I work for a non-profit whose president is regular skewered for making too much money, so I bring a different perspective to the question of reasonable compensation for a president of an advocacy organization.
That said, 14.5% pay increases for AOPA's top executives, including more than $1.8 million for the horrendous Phil Boyer, before he mercifully retired, is stretching the bounds.
AVWEB has the story, but unfortunately buried new president Craig Fuller's salary deep into the story. It's about $500,000, which is a lot of money, but is not unreasonable for a CEO.
Still, it will be worth popping some popcorn and watching the AOPA membership reaction, given that annual dues were just raised to $45.
The salaries of Washington are simply too incomprehensible for "normal" (that is, outside of the Beltway) people. Yesterday, for example, I found out the very excellent airport manager at South St. Paul airport (KSGS) has been laid off by the city council, in order to "save" $40,000.
I doubt the City Council considered what's involved in running a small airport, including managing fuel sales and keeping tenants happy, especially on a field that houses both Wipaire and Ballistic Recovery Systems. They're going to divide up his duties among three city departments, none of whom -- as far as I know -- knows anything about running an airport.
Yesterday, I heard some old-timers grousing about the move. A week ago they were grousing about government getting too big and needing to cut taxes.
I doubt they've made the connection yet.
Showing posts with label Rants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rants. Show all posts
Monday, November 8, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
I got your shipping right here
An order from Aircraft Spruce arrived today. Now at the end of filling out the order, a little postage calculator said it would be about $15 to ship it.
Here's the order:
20 small stop nuts
4 small ring terminals for a 1/4" stud
10 screws for mounting instruments
3 cubic feet of soundproofing material
1 4x4 piece of .063 aluminum
4 feet of 3/4 .063 aluminum angle.
Total of the parts $65.15.
Cost to ship: $115.63.
I also ordered a $400 Electronics International fuel level instrument today, too.
At the rate I'm on,it's starting to look like I'll wait until next winter before ordering a propeller, which probably puts me a little behind on the cowling. I'll likely work on finishing the electrical system and running some fuel lines, but it's pushing the first flight back to, probably, 2012.
Here's the order:
20 small stop nuts
4 small ring terminals for a 1/4" stud
10 screws for mounting instruments
3 cubic feet of soundproofing material
1 4x4 piece of .063 aluminum
4 feet of 3/4 .063 aluminum angle.
Total of the parts $65.15.
Cost to ship: $115.63.
I also ordered a $400 Electronics International fuel level instrument today, too.
At the rate I'm on,it's starting to look like I'll wait until next winter before ordering a propeller, which probably puts me a little behind on the cowling. I'll likely work on finishing the electrical system and running some fuel lines, but it's pushing the first flight back to, probably, 2012.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
RV-12 RV-12 RV-12
I have to say it! I'm sick of hearing about the light-sport RV-12. Yes, I know it's a great airplane and I know every old fuddy afraid of losing his/her medical certificate wants to build one. I want to build one!
I'm suffering from a case of the "golden boy" syndrome and if you've ever worked at , well, where I work, you'd recognize it immediately. The new kid in town is the golden boy, until the next new kid in town comes along.
We RV-7A builders had our day in the spotlight. Then the RV-10 came along and that was that. And now the RV-12 is the life of the party. We'll endure.
In other news, the new RVator from Van's Aircraft is out. It's chock full of information about the, ummm, RV-12.
I'm suffering from a case of the "golden boy" syndrome and if you've ever worked at , well, where I work, you'd recognize it immediately. The new kid in town is the golden boy, until the next new kid in town comes along.
We RV-7A builders had our day in the spotlight. Then the RV-10 came along and that was that. And now the RV-12 is the life of the party. We'll endure.
In other news, the new RVator from Van's Aircraft is out. It's chock full of information about the, ummm, RV-12.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Marketplace's swing and miss
As many of you know, I have one foot in the aviation community and one food in the "media" community, two communities that don't like each other, have little respect for each other, and seem intent on putting one another out of business.
Generally speaking, I think both sides are so wedded to their individual positions, that they ignore data that says their preconceived notions are -- if not wrong -- somewhat inaccurate.
There are exceptions, of course, at which time I have to decide which one foot to hop around on while pretending the other doesn't exist. Unfortunately, this time it requires me to criticize the journalistic effort of an organization that operates under the same corporate umbrella I do.
