At $5-$6 gallon, aviation gas grounding private pilots

HARTFORD - Increasing fuel costs are grounding many of Connecticut's private pilots and forcing some small airports to boost their fees for lessons, hangar space, and equipment rentals.

Some aviation buffs say the hobby has become too expensive as aviation gas used in their planes hovers between $5 and $6 per gallon.

"It's definitely causing a strain," said Thomas Vrissis, a pilot who flies at Brainard Airport in Hartford and said fuel there has gone up a dollar per gallon since January.

At Skylark Airport in East Windsor, the usual 3,000 gallons of fuel sold monthly has dropped to 2,000 gallons, airport manager Mike Koczera said. He says flying there has dropped about 30 percent as fuel costs have increased.

Connecticut pilots are mirroring a national trend, according to a recent survey of several thousand members of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

It found that two of every five people surveyed said they had cut their flying time in half, or even more, because of higher fuel costs. Many others said they'd scaled back by at least one-third.