Dciliax.micom@UDel-Relay@sri-unix (08/07/82)
Hi Folks, My name is John Williams, and as you can see, my access to the net is through Dciliax.micom at Udel-Relay. As a new addressee on "aviation" I must say that it is interesting to read your comments. For the record, I am a private pilot, VFR only, SEL, current, have accumulated only about 250 hours in 10 years as a pilot (including 4 years and approx 80 hours as a student), almost never go cross country, indulge in beginning-level aerobatics, fly mostly low performance aircraft, and consider that I live in an area that is particularly friendly to the private pilot, both in terms of flying costs and local attitudes. Is anything useful to the general aviation community likely to result from this forum? That is, is there some intent to try to influence those who, for whatever reason can be considered to be against general aviation (or perhaps even commercial aviation!)? Whether or no, here are some comments from the hinterlands of North Alabama. 1. The WSJ articles seemed to me to be on the whole factual, even though written in a style calculated to generate an emotional response against general aviation as a whole and private pilots in particular. Is the WSJ on a soapbox against us, or are they just trying to sell papers with no regard to possible consequences? A moot question, perhaps? If any lies in the articles can be pointed out, I'd like to see a list so I can clean up my data base. 2. I believe, apparently not alone, that every person should have the right to be as stupid as he wishes and the Feds should stay away from trying to regulate the general public or segments thereof "for their own "good". This is a sticky one, and I may be a little ambivalent towards certain aspects of the question. In general, however, I, too, think that the FAA's attitude towards personal responsibility is a candle glowing in the forest at mignight. (I like their attitude.) 3. Why should airport owners and operators be penalized when the local residents who crowd in later complain about noise, property damage, or the possibility of being squashed? Seems to me they should complain to and sue the people from whom they bought that undesirable property in the first place. Maybe that would hold back the developers a bit. And what about the local community zoning boards that allowed the development in the first place (or the county government, if that is that appropriate agency)? They are just as much to blame as anyone else... Realistically (and impractically) the only way aviaton can hope to relieve the pressure is for the airports to buy enough land to have clear approaches and patterns over their own property. Absent that possibility, I guess we will just have to try to live with one another. Too bad it turns into an adversary relationship so often. 4. I venture to say that the aircraft I usually fly (Cessna 152, 172 and the like) don't generate an unreasonalbe amount of noise on either takeoff or landing, but that certainly does not apply to all piston powered aircraft. Witness the racket a Navion can make taking off! But even the big honkers are not that much of a problem here... yet. I admit the day may come. 5. You won't find many pilots around here making intersection takeoffs. Too many of us operate from "satellite" fields (translation: local pea-patches), and any runway longer than 2200' is a luxury, especially if it has a truly smooth surface! The temptation is surely stronger at the Jetport where both runways are 8000', but I'll bet that even there intersection takeoffs are rare. Maybe it is because Southerners are generally conservative and like the idea of that big "cushion" in front of them? 6. I don't want to forget this one. It has been my observation that skill and safety-mindedness don't necessarily go together. I have seen highly skilled and capable pilots do some absolutely foolhardy and life-threatening things. Training in safety consciousness and procedures is certainly worthwhile, but a person has to be receptive to it. The determinants are probably attitude, habit, emotional development, one's "personality", if you will, and that is a tough nut to crack. And even the best of us can and do make potentially fatal errors of judgment, on land as well as in the air. Is there any real solution to the high percentage of private pilot accidents and fatalities? 7. One more item: I am against user fees in principle for activities regulated by the Fed. ----- Well, I ramble on. Thought I'd jump in. Future comments should be more succinct. Regards, John