American Public Media's Marketplace committed a cardinal journalistic sin on Friday when it presented ProPublica's Michael Grabell on its evening program without any challenge at all. That Marketplace wouldn't challenge the assertions of one of its guests isn't that surprising to those of us who recognize the modus operandi, but occasionally they should fake it. This was one of those times.
ProPublica bills itself as "journalism in the public interest," and most of the time this is true. But you know what else is in the public interest? Context. And skepticism.
The organization took a look at flight tracking systems and, in particular, the program that allows some airplane owners to "block" flights of their aircraft. Air Force One, for example, cannot be tracked on FlightAware.com. Neither can some corporations. Colleges often hide their flights because they don't want the competition to see who they're recuiting.
ProPublica reported -- accurately -- that some organizations appear to hide their flights so that those members of the public can't see what abuse some organizations are committing with their funds. An executive jet does not, by definition, constitute an abuse. However, I think there is a case to be made that a megachurch pastor, like Kenneth Copeland and his ilk flying their corporate jet to Hawaii and other exotic destinations, probably has less to do with spreading the word of God, and has more to do with living a lavish lifestyle off the backs of people who gave them their hard-earned cash out of some Biblical motivation.
A governor who blocks his state airplane's flights -- as Gov. Mike Rounds of South Dakota -- makes it hard for taxpayers to figure out how he's spending their cash. To its credit, Minnesota doesn't block the flights of its corporate airplanes, that's how I know that Gov. Tim Pawlenty spent $4,000 just for crew and plane travel to Thief River Falls so that he could go hunting for a day (the Governor's Opener).
But ProPublica's Grabell fell for the commercial airlines' line hook, line, and sinker when he suggested that (a) general aviation and business aviation are the same thing and (b) general aviation doesn't pay its way the way the commercial airlines do.
According to an FAA study released in 2007, general aviation uses 16 percent of the air traffic system , yet pays only 3 percent of the taxes that support it. The rest is covered largely by commercial travel. The system, including salaries for traffic controllers, costs about $9 billion a year.
I just wrote that previous paragraph while sitting in the terminal at Fleming Field in South St. Paul (KSGS), an airport that has no tower, which lies under the airspace that is controlled by the FAA for one reason and one reason only -- to help the big commercial jets get into the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport, 11 miles away. Were my RV-7A completed, I could take off, stay under the Class B airspace, and -- if I wanted to -- fly anywhere in the country. Number of air traffic controller needed: Zero.
But what ProPublica doesn't say -- and what Marketplace obviously didn't know -- when citing the 2007 FAA "study," is that it was a document produced by the Bush administration's FAA to support the Bush administration's budget plan for user fees for pilots -- a proposal that all but the airlines discounted as misguided. There was more than enough disagreement as to merit a citation on the subject.
FAA’s own documents show that GA currently contributes 8.6 percent of the taxes that flow into the Airport and Airway Trust Fund.
The FAA has been using the same economist-accepted cost allocation methodology since 1973 – that is, until now. In the last properly-done cost allocation study in 1997, the FAA reported that General Aviation was responsible for 6.7% of the cost of air traffic control.
So, why would a reputable news organization accept a disputed figure as the basis for a story, without making clear that the figure is widely disputed?
But that's not the biggest mistake Marketplace made. It made its biggest mistake here:
Moon: >And why is that a problem? These are, after all, private flights.
Grabell: They are private flights, but they depend on a public aviation system and public air space that taxpayers pay for. The runways, the air traffic controllers, the radars, the lighting systems, taxi ways, towers -- all these things are paid for by all of us taxpayers. So, you know, it's interesting.
Say what? Private pilots should expose their private lives to you because they use a system that's paid for by taxpayers? Let me be as delicate as possible when I say this: What..... utter.... nonsense.
When you drive your car, you're driving in a system paid for by taxpayers-- the roads, the maintenance, the cops, the first responders when you crash, are all paid by taxpayers. Do you take public transportation? Under the ProPublica rationale, you have forfeited your right to privacy by doing so. Your cellphone uses the public airwaves. Your landline uses public right of way. Let's have the number. Oh, and a list of everyone you've called and everyone who's called you. Ridiculous? Absolutely.
