WASHINGTON, D.C. — Numerous government regulations, slow response times for decisions, and frequent inconsistencies by the FAA are harming small general aviation businesses. That’s the message the House Small Business Committee heard last week from a number of witnesses who own their own businesses, as well as officials from the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) […]
Opinion
A distraction for the species
A debate of epic proportions took place last week. Streamed live via the Internet, the audience was massive and motivated. Each debater was bolstered by their respective armies of supporters and intellectual warriors. The concepts being addressed were critical to all humanity — or so the hype would have us believe. Evolution or creationism, which […]
Keeping the skies safe as UAV testing begins
By DAVE HOOK. I’m not against UAVs. What I am against is fencing off parts of the sky from the flyers who were here first in the interest of UAV testing. I’m also not for rolling the dice with the lives of fellow aviators and their passengers. A central challenge for integrating UAVs into the […]
Tips for flying the media and other influencers
We often encourage activist pilots and airport advocates to engage the media and community leaders, including by flying them. For two-plus decades, that was part of my job. I had a few ironclad principles for this. A potential disaster with Ralph Nader’s consumer organization dramatized why! This month’s passing of Nader’s long-time publisher and collaborator […]
FAA reports on drones and NextGen
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FAA has made some strides in moving towards modernization, but is behind schedule and not fully geared for some other important issues, a Congressional committee discovered Wednesday, Feb. 5, in a hearing designed to check on the FAA’s progress in the two years since reauthorization. Rep. Frank LeBiondo, chairman of the […]
The elephant in the room
Superbowl Sunday was anything but super. Not only was the game a huge disappointment to anyone who enjoys competitive sports, but earlier in the day news broke that Philip Seymour Hoffman had been found dead in his Greenwich Village apartment. Aviation shares something in common with sports and show business, whether we choose to believe […]
Moving on…
I’ve always wanted to write, and when I graduated from high school, I had every intention of attending my local college and pursuing the possibilities. But on orientation day, for whatever reason, I didn’t go. Instead, I applied for a job and started working with a young man who would give me my first airplane […]
Searching for that last straw
Long, long ago I was fortunate enough to hear a joke that’s stuck with me for all these years. What I hadn’t anticipated was that a single joke would help inform my political sensibilities forevermore. That’s right, a joke has become a guiding light to my method of dealing with others. Emo Philips, the comedian, […]
UAVs and sliced airspace
By DAVE HOOK. The time is approaching when manned aircraft will be sharing the skies with unmanned drones on a regular basis in the United States. Late last year the FAA named six UAV operators to test unmanned aircraft flying in the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS). The testing sites and ranges have not been […]