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A general aviation scene at Kemble airfield, England. The aircraft in the foreground is a homebuilt Vans RV-4

General aviation (abbr. GA) is one of two categories of civil aviation.

General aviation refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline flights. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights. As a result, the majority of the world's air traffic falls into this category, and most of the world's airports serve general aviation exclusively.

In the United States, there are 5,288 community airports, almost all of which exclusively serve general aviation aircraft. According to the U.S. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, general aviation provides over one percent of the United States' GDP, accounting for 1.3 million jobs in professional services and manufacturing.[1]

Main article: List of general aviation activities

General aviation covers a huge range of activities, both commercial and non-commercial, including private flying, flight training, air charter, bush flying, gliding, and many others.

Most countries have authorities that oversee all civil aviation, including general aviation, adhering to the standardized codes of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Examples include the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in Great Britain, the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA) in Germany, Transport Canada in Canada, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States.

Since it includes both non-scheduled commercial operations and private operations, with aircraft of many different types and sizes, and pilots with a variety of different training and experience levels, it is not possible to make blanket statements about the regulation or safety record of general aviation. At one extreme, in most countries business jets and large cargo jets face most of the same regulations as scheduled air transport and fly mostly to the same airports. Commercial bush flying and air ambulance operations normally do not operate under as heavy a regulatory burden, and often into small airports or off-airport, where there is less governmental oversight.

Aviation accident rate statistics are necessarily estimates. According to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, in 2005 general aviation in the United States (excluding charter) suffered 1.31 fatal accidents for every 100,000 hours of flying in that country, compared to 0.016 for scheduled airline flights. [2] In Canada, recreational flying accounted for 0.7 fatal accidents for every 100,000 hours, while air taxi accounted for 1.0 fatal accident for every 100,000 hours.[3]

• General Aviation -- general information site (USA)
• Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (USA)
• International Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
• Experimental Aircraft Association
• National Business Aviation Association (USA)
• Aviation Web
• Landings.com--source of general aviation news and extensive databases