The assertion that somehow your private prerogatives are neutered by its intersection with a publicly funded system to keep it safe is utter nonsense.
A better answer from the ProPublica reporter could've been, "because the governor is paid for by the taxpayers" or "because the corporate exec got a billion dollar bailout."
But that wasn't the answer. And any pro journalist should've noticed that.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The Washington Post pot meets the kettle
I was surprised to see Miles O'Brien, an otherwise reasonable supporter of general aviation, give some Twitter promotion to this article in the Washington Post today on ABC's plan to use skywriters to promote its "V" remake.
Inherent in the article is that planes in the sky are a bad thing:
My guess is 15 small planes have less of an environmental footprint than, say, hundreds of newspaper delivery trucks delivering tons of paper which will be thrown in the trash after a few hours.
Inherent in the article is that planes in the sky are a bad thing:
All told, we're conservatively talking here about around 400 gallons of fuel containing maybe 800 grams of lead -- aviation fuel is exempt from the EPA's ban on lead -- and around three tons of CO2, among other pollutants, if each "V" outing took about one hour of flying time. This is according to various aviation pundits contacted by The TV Column.
My guess is 15 small planes have less of an environmental footprint than, say, hundreds of newspaper delivery trucks delivering tons of paper which will be thrown in the trash after a few hours.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
If you're going to fly the flag...
... then get a clue about the way to treat it. This business on my home field has been flying the two flags this way for about a week. I'm working on the exhaust system later today. I'll have to stop by and leave a note.
This is how we do it
My Oshkosh friend, Bob Kelly, and his colleague Bud Newhouse, did three great things last week. First, they did a good thing in flying a vet. Second, they told the media about it. Third, they told VAF about it.
It's a great example of doing nothing more than what you love doing with your RV airplane, and getting publicity out of it from people more than anxious to tell a good story.
And for the few muttonheads out there, it looks like the media got it right. Not that that'll make a difference to you.
On Aug. 15, 1945, Gene Eaton flew a P-47 Thunderbolt, which he called a Jug, in formation with 95 other U.S. Army Air Corps aircraft over the Hawaiian Islands. The military planes paraded on Victory over Japan Day, the end of World War II.
"I flew in formation all the time during the war, but V-J Day was different," Eaton said. "Usually we had formations with four aircraft."
On Saturday morning over the North Vernon Municipal Airport, Eaton flew in close formation for the first time since 1946. He was a passenger in an RV8 propeller plane piloted by Bud Newhouse. They were part of the Ohio Valley Aviators, who also go by RV River Rats, a group of aviation enthusiasts from Cincinnati that gave an impressive exhibition in precision flying on North Vernon Airport Awareness Day.
More from Plain Dealer-Sun.com.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Who's killing general aviation? General aviators
This is an old conversation but one I'm bringing back anyway. Another lousy article about general aviation appeared this week; this time in USA Today.
The reaction from the pilot community, which I realize is almost universally and slavishly devoted to right-wing talk radio, was swift, predictable, and completely counterproductive.
"The media" got blamed and that -- as someone once said -- is another example of the lazy convenience of the generalization. It's easy to stamp our feet and whine, rather than actually do anything. Maybe we learned this from our political discourse; maybe not.
AOPA simply doesn't know how to react these sorts of stories other than playing the part of the aggrieved victim and then throwing out some statistics which just about everyone at a small -- and usually quiet -- airport knows is complete bullshit. The EAA wasm't that much better. The subject line in their Hotline:
That might be true. Well, in this case, it was true. But nobody outside of aviation cares. Take any crook who ever got caught, and they'll insist they didn't do it. The general population sees it as a typical response from a guilty party.
In the piece itself, Tom Poberezny of EAA did a little better job, casting the blame on airlines:
But where are the other stories about aviation? Where is the public benefit of general aviation not tied to an economic payback? EAA, in particular, is in a unique position to tell these stories to the general public; they've got Timeless Voices of Aviation, and the greatest video team ever assembled for aviation. But they're telling the story mostly to us -- the choir. We've got to figure out how to tell that story to the public and begin to understand that the public will accept that which it values and it can -- and often does -- value things without requiring an economic equation in the black. It values that which can enhance a quality of life.
