AOPA weighs in on the article: http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All- ... -says.aspx

MTV

You know as I was reading through all of this. I suddenly had a thought.

Maybe the FAA should have lawsuits brought against them for making it so difficult for anyone to develop a product that will improve aircraft. There are lots of things that could be done to improve safety if a company or individual didn't have to spend millions of dollars and many years just to get a mod approved!

Bear Builder,

I griped about ADs for years and then got my "come upance" as my mom calls them. If that Challenger ultralight had fallen under normal airplane rules, there likely would have been AD restrictions on the use of the doors. I might have had at least some rudder control the day I crashed.

At the same time, I understand your point of view. The only hope for small, inexpensive airplanes is less regulation. I just wish more people would build normal design cheap homebuilt airplanes like they used to. I have flown several that flew just like a Cub or Champ.

Good luck with your project.

Jim

Contactflying; no disagreement with you on the challenger, it's got so many design issues I'd like fixed that when I started to list them I realized I'd be better off starting from scratch.

However, my point was that we can't compare aviation to the auto industry, and the assertion that these faults were being covered up to save the manufacturers from expensive recalls was false.

For example, in the auto industry, a dozen people had minor accidence because they panicked and hit the gas and brake at the same time and the engine overpowered the brakes. result: recall of hundreds of thousands of Toyotas to reprogram the electronic throttle so it'll go to idle during hard braking (what did we ever do when throttles were mechanical like the brakes?). If those had been aircraft, it would have been written up as pilot error, and the pilots involved would have been required to take some emergency situation training. If the aircraft industry worked like that, all Cubs would have been recalled until piper fixed the "moose turn stall" issue. Instead, it's pilot error for not keeping coordinated and maintaining airspeed.

The other part of this, is that none of the problems listed were in any way covered up. All are well known by pilots, owners and mechanics. And most weren't a problems when the parts were new, the problems occurred after 20, 30 or even 60 years of use and abuse. Expecting aircraft manufacturers to issue recalls after that much time would be like asking car manufacturers to recall all their older cars to install antilock brakes.

As has been said, it's a sensationalist article intended to sell news. Nothing like getting the general public worked up about something that they know nothing about and doesn't even effect them for that.

Flying is an inherently unforgiving activity. Many non-pilots have a hard time accepting that, and that's probably always been the case.

That said, this article was obviously engineered to generate the most negative response possible. The basic data they're touting, 50k deaths in 50 years, sounds and is terrible. In reality though, 2013 saw (by my quick NTSB google-spreadsheeting) 359 GA deaths in the US. That's a terrible number to think about, but it's also much lower than the average 1,000 / year suggested by the 50-year data. If their data is correct, there were a lot of pretty rough years early in that time period and safety has improved over time. (OK, I'll admit that total hours flown is down as well.)

Looking at other activities that aren't usually seen as dare-devilish, boating deaths hit a much-touted all-time low in 2013: 560, almost 60% higher than GA.

Another excellent article in response to the BS article by USA Today: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-schw ... 09253.html

MTV

Great find MTV, that Schweitzer guy is owed a big thank you by all of us, he nailed it, a perfect response. I would like to see a similar response by the major TV networks but won't hold my breath.

All I know is there has been many deaths here in Idaho the last year caused by ATV's, snowmobiles, and most recently, jet skis. I am always a bit surprised no one calls for more regulations on them, but seem to shrug it off. At least as compared to the near hysterical reaction to any kind of flying accident. Not to mention the carnage on the highways, mostly people who don't use seatbelts. No big deal, seems to be the general public reaction. But crash an airplane and it's huge news.

Listened to a report on the radio the other day which discussed the misuse of pharmaceuticals by health professionals in ER's around the country. Turns out( according to the report) 7000+ people a year die as a result. One might think USA Today would want to publish this but...oh wait........don't pharmaceutical co.s advertize in USA TODAY?...........never mind.

Well said Mr Schweitzer. Very eloquent.

I will not be eloquent. The USA today author is an asshole.

TangoFox wrote:You know as I was reading through all of this. I suddenly had a thought.

Maybe the FAA should have lawsuits brought against them for making it so difficult for anyone to develop a product that will improve aircraft. There are lots of things that could be done to improve safety if a company or individual didn't have to spend millions of dollars and many years just to get a mod approved!

Excelent point!!!

In addition to Schweitzer's rebuttal article, I thought this one by Bertorelli at AvWeb was good too.


http://www.avweb.com/blogs/insider/USA-Todays-GA-Indictment-222192-1.html