Reader Mail

DC-9 Hard Landing The aircraft in the video was Ship 909 (NewsWire, Feb. 9). I worked at Douglas Aircraft back then and remember watching this video right after the event. Ship 909 was repaired but never sold to a customer. 909 ended up being used for a number of flight test purposes, one of which […]

Who Are the Terrorists? While it is very unlikely that a Jewish immigrant from Israel would be a member of al Qaeda (NewsWire, Feb. 2), it is not impossible for such a person to be a terrorist.Lest we all forget, prior to 9/11 the single most deadly act of terrorism in the continental U.S. was […]

Private in 40 Hours Excellent article (Training, Jan. 21). I have never read such a down-to-earth (no pun intended) article about learning to fly. Learning to fly is on my “to do” list; now I have a set of benchmarks and a host of practical suggestions to make it happen.Thanks.Leon Weeks I received my private […]

FSS Privatization After reading several articles on the subject of ATC privatization, I read AVweb’s coverage of the government plan to privatize FSS (NewsWire, Jan. 22). This has the appearance of a back-door entry to ATC privatization. The move to turn ATC over to private entities has met some pretty stiff resistance from the aviation […]

FSS Privatization There have been previous letters regarding privatization (AVmail, Dec. 29). For the record, the FAA is already in the process of privatizing the Flight Service Option. Bids are available for interested parties and a selection is to be made in March 2005.The Administration is going full speed to privatize the FSS option. Doing […]

Air Tour NPRM Part 135 certification for rides, eh? (NewsWire, Jan. 5.) What’s next — same for sky-diver and glider-tow pilots? After all, sky-divers pay for their ride, and so do those who get sailplanes hauled aloft. I’m afraid to pose this question to the FAA, because they just might think it’s a good idea.Bob […]

Security or Insecurity? Anyone besides me notice that when the federal government declares threat condition orange (NewsWire, Jan. 1)the only security steps taken are to protect the federal government, and they let the general public fend for themselves? Federal employees get more protection (or paid days off). Federal controlled airports “increase” screening measures (how come […]

Security Level Orange I for one am irritated with the tone in which “Welcome Back to Level Orange” was written (NewsWire, Dec. 22). Let us not forget that the security restrictions are a direct result of people who would rather wipe all Americans off the face of the planet because we are the only force […]

First Flight Celebration Could Be Better My wife and I had the opportunity to attend the First Flight celebration last weekend, sponsored by the National Parks Service (Newswire, Dec. 15). The event was unfortunately woefully lacking in displays and vendors. The federal government was the major participant, represented by the Air Force, NASA, FAA, Coast […]

Naples Airport Regarding an effort to close the Naples Airport and force all users to outlying fields, AVweb wrote (Newswire, Dec. 8): “It means they get in their limousines and have one more martini,” [city council candidate William Willkomm III] said. This is yet another example of the kind of ignorance that endangers all our […]