We build sports stadiums for rich owners of sports teams, even though the economic payback was long ago disproved. Why? Because people want a sports team. Why don't we think about justifying the value of general aviation on those terms? Or can't we?
The other day I got a press release from a PR firm trying to promote a benefit for a local Wings of Mercy chapter. They're bringing in two crew members from the US Air flight that ditched in the Hudson River. Good idea. But if I'm a news person -- and I am -- what story am I going to tell? I'm going to tell the story -- yet again -- of the ditching of the flight. If the PR firm is lucky, I'll mention -- for a couple of seconds -- why the crew was here.
My idea? Let me tell the story of one family who benefited from Wings of Mercy. It'll be new, fresh, and compelling.
That's the way we need to think as general aviation pilots. We need to stop trying to hide behind statistics or star power and recognize the stories we've got in our hangar and the one next to us.
To do that requires us to stop whining and start doing something.
Here's the thread on VAF (now closed, thankfully). Look, I know you can't teach idiots; that much we all know. But there's always hope that the effort yields a light bulb in others.
rocketbob
...and hardly a whimper about the 2 million + folks that showed up in DC for the Tea Party.
Its why I hate the mainstream media.
__________________
Bob Japundza A&P, EAA TC
RV-6 flying ~1000 hrs, F1 under const. Indy
"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe,
and preserve order in the world as well as property...
Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."
carguy614
Cost is considerably less than an Acorn headcount.
Always a bummer to hear about GA airport issues in a negative light. Tax dollars well spent to improve our infrastructure and security. I can't tell you how vital our little old "expensive" GA airport is after a coastal hurricane......
Humble opinion...
Chris
__________________
Chris Schmitt
Shallotte, NC
RV9A 90970 N614RV
flying, phase 2
RV9 in progress
carguy614
AX-O AX-O
Man I read the article at 0330 this morning on my way out of Dulles. I was not happy. It was all very negative. Very little pluses were mentioned. At least the airport manager said if he charged landing fees he knew that no one would land there and the business would go somewhere else.
__________________
Axel
Ridgecrest, CA
RV-8 fastback: Tail kit (166 hrs) / Wing kit (540 hrs) / Fuse (95hrs) My RV-8 builder’s log
RV-4 fastback: Working on everything
Mike S
While I happen to agree with the comments above, please remember that this forum/site is not a place for political commentary.
__________________
Mike Starkey
Rv-10, VAF 909
EAA 512
Working on window installation.
"Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it."
Ron Lee
The comments are not about politics
It is about how accurate the media is in reporting "news." You could investigate any other transportation infrastructure, especially roads, and come up with similar "conclusions."
Example: while some may want fuel tax money to be returned to localities in the same proportion as its users, that would leave rural/desolate areas unable to maintain their highways.
This is especially true when it comes to the interstate system. Should the country blow off paying a disproportionate share to maintain highways in the west compared to urban areas?
There is an airport near me that needs to have a taxiway repaved. I have no problem with them getting more than their "fair share" to maintain it since it does benefit me as a pilot.
I have been to numerous airports that get lower traffic than commercial airports but they served me well.
It seems that the thrust of the article is that if it does not serve passenger traffic, it is not worth spending money on. Of course there is the airline vs GA hype.
Overall it is an obviously biased piece of reporting and not one that I would pen my name to.
Bob CollinsYou know, hate is an awfully strong word. Hatred for an entire group of people who go to work every day, most of whom do the best they can, and sometimes go work on their airplanes on the way home from being mainstream media? I still am idealistic enough to think that we as aviators are better than that and I try to cling to that against virtually all evidence to the contrary.
The guy who wrote this piece? He's mainstream media, too. And I'll bet he's a nice guy. I'll bet most everyone on this forum would like him if you didn't hate him so much. The nerve. Writing a positive GA piece.
Someone here could have spread the link to that around. It would've, perhaps, shown others how positive GA news is possible and is being done. It might've given an aviator the idea that maybe all mainstream media people aren't jerks like the USA Today reporter.
But nobody on VAF today, I notice, could be bothered with spreading a positive, productive, and cooperative story about general aviation. Shame on you all. You want everyone to be excited and well informed about GA and you're not even excited about GA.
