From: utzoo!decvax!cca!csin!cjh@CCA-UNIX@sri-unix
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Title: Re: re WSJ articles
Article-I.D.: sri-unix.2498
Posted: Fri Aug  6 08:21:32 1982
Received: Sun Aug  8 08:19:39 1982

In response to your message of Fri Aug  6 02:14:01 1982:

   Sorry; I have a pretty substantial experience of pilots, albeit somewhat
dated (mid 70's---do you really think that pilots have changed substantially
in that period? My contacts and the literature suggest that they haven't,
which is one of the reasons I dropped various subscriptions). Half of the
problem, admittedly, may be not that the bulk of pilots are inconsiderate about
their own actions but that they commonly are reluctant to lambaste the
arguably fewer careless ones (cf. the "ragged individualism" I mentioned
earlier); the action a few years ago against the proposal to require large
underwing numbers on light planes (and pushing to allow ridiculously tiny
numbers on the sides) is an example of this.
   But this is secondary to the arguments about the original article, the
thrust of which was that private pilots are falling out of the sky in
substantial numbers (and causing a fair amount of trouble for the rest of
the world when they do?). I still haven't seen anything to refute this.
After all, the article didn't even touch the explosive light-plane issues,
such as user fees.