So, Reveille sounds at 0530 this morning as it always does for me.\u00a0 Only I know longer hear the bugler or the voice over the 1MC calling, “Reveille, Reveille, Reveille, all hands turn…”\u00a0 After years of hearing the calls, I just wake up naturally now.<\/p>\n
One morning after rousing awake a while back, I was going through different websites.\u00a0 I was on Avweb, a great source of aviation news.\u00a0 A letter titled, “What Happened to the LSA Dream?” appeared in their features and columns under “Avmail.”<\/p>\n
Wow!\u00a0 Did this one ever hit home!<\/p>\n
The author of the letter remembered, as I do, when industry leaders made promises: Flying airplanes for $30,000 and kits for $15,000.\u00a0 “A plane in every garage!”<\/em><\/p>\n This is just not the way real life is.\u00a0 Again, as with almost every facet of our lives, the insurance industry has created a great deal of the problem.\u00a0 At least, many industry leaders now report this problem as the main reason as to why their new LSA airplanes cost $80,000 and more.\u00a0 And there is research available to bear the truth of what is happening to be Big Three – Beech, Cessna, and Piper.<\/p>\n Product liability is out of control.\u00a0 Frivolous lawsuits have to stop – they are\u00a0impacting the American Dream.\u00a0 Wait!\u00a0 Let’s rephrase that; the gratuitous lawsuits are quickly destroying <\/em>the American Dream.<\/p>\n Back when I was a student pilot in the early 1970s, I flew all over the southern half of Florida.\u00a0 Somewhere in the garage, I have an old Miami sectional from 1972 that has all my training cross-countries lined out.\u00a0 On that chart\u00a0are dozens of little grass airstrips – Mom and Pop flying schools and FBOs.<\/p>\n Today, only one or two remain.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is not an exaggeration.\u00a0 Increasing insurance premiums and the threat of\u00a0frivolous lawsuits literally closed almost all of those easy access general aviation airports.\u00a0 Now the industry has forced those of us who would rather operate off grass runways onto concrete, asphalt, or some other hard surface – runways to which we would prefer not to expose our tires.<\/p>\n In these times, most pilots would not know what to do with an airplane that had to operate off a grass surface…<\/p>\n -30-<\/p>\n \u00a9 2011 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So, Reveille sounds at 0530 this morning as it always does for me.\u00a0 Only I know longer hear the bugler or the voice over the 1MC calling, “Reveille, Reveille, Reveille, all hands turn…”\u00a0 After years of hearing the calls, I … Continue reading