Look, we've been over this hundreds of times here. The USA Today article? Yeah, it sucks. So deal with IT. Do something productive. Make your feelings known to USA Today and rather than enhance the bunker mentality by inflating its importance while deflating the work of mainstream media who are trying to do something productive for GA, try a tactic other than spreading hate and see if maybe that works.
I approach a LOT of aviators during the course of a year and good share of the time I'm met with hostility. Is part of the reason that there are a few bad reporters writing articles? Sure. But part of it because a few of you are wasting your time spreading your hate of "mainstream media" -- which, by the way, is plural -- and poisoning your fellow aviators, thus completely neutering the good work that a lot of reporters are doing in support of GA. What's the matter with you?
We have this whole Young Eagles strategy of one person at a time and yet we can't be bothered recognizing that it works the same way for mainstream media too. Each is different. So convert -- or support -- one at a time.
Your Tea Party comment doesn't belong in a VAF post, by the way. I get enough talk show politics elsewhere.
__________________
Bob Collins
Coordinator of Nothing
Piece of Grass 2009
St. Paul, MN.
N614EF RV-7A
Letters From Flyover Country
rocketbob
Bob, my point with my Tea Party comment has nothing to do with whatever side of the political fence your on, it has to do with the fact that one of the largest demonstrations EVER in DC was largely ignored by the media. Clearly a bias on the media's part. Yet, by coincidence, a very biased, sensationalistic, one-sided anti-GA story with very little national importance appears on the front page. Aren't journalists supposed to be professional, impartial and unbiased? Certainly not so in either case. AOPA had a lot of input for this reporter before the article was written, but none of their input made its way into the article. It just shows that they're not interested in telling the real story.
Yes hate is a strong word, and I sorry you take it personally, but I'm not going to candy coat the way I feel in general towards your profession. Yes you are correct, bad apples make the good ones like yourself look bad, but lets face it, there are far more bad apples in journalism today then there are good ones.
__________________
Bob Japundza A&P, EAA TC
RV-6 flying ~1000 hrs, F1 under const. Indy
"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe,
and preserve order in the world as well as property...
Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."
Thomas Paine
Bob Collins
I've always had a problem with the AOPA way of dealing with these stories. I read their news release this evening and it's predictably lame. They keep wanting to make an economic argument and maybe that works at Frederick, Maryland but in many communities it doesn't. There aren't businesses on the field.
Now, one thing they COULD point out is much of the spending is for infrastructure so that planes are landing and taking off safely, especially around people's houses. What people want a plane guessing where a runway is?
They could also point out that cities are getting rent money from hangars, communities are getting property tax money and sales tax money but even then it's a questionable argument. It's also one that's Washingtonian in nature. These people don't know how to argue an issue any other way.
This is when EAA chapters get to withdraw the deposit of goodwill they make when they do pancake breakfasts, airshows and Young Eagle flights and they should stress that and the romance of flying.
They should take note of the first line in the NPR interview with the reporter this evening. "Even though most of us don't use them...." and note the relationship to the ticket tax.
It was a perfect opportunity to point out that small airports near big airports relieve congestion, and that the few dollars that a passenger spends is a good price to pay to avoid having another plane hit you. It was a chance to point Angel Flights and Wings of Mercy and a host of other valuable program. MANY of which mainstream media has profiled.
There are many, many, many ways to legitimize the value of an airport other than on economics.
More bad ones than good ones? I don't how many people in the business you know but I suspect not many, and I don't know how much media you consume other than the usual talk shows and cable shows that depend on feeding the outrage of their viewers in order to turn a buck, but I can assure you that's absolutely not true and I'll put the entire cost of my instrument panel against yours that I can find more positive stories about GA this month than you can find negative ones. But I suspect it would be a wasted effort against an entrenched attitude.
I can only say this: Save some of your outrage because you're going to need more of it than you've got.
The attitude that you embody is going to do its part to kill GA much more than an occasional story in a newspaper not very many people actually read and there aren't enough of us == reasonable people willing to invest something other than T-shirt slogans and bumper sticker rhetoric == to save us from the attitude and face that these negative approaches bring to general aviation.
You can try to win the fight GA is in with your us-against-them approach to it. But as the old saying goes, "Never pick a fight with someone who buys their ink by the barrel.
