The average person has all he needs to learn to safely and competently fly a
plane. The only ingredient lacking is desire. I know a bunch of people who
would love to learn to fly, but as soon as you mention cost the lights go
out. People handle cars-they handle boats. A plane is just one small step
beyond either of those. We, as a society, seem to have an inate fear of
heights or of falling to our deaths. Other forms of dying don't seem to
bother us as much. If that were different-people thought the risk of flying
was the same as the risk of other forms of transportation-we could have a
much different world. Like that AOPA ad-A mile of road gets you a mile. A
mile of runway gets you anywhere.

We have the technology and ability to make flying as routine as driving a
car. Safer even. But falling out of the sky is a less appetizing way to die
than running into a brick wall. People in general, tend to be landlubbers.
If that were not true we would probably be a flying society right now.

mike regish

"Bob Martin" wrote in message
...
We have a 3d volume to use up there. With TCAS and HITS I don't think it
would be that big a deal. With more airports the congestion would be
spread
out. We have the technology. We just don't have enough people willing to
implement it. And we're too unable to accept responsibility for our
actions,
always wanting to blame and sue somebody else so it will probably never
happen. But it's certainly possible. Look at all the traffic we fit on
all
our little 2 dimensional ribbons of roadway. You think we couldn't
handle
that in the skies?

I just don't like the thought of always-controlled flight... well, that
and
I don't trust a computer to do all the flying and navigation.

Basically, driving a car is within the capabilities of most people (well,
supposedly, anyways). Flying isn't... the average person doesn't have the
attention span, coordination, or judgement to fly an aircraft.