have.
3) Cellphone. Call the destination, ATC, flight service, hotels etc. from anywhere without battling hotel phones.
4) Electronic conspicuity: when done properly (eg in the US) it’s a joy.
5) (last but not least) Uber, Bolt, etc.. No more waiting lifetimes for taxis that sometimes don’t show, paying outrageous charges, or risking dodgy ‘courtesy’ cars with unknown insurance.
There are some negatives:
Loss of airports: Malmi (mentioned already), Bromma, Tallinn and (from UK) Texel, with more under threat. And not just in Europe: Santa Monica for instance.
Aging fleet – rental aircraft tend to be ratbags.
But overall long cross countries VFR are more practical now than they’ve ever been. IMHO.
Here in the US, WAAS is a game changer with almost all runway ends having straight in approaches with vertical guidance, either LPV or LNAV+V or LP +V.. We have pretty much transitioned to PBN and have little if any dependence on conventional ground based Nav systems other than as backup. I no longer have an ADF, but kept my trusty KNS80. I only fly an ILS when forced to or as a regular training exercise. Another game changer is ADS-B with both traffic and FISB weather information when equipped with ADS-B In. In the cockpit, glass panels make major improvements is SA with more information available at one’s finger tips. Flying approaches are much easier with SV and improved AI that make it easy to see and hold a specific attitude, like + 2 degrees pitch up or -1 pitch down, vs a quarter of a bar width up and a smidge down on a steam gage. EFB has taken over preflight planning, performance, filing, briefing, and in cockpit SA as well as programming routes into the panel navigator. I no longer take paper backup into the cockpit as I have so much redundancy, approach charts on my GTN 750Xi, on my G500TXi, on my Aera 796, on my iPad Mini 5 and iPhone 13 Pro Max. I have wifi in my hangar connected to a fiber internet with 300 MB speed. I have weather from FISB, Sirius XM, and my WX500. I can bring a portable ADS-B In receiver or XM receiver, but I prefer to use the panel equipment linked to my devices as the source. I have a GDL39D, Stratus 2, Sentry, and a GDL51 portables, but just use them for testing and rarely bring them along in my flight bag. In the late 90’s, noise cancelling headsets were a great improvement and now with the LightSpeed Delta/Zulu, I get personalized compensation for hearing loss. When I started flying, we did not use headsets or audio panels, just the speaker and a hand mike. Now I can command my GPS and audio panel verbally with commands like Show Traffic, Show Procedure, Tune Destination weather, Tune Destination CTAF, …
Peter wrote:
The apps are older – how old is PocketFMS (became Easy VFR)?
Rob Weijers developed the first version in 2001/2 for his own use and then started sharing it with some friends.
PocketFMS proper was launched in 2003 before all the other apps as far as I’m aware.
I would not rate fancy avionics as game changers in GA.
I would respectfully disagree. G1000 was revolutionary, than on the uncertified scene arrived Dynon Skyview with similar capabilities at the fraction of price.
I find myself increasingly flying across Europe and not even turning my iPad on in flight. There is simply no need, everything I might want to know is on the panel, If I wouldn’t be a cheapskate pilot, I could even get the ADL weather displayed on MFD. Maybe one day.
Instrument procedures are flown by reference to panel mount avionics anyway
sure, but the fancy avionics are not (only) about flying procedures, although a geo-referenced plate is nice to have. I’m going not to preach about benefits of synthetic vision, Garmin generated visual approaches or improved situational awareness.