GA has wayyyyy more friends than enemies in the mainstream media. Do something to take advantage of that rather than reverse it while you still can.
But reading your comments make me want to just throw up my hands and give up and if GA pilots don't want to lift a finger to work with my profession to save it, well, why should I invest any capital in the effort?
And if you're driving me away from telling GA's story, believe me, GA is in bigger trouble than even you think.
That's the last I have to say on the subject.
rocketbob
Bob your response proves my point exactly. As a journalist, you should not be pontificating or advocating, whether its GA, politics, or anything... and exemplifies the fact that none of you guys report anything without injecting your own views on the subject. As a consumer of news, I want fair and unbiased, not a journalists view on how to save the world. That's my 'attitude'. Why should you, as a journalist, feel that it is your duty to defend GA? We have organizations we all support to act as our mouthpieces. Starting tomorrow evening, we'll have at least 1500 people come and hang out in my hangar over the course of the weekend. Most aren't pilots. Last year we raised over 12K for a charity. That's the sort of thing that gives the public a favorable view of GA.
__________________
Bob Japundza A&P, EAA TC
RV-6 flying ~1000 hrs, F1 under const. Indy
"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe,
and preserve order in the world as well as property...
Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."
Thomas Paine
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
The reaction from the pilot community, which I realize is almost universally and slavishly devoted to right-wing talk radio, was swift, predictable, and completely counterproductive.
"The media" got blamed and that -- as someone once said -- is another example of the lazy convenience of the generalization. It's easy to stamp our feet and whine, rather than actually do anything. Maybe we learned this from our political discourse; maybe not.
AOPA simply doesn't know how to react these sorts of stories other than playing the part of the aggrieved victim and then throwing out some statistics which just about everyone at a small -- and usually quiet -- airport knows is complete bullshit. The EAA wasm't that much better. The subject line in their Hotline:
Biased Reporting Sparks Outrage Within Aviation Community
That might be true. Well, in this case, it was true. But nobody outside of aviation cares. Take any crook who ever got caught, and they'll insist they didn't do it. The general population sees it as a typical response from a guilty party.
In the piece itself, Tom Poberezny of EAA did a little better job, casting the blame on airlines:
“This is very upsetting but not unexpected – It’s obvious the airlines are still trying to fix their broken business model by inflaming the public with one-sided media stories,” said Tom Poberezny, EAA chairman/president. “For several years, the airlines have tried to shift the burden of supporting our nation’s airport infrastructure by tossing it on the back of general aviation. It was wrong before and it still is.”
But where are the other stories about aviation? Where is the public benefit of general aviation not tied to an economic payback? EAA, in particular, is in a unique position to tell these stories to the general public; they've got Timeless Voices of Aviation, and the greatest video team ever assembled for aviation. But they're telling the story mostly to us -- the choir. We've got to figure out how to tell that story to the public and begin to understand that the public will accept that which it values and it can -- and often does -- value things without requiring an economic equation in the black. It values that which can enhance a quality of life.
We build sports stadiums for rich owners of sports teams, even though the economic payback was long ago disproved. Why? Because people want a sports team. Why don't we think about justifying the value of general aviation on those terms? Or can't we?
The other day I got a press release from a PR firm trying to promote a benefit for a local Wings of Mercy chapter. They're bringing in two crew members from the US Air flight that ditched in the Hudson River. Good idea. But if I'm a news person -- and I am -- what story am I going to tell? I'm going to tell the story -- yet again -- of the ditching of the flight. If the PR firm is lucky, I'll mention -- for a couple of seconds -- why the crew was here.
My idea? Let me tell the story of one family who benefited from Wings of Mercy. It'll be new, fresh, and compelling.
That's the way we need to think as general aviation pilots. We need to stop trying to hide behind statistics or star power and recognize the stories we've got in our hangar and the one next to us.
To do that requires us to stop whining and start doing something.
Here's the thread on VAF (now closed, thankfully). Look, I know you can't teach idiots; that much we all know. But there's always hope that the effort yields a light bulb in others.
rocketbob
...and hardly a whimper about the 2 million + folks that showed up in DC for the Tea Party.
Its why I hate the mainstream media.
