Replies

I agree with everything in your post.

Flying has a magic all its own, but it can also turn into aggravation, and even a nightmare, quickly.

I actually feel bad for Harrison Ford. I just checked the UK newsites for news on the terrorist bombing in France, and the front page has the Ford story. Talk about an global rectal exam. Enough is enough.

He has done alot of general aviation, and he seems to live his life quietly and with dignity.

Ford crashed one of his helos (they are tough to fly), and the Ryan ST3KR - during which he performed heroically in my opinion. He avoided homes and roads filled with cars and got down on that golf course. Plus, he saved a kids life once by finding him during search and rescue missions he flew himself in his helicopter.

We seem to Judge Roy Beans all over FR. "Hang Him!"

Give me a break.

You have inspired me to rant about some of the other posters in this thread. I am assuming that many are from people who either don’t fly at all or have a bunch of hours on a laptop or model airplane.

We have lived on a small airport for over twenty years. We have two airplanes and four hang-gliders. We love getting our feet off the ground. Unfortunately, we have neighbors who work for the FAA on both sides of us. They will hang you for a paperwork offense just as quickly as they will hang you for actually putting others at risk... maybe quicker.

Some of the comments I have read here remind me of the way my FAA neighbors view the world. I couldn’t care less if someone has their pilot’s license or their temporary pilots license with them in their airplane. What a joke. Do we really have regulars here who give a rat’s butt about such things?

The FAA’s involvement in aviation has held development back by generations. Regulations they claim are for safety are usually for control. Unelected bureaucrats control everything with an iron hand that does very little for safety and a whole lot of restricting advancements. Without the FAA we would be so far ahead of where we are now that general aviation flying would be more similar to the Jetsons than its current state where we are flying airplanes that haven’t actually advanced since the late 1940s only with modern electronic navigation aids and radios.

How far have affordable piston engine airplanes really advanced since the Beach Bonanza was first sold to the public in 1947? How much have general aviation airplanes advanced since the Cessna 170 in 1948, which evolved into the Cessna 172, or the Piper Comanche in 1957. The FAA has been the primary impediment to improvements in general aviation aircraft over the last 70 years. All one has to do to understand why is to read some of the comments from people on this forum. People worry about nonsense and so do many in the FAA.