R

robriggen

I'm New Here
If you take 2 minutes to read this article, I think you will be outraged, too.

http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_14468188?nclick_check=1

Author's e-mail address:

[email protected]

If you're like me you don't appreciate this author (Bil Paul) questioning the safety of experimental aircraft or offering up suggestions on increasing regulations about weather operations or worrying about airports that are too close to housing and shopping developments.

Take a sec and let this author know your thoughts. Stand up for what we stand for.

Thanks!

Rob Riggen
 
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It's like he was writing about four different subjects in one short opinion piece. Outrage? No - crashing a plane into a residential neighborhood is going to raise questions, and we get the joy of dealing with that.
 
why the outrage?

Agree the article was not very well written but the questions raised were the questions any of us (or me) would raise when we learn of such mishaps. What is wrong with asking questions? Questions never hurt anyone, but not asking them has and does. I'm more outraged when stupid pilots do stupid things (not saying these guys were stupid as I don't know a thing about these accidents).

I do think the question should be reversed with respect to proximity of residential and airport locations as most airports were probably around first. A more appropriate question might be, "Shouldn't residential areas be restricted to some minimum distance from airports..blah, blah, blah?"

Take a scan through youtube RV first flight videos . You'll be amazed at the number of folks taking off for the first time in their newly constructed airplane and joining up in close formation or doing aileron rolls for their family watching below.... my opinion only, but those stunts are far more outrageous than this authors article and do far more to damage to our credibility than the points he's made.

Personally I think it is very myopic to believe any criticism of GA is all bad. We are really not much different as a group than any other. We have a lot of great people, some really good people and some down right idiots (I like to put myself somewhere in the good category). I see something really dumb, I mean blatantly dumb, just about every time I go to the airport. Like the guy across from my hangar who spent the whole afternoon working on his ultralight with a case of bud (most of which was consumed) and then took her around for a quick test flight!!! He also owned a 210 and a Mooney. Had a long chat with him when he landed. If he had crashed into a house would an article questioning alcohol use and flying be appropriate or would that be outrageous and an affront to the rest of us?

my .02
 
Sam Buchanan said:
That article is so poorly written it doesn't deserve a response.
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Flyfalcons said:
It's like he was writing about four different subjects in one short opinion piece. Outrage? No - crashing a plane into a residential neighborhood is going to raise questions, and we get the joy of dealing with that.
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John Clark said:
Rather than expressing "outrage" at one reporter, the effective response is to get the people that understand the news business involved. This sort of press comes with the territory and needs to be dealt with carefully. The AOPA has the people and expertise to help us get our side heard.
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Pretty much concur with all of you...poorly written, tries to tie in several disparate topics (including Amelia Arehart's dissapearance) to support what sounds like his personal agenda of closing general aviation airports in his readership area (not a new topic there either...I learned how to fly at Palo Alto and taught both there and at Reid-Hillview...I'm surprised he doesn't mention the time the airplane landed on the mall roof there 30 years ago).

I think John hits it though...as outraged as we may be about editorial buffoonary, getting the pros in our industry to defend our segment of aviation will play much better than individual shots fired that could be seen as defensive. All that said though, its still good to bring it to our attention so we can support the cause. Thanks for the post and the heads-up!

Edit: Ken, just saw your post too, and that's a good point, and kinda plays along with my "don't sound defensive" thought. IMHO, John's concept applies there as well...the pros can help show the truth of the matter, and help protect against knee-jerk reactions. But you're on the mark too...we all need to be able to stand behind how we operate. Just painful to see things so poorly written!

Best,
Bob
 
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This poorly written and researched article hit a sore spot with me.

I learned to fly at Reid-Hillview Airport and based my airplane at all three airports mentioned in the article, Palo Alto, Reid-Hillview and Pine Mountain Lake.

I asked my wife to read the article and asked her if I was justified at being upset. She agreed with me. After I composed my response to the author, I asked my wife to read it and asked her if I should keep my mouth shut or send it. She proof read my response (my writing and spelling suck) and she said send it.

I basicaly told the author to do better research, don't jump to conclusions and check his facts. Some facts were just plain wrong and others highly innacurate. I did suggest he run for political office where truth and accuracy are secondary considerations in speeches or print.
 
Actually that one wasnt all that bad, I've read much worse from reporters who seemed to know far less about GA and are much more one sided. This author actually seemed to have a little bit of aviation knowledge, and spoke of pilots 'love' of flight and the fact that we arent all elite, rich celebrities and businessmen (I hate that one! I am far from rich!!) so at least he tried to present both sides.

Anytime there is a crash like this, these articles pop up, always will. We just have to keep trying to educate the non-pilots out there. I go out of my way to take as many non-pilots as I can for rides...we all should do this so someday when it comes time for them to vote on whether an airport should be closed, they will remember.
 
??????

Agree the article was not very well written but the questions raised were the questions any of us (or me) would raise when we learn of such mishaps. What is wrong with asking questions? Questions never hurt anyone, but not asking them has and does.
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- RV8R999

What is wrong with asking questions? Do you think the writer is truly interested in being open minded? , or does the writer have an agenda? Is it possible to make an argument by asking a series of questions? What would Socrates say? Can there be a method to asking a series of questions to make a point? Is that just another way of making an argument? Is it more innocent or acceptable to ask questions? instead of stating your point?
 
Typical Op-Ed piece but agreed that it wasn't well written. Rambled all over the place, didn't he? Not like any of us ... ;) It's clear that it was another shot in the war over keeping Bay Area GA airports open; notice the stab at Ried-Hillview? Of course, pointing out that those airports were there long before the communities they 'endanger' gathers no mileage; there is tremendous pressure to pack more people into the area with no regard for anything else. More than just airports are threatened; communities are built on earthquake-unstable land, habitats are destroyed, and so on. But while I don't think his stab at experimental aviation was necessary, what's another straw-man when you're making a straw-man argument?
 