__________________
Bob Japundza A&P, EAA TC
RV-6 flying ~1000 hrs, F1 under const. Indy
"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe,
and preserve order in the world as well as property...
Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."
carguy614
Cost is considerably less than an Acorn headcount.
Always a bummer to hear about GA airport issues in a negative light. Tax dollars well spent to improve our infrastructure and security. I can't tell you how vital our little old "expensive" GA airport is after a coastal hurricane......
Humble opinion...
Chris
__________________
Chris Schmitt
Shallotte, NC
RV9A 90970 N614RV
flying, phase 2
RV9 in progress
carguy614
AX-O AX-O
Man I read the article at 0330 this morning on my way out of Dulles. I was not happy. It was all very negative. Very little pluses were mentioned. At least the airport manager said if he charged landing fees he knew that no one would land there and the business would go somewhere else.
__________________
Axel
Ridgecrest, CA
RV-8 fastback: Tail kit (166 hrs) / Wing kit (540 hrs) / Fuse (95hrs) My RV-8 builder’s log
RV-4 fastback: Working on everything
Mike S
While I happen to agree with the comments above, please remember that this forum/site is not a place for political commentary.
__________________
Mike Starkey
Rv-10, VAF 909
EAA 512
Working on window installation.
"Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it."
Ron Lee
The comments are not about politics
It is about how accurate the media is in reporting "news." You could investigate any other transportation infrastructure, especially roads, and come up with similar "conclusions."
Example: while some may want fuel tax money to be returned to localities in the same proportion as its users, that would leave rural/desolate areas unable to maintain their highways.
This is especially true when it comes to the interstate system. Should the country blow off paying a disproportionate share to maintain highways in the west compared to urban areas?
There is an airport near me that needs to have a taxiway repaved. I have no problem with them getting more than their "fair share" to maintain it since it does benefit me as a pilot.
I have been to numerous airports that get lower traffic than commercial airports but they served me well.
It seems that the thrust of the article is that if it does not serve passenger traffic, it is not worth spending money on. Of course there is the airline vs GA hype.
Overall it is an obviously biased piece of reporting and not one that I would pen my name to.
Bob CollinsYou know, hate is an awfully strong word. Hatred for an entire group of people who go to work every day, most of whom do the best they can, and sometimes go work on their airplanes on the way home from being mainstream media? I still am idealistic enough to think that we as aviators are better than that and I try to cling to that against virtually all evidence to the contrary.
The guy who wrote this piece? He's mainstream media, too. And I'll bet he's a nice guy. I'll bet most everyone on this forum would like him if you didn't hate him so much. The nerve. Writing a positive GA piece.
Someone here could have spread the link to that around. It would've, perhaps, shown others how positive GA news is possible and is being done. It might've given an aviator the idea that maybe all mainstream media people aren't jerks like the USA Today reporter.
But nobody on VAF today, I notice, could be bothered with spreading a positive, productive, and cooperative story about general aviation. Shame on you all. You want everyone to be excited and well informed about GA and you're not even excited about GA.
Look, we've been over this hundreds of times here. The USA Today article? Yeah, it sucks. So deal with IT. Do something productive. Make your feelings known to USA Today and rather than enhance the bunker mentality by inflating its importance while deflating the work of mainstream media who are trying to do something productive for GA, try a tactic other than spreading hate and see if maybe that works.
I approach a LOT of aviators during the course of a year and good share of the time I'm met with hostility. Is part of the reason that there are a few bad reporters writing articles? Sure. But part of it because a few of you are wasting your time spreading your hate of "mainstream media" -- which, by the way, is plural -- and poisoning your fellow aviators, thus completely neutering the good work that a lot of reporters are doing in support of GA. What's the matter with you?
We have this whole Young Eagles strategy of one person at a time and yet we can't be bothered recognizing that it works the same way for mainstream media too. Each is different. So convert -- or support -- one at a time.
Your Tea Party comment doesn't belong in a VAF post, by the way. I get enough talk show politics elsewhere.
__________________
Bob Collins
Coordinator of Nothing
Piece of Grass 2009
St. Paul, MN.
