Reader Mail

General Aviation Definition A letter last week decried the broad definition of General Aviation (AVmail, Oct. 31).Any group larger than one will have compromises (ask any married couple). However, the larger and more unified the voice, the greater its strength. For example, I recently spoke to an official from the U.S. Forestry Service, and he […]

Fuel Prices After the FBO at my base airport raised their prices by more than a $1/gallon overnight, I started asking around to see what had caused it. The answer turned out to be that they were simply matching the price of the FBO across the field, not simply covering cost increases. The trickle-down results […]

Fathers Day TFR Reading Ed Chromczaks response (AVmail Oct. 24) to Bill Hayes’ article Fathers Day TFR prompted me to seek out and read the original article.There was a statement in that original article that caught my attention. Bill said that the FSS disclaimer towards the presence of TFRs was intended only to “… help […]

FedEx Crash I am a resident of Charlottetown and have known Nancy Chase Allen for about two years (NewsWire, Oct. 10). I have seen this pilot in action and she was a pilot and one half. This lady always spends about one hour checking the aircraft inside and out before she starts on a flight […]

Sport Pilot Assessed I remember the President of the U.S. Ultralight Association asking for AOPA members to call AOPA to find out where they stood on Sport Pilot. I did. They weren’t very interested. They told me they wouldn’t interfere with what “we” were doing. I found the general tone of the inquiry a bit […]

Avgas Prices Your Question of the Week (QOTW, Sep. 21) regarding how high avgas prices need to go before I give up flying leaves one important point out: the cost of other modes of transportation.If auto gas goes to $11 and avgas $12, it still may be cost-effective to fly rather than drive. Similarly, if […]

Retired Airline Pilot Pay Curiously missing from your September 19 NewsWire regarding retired pilots’ pay reduction was the retired pilots of US Airways. Those who retired prior to March 30, 2003, have had their pensions adjusted and re-adjusted; some over age 70 actually got raises. Those of us who took the Early Retirement Incentive Plan […]

But It Could Be Worse (Avgas Prices) Are we living in a world of lunacy? I’m reading the article published in this week’s AVflash regarding the high price of avgas with the writer telling us it is not such a bad thing that our price of aviation fuel is actually an 11% overall increase in […]

MIV AFSS Offline On Sep. 2, there was a fatal crash near Teterboro, N.J. (NewsWire, Sep. 8). As of the Sep. 3, the FAA still has no plans on getting Millville, N.J., Automated Flight Service Station (AFSS) up and running. They seem to be ignoring the problem and hoping it will go away when Lockheed […]

The Right to Flight I heartily applaud your editorial, “The Right to Flight” (ATIS, Aug. 24). Under Bush, the administration has gone way too far. They are using 9/11 as an excuse to curtail (and possibly eliminate) the freedoms of the average American. Spreading out from the U.S., a sludge-like ripple effect of limitations to […]