Natural Born Ignorant Writer

You know most of those GA airports were there before all of the residential and commercial building around them. Most GA airports serve more than just us middle class enthusiasts, sounds like you haven't done your homework there natural born.

Obviously you are not aware of what all, and who all uses GA airports. Your statement concerning GA airport support is a sign of your ignorance
"General aviation airports tend not to be self-supporting and depend on subsidies. It's time for those that use the fields to pay the cost of maintaining and improving them."

Not for nothing, but, I hope one of your family members never needs the Angel of Wings flight by one of us out of a GA airport, or that organ someone has donated to one of your loved ones has to be flown into the nearest, closest, GA airport, or because we are force to use International Airports that you don't collide with us while having your peanuts on that 747. There are many, many reasons why these GA airports are important to our infrastructure.



Wake up Natural Born
 
Man... "self-built planes" would be so awesome. How would that work anyway? You buy the kit and it builds itself? Maybe it would look like Rudi's construction videos :)

At least he acknowledges that we're just regular people who love aviation.
 
A lot of the info is valid. Did the pilots mentioned make poor decisions in taking off or landing in marginal conditions. It happens folks. All the time. What about the two who died leaving LOE last year or the year before and flew into a thunderstorm cell? Both died. Poor judgment in my opinion.

Experimental aircraft (Custom built) do have a higher accident rate than certificated aircraft. Let's fix that problem.

Airport location relative to houses etc should be a zoning issue and would takes lots of money to buy property where development occurred after the airport was built.

Why don't we have a Young Eagles equivalent for voters who live near airports. Give them a free ride to see what we enjoy.
 
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Free rides

There are not many things left in this world that are free, however, I would be more than happy to give out free rides to any non-pilot in my area. In my opinion we would not charge anyone anything to begin with but maybe a positive, proactive offer such as this would help get the ball rolling. I read an article in AOPA Pilot a while back that the wrong way to give out rides to a person new to GA is get up there and hotdog around and make the person sick or scare the daylights out of them. I took that to heart and refuse to wring out a person's senses on their first trip. I think if we would advertise free rides in some way to promote our obsession, the general public would see we are attempting to inform and not terrify.

A perfect example of a non-pilot's view: I was over at my girlfriends friends house about 2 weeks ago and her husband wanted to know if I wanted to go to his grandfathers cabin in Creede, CO. Of course I agreed and said I would run the numbers as to not jeopardize safety by flying into high winds, snow etc. He joked with me later that evening about something and immediately replied "Oh I better watch it, you're going to be flying me somewhere." I disarmed his thought by letting him know that was not how I operate and explained my procedures during a first flight.

I realize this has almost nothing to do with an RV, but in the very near future it will and I will continue to promote my, and our, love of our planes. Another activity I have thought of is offering rides to the "more senior" population. Some of these ladies and gentlemen may have fought in wars or have a strong pull in the community and would have a blast to be in the air again, or for the first time. A positive impression on one will snowball into positive stories to their friends about the experience. This may lead to the saving of an airport one day if a vote comes down the pipe.

Please take all I say with a grain of salt. I know I am young and know very little but my love for aviation is as intense as anything you have ever witnessed and I will defend it with every molecule of my being. :)
 
Natural Born Writer

I will leave the debate about the subject up to you folks. What I find absurd is the guy's email address. I believe this may be the worst example of a news article I have ever read. Natural Born Writer? Natural Born Jerk is more accurate. I sure hope this isn't his day job.
 
It's not a news article.

It's a column. The purpose of a column is to entertain, provoke, and incite. He succeeded.

I loved this line:
"Many are intimately familiar with every little mechanical and electrical device in their planes."

I am sooo glad that "many" pilots are familiar with the gizzmos in their planes. I would really hate to be sitting in the back seat of your plane when you start mumbling, "What in the heck does that knob do?"
 
This isn't the first article of it's type and it certainly won't be the last....especially with all of the negative general aviation hype that was generated by the guy that flew his Piper into the IRS building in Austin.
 
dhall_polo said:
I loved this line:
"Many are intimately familiar with every little mechanical and electrical device in their planes."

I am sooo glad that "many" pilots are familiar with the gizzmos in their planes. I would really hate to be sitting in the back seat of your plane when you start mumbling, "What in the heck does that knob do?"
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Don, that was good. It's worse though if they say (while reaching towards the panel), "Let's see what this knob does..." :eek:

Pax (and FO's) are even more impressed when ya scratch your head and say, "OK, what's it doing now?!?" Well, so I've heard anyway. :p

Sorry to go OT. Good comments about education and representing our group well.

Cheers,
Bob
 
John Clark said:
Rather than expressing "outrage" at one reporter, the effective response is to get the people that understand the news business involved.
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I've preached on this a number of times. AOPA is nice, but it doesn't take people who understand the news business to get involved. It takes everyone out there who's never picked up a phone and called a local reporter and offered a ride to get involved.

I notice THIS article also appeared today (and, of course, nobody bothered to point out the positive articles that are written).

We are the ones that need to get involved. Of course, the other thing we need to do is stop flying poorly and making poor judgments and giving ignorant reporters the opportunity to write stories about how unsafe we are.
 
rvmills said:
Don, that was good. It's worse though if they say (while reaching towards the panel), "Let's see what this knob does..." :eek:
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Or, 'You won't believe what almost happened last time I did this. Here, let me show you ..." :rolleyes:
 
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