N614EF RV-7A
Letters From Flyover Country
rocketbob
Bob, my point with my Tea Party comment has nothing to do with whatever side of the political fence your on, it has to do with the fact that one of the largest demonstrations EVER in DC was largely ignored by the media. Clearly a bias on the media's part. Yet, by coincidence, a very biased, sensationalistic, one-sided anti-GA story with very little national importance appears on the front page. Aren't journalists supposed to be professional, impartial and unbiased? Certainly not so in either case. AOPA had a lot of input for this reporter before the article was written, but none of their input made its way into the article. It just shows that they're not interested in telling the real story.
Yes hate is a strong word, and I sorry you take it personally, but I'm not going to candy coat the way I feel in general towards your profession. Yes you are correct, bad apples make the good ones like yourself look bad, but lets face it, there are far more bad apples in journalism today then there are good ones.
__________________
Bob Japundza A&P, EAA TC
RV-6 flying ~1000 hrs, F1 under const. Indy
"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe,
and preserve order in the world as well as property...
Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."
Thomas Paine
Bob Collins
I've always had a problem with the AOPA way of dealing with these stories. I read their news release this evening and it's predictably lame. They keep wanting to make an economic argument and maybe that works at Frederick, Maryland but in many communities it doesn't. There aren't businesses on the field.
Now, one thing they COULD point out is much of the spending is for infrastructure so that planes are landing and taking off safely, especially around people's houses. What people want a plane guessing where a runway is?
They could also point out that cities are getting rent money from hangars, communities are getting property tax money and sales tax money but even then it's a questionable argument. It's also one that's Washingtonian in nature. These people don't know how to argue an issue any other way.
This is when EAA chapters get to withdraw the deposit of goodwill they make when they do pancake breakfasts, airshows and Young Eagle flights and they should stress that and the romance of flying.
They should take note of the first line in the NPR interview with the reporter this evening. "Even though most of us don't use them...." and note the relationship to the ticket tax.
It was a perfect opportunity to point out that small airports near big airports relieve congestion, and that the few dollars that a passenger spends is a good price to pay to avoid having another plane hit you. It was a chance to point Angel Flights and Wings of Mercy and a host of other valuable program. MANY of which mainstream media has profiled.
There are many, many, many ways to legitimize the value of an airport other than on economics.
More bad ones than good ones? I don't how many people in the business you know but I suspect not many, and I don't know how much media you consume other than the usual talk shows and cable shows that depend on feeding the outrage of their viewers in order to turn a buck, but I can assure you that's absolutely not true and I'll put the entire cost of my instrument panel against yours that I can find more positive stories about GA this month than you can find negative ones. But I suspect it would be a wasted effort against an entrenched attitude.
I can only say this: Save some of your outrage because you're going to need more of it than you've got.
The attitude that you embody is going to do its part to kill GA much more than an occasional story in a newspaper not very many people actually read and there aren't enough of us == reasonable people willing to invest something other than T-shirt slogans and bumper sticker rhetoric == to save us from the attitude and face that these negative approaches bring to general aviation.
You can try to win the fight GA is in with your us-against-them approach to it. But as the old saying goes, "Never pick a fight with someone who buys their ink by the barrel.
GA has wayyyyy more friends than enemies in the mainstream media. Do something to take advantage of that rather than reverse it while you still can.
But reading your comments make me want to just throw up my hands and give up and if GA pilots don't want to lift a finger to work with my profession to save it, well, why should I invest any capital in the effort?
And if you're driving me away from telling GA's story, believe me, GA is in bigger trouble than even you think.
That's the last I have to say on the subject.
rocketbob
Bob your response proves my point exactly. As a journalist, you should not be pontificating or advocating, whether its GA, politics, or anything... and exemplifies the fact that none of you guys report anything without injecting your own views on the subject. As a consumer of news, I want fair and unbiased, not a journalists view on how to save the world. That's my 'attitude'. Why should you, as a journalist, feel that it is your duty to defend GA? We have organizations we all support to act as our mouthpieces. Starting tomorrow evening, we'll have at least 1500 people come and hang out in my hangar over the course of the weekend. Most aren't pilots. Last year we raised over 12K for a charity. That's the sort of thing that gives the public a favorable view of GA.
__________________
Bob Japundza A&P, EAA TC
RV-6 flying ~1000 hrs, F1 under const. Indy
"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe,
and preserve order in the world as well as property...
Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."
Thomas Paine
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