It started early
I think there is a pattern I'm seeing here. There is a certain fascination that most of us here share from a very early age.
In my case, growing up in the early 80s in Los Angeles, we had plenty of friends who worked at JPL and Edwards so there was always airplane and spaceship talk. My mother now tells me that at age three, I'd read a "New True Book" about airplanes and had tried to hold my arms out in a curved fashion (read camber), ran as fast as I could and started weeping uncontrollably because I couldn't take off no matter how hard I tried. My dad, a mechanical engineer would drive me to El Monte airport and stand with me while I'd peer through the fence and watch airplanes go by.
Then came the balsa models and White Wings - a simple yet elegant set of gliders made of stiff paper and balsa that flew exceptionally well if you built them right.
I'm from India originally. What I recall from the Pan Am days back then was that crossing the Pacific in a big 747 (going from CA to India), at age 5 and 6, I'd spend more time in the cockpit rather than in my seat. The pilots took a great deal of time to explain everything to me and made me feel welcome.
After moving back to India in the late 80s, I spent a lot of time building model airplanes (most never left the ground) but the fascination never went away. Moving back to the US in early 2004, I knew that if I had to get my ticket, now was the time. My dad gifted me some money for my first flying lessons which I ended us using for a flight in a Waco biplane. The spark was always there - everything else hadn't lined up. Finally, in 2008, a colleague who had his PPL and a nice Cherokee 140 took me up for a ride. Everything fell in place. For my 30th birthday that year, I started my lessons and got my PPL in just under a year in 2009.
In the time before getting my first BFR last month, I have introduced flying to several people. Three of them already have their PPL and two more are working on theirs. None are Young Eagles. The way I'm trying to do my part to fight the decline in the pilot population is to work with people that have an interest - maybe one that they had long given up as not possible, one at a time.
I usually find perfect weather days and take people up to enjoy something as gorgeous as sunrise followed by breakfast at a place that would normally be a day trip. This does a couple of things. First, it gives them a spectacular view that very few people ever get to experience. Follow that with the practical aspect of going off to places that would normally be long day or weekend trips in a few hours. Usually, on the way back, I have my guests (if they are still as pumped) to take the controls and make some gentle turns. The final cherry on the pastry is when I have them make a radio call to ATC. I tell them exactly what to say. A lot of non-aviation types I have found, find the piloty words like "roger" and "7-3-Whiskey Tango" very cool and making them part of it all gives them a sense of mentally transcending those ever so common high fences around airports these days. Suddenly, in one morning, with an hour and a half on the Hobbs, I've converted a person from being outsider looking in through a fence, to being a part of the fraternity. Most importantly, it makes them believe that yes, they CAN fly an airplane AND do cool things with it to boot.
I don't charge people for these flights and needless to say, in a rented airplane, it isn't cheap. But I pick people that have potential. They already have to have the spark. Although they are outside the fence, they must at least be looking in. Then, I can hand hold them all the way in.
About regulations: I know many people complain about regulations. I know they're tough. But it could be worse - a lot worse. Whenever I travel overseas, I try and do some flying wherever I go. The most recent was in India. After seeing some of the hoops people have to jump through to enjoy a short flight, and to compare it to the US where we still have the right to fly from coast to coast without as much as a radio, I think we complain too much. I'm not suggesting that we stop jealously guarding the freedoms we have left. What I'm saying is that let's cherish what we have - no other country even comes close to what we have here. Many bemoan TFRs and getting briefings. If I look at this from my own perspective as someone who is a post 9/11 student pilot and a non-citizen at that (yeah - I had to get finger printed to do anything beyond an intro flight and have to do it again for my instrument ticket), I have always known TFRs and have accepted that I will always get a briefing before every flight. It doesn't bother me as much because from my perspective, its always been that way and I know no different. Most non-pilots I talk to are still amazed when I tell them that even in this day and age, I can fly without filing any paperwork or flight plans whatsoever in VFR weather.
I also don't think money is completely to blame. Yes, it does make it expensive but if the desire is there, we find a way. Something else becomes secondary. When iPhones first came out, they were north of $300 a piece yet I found so many people that made $10/hr and worked part time go out and buy them. That is an extreme case but it illustrates the point. Apple made them want it bad enough and they found a way - even if it meant skipping other basic necessities while camping outside an Apple store all night.
I think it is a thorough failure of marketing. We are very good at selling aviation to those like us who don't need selling. We are terrible at selling to those outside. I moved to Milwaukee, WI a month before Airventure and for the size of the event it is, I saw just one TV or other ad for it outside of the aviation literature most of us subscribe to. We have to bring non-pilots in - not just tell each other how cool airplanes are.
Ultimately, we have to find ways to make flying "sexy" again. It has to be about the experience and the possibilities. Oh - and shiny glass panels help!