On Sat, 16 Apr 2005 13:09:51 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote in z888e.19937$GJ.13008@attbi_s71::

The "failed pilots" we should be concerned about are the ones who fail
because they are so intimidated by the process that they never even take
the
test.

I would prefer not to share the sky with those individuals, thanks.

That's just crap.

It's difficult to argue with sagacious logic such as that. :-)

Walk into your airport today, Larry, with the eyes of a newbie. Try to
imagine knowing NOTHING about flying, and trying to get your foot in the
door. Imagine trying to know Step One to learning to fly, just by standing
in your airport terminal building.

The terminal building at the airport from which I fly is strictly for
airline passengers; it has nothing to do with flight instruction.

If someone is passionate enough about flight, they find the way to a
certificate. If they are not passionate enough about flight or
intelligent enough to look for a flight school in the Yellow Pages, or
find the flight instruction too intimidating, they probably belong on
the ground.

It's intimidating as hell, even at most uncontrolled fields. At a Class C
airport, you might as well be trying to break into Area 51.

I have no idea what makes you say that. It certainly hasn't been my
experience. What do you find so intimidating?

In fact, it's so intimidating that people don't even consider the fact that
they MIGHT be able to fly, let alone wonder who to speak with about it.
It's a terrible situation.

You'd have to provide some specific personal experiences that bolster
that argument before I'd buy it. Otherwise it smacks of a straw man
argument to me.

Without a mentor, most new pilots never get started.

I believe it's safe to assume that _significantly_ less than 50% of
currently certificated airmen were mentored. Certainly, I had no
mentor other than my CFI. Where do you get these ideas?

We've made airports so inaccessible that flying has become like some sort of
priesthood, where you must be inducted into it by the Elders.

Commencing flight instruction is a matter of telephoning a flight
school, and making an appointment for an introductory flight. How
would you make it simpler?

While flight may be a "religious" experience, it certainly has nothing
to with metaphysics nor voodoo cults. Flight is all about physics,
mathematics, responsibility, judgment, and three dimensional reality,
not irrationality.

We're not Jedi Knights.

Well, I happy to hear we got that cleared up. :-)

While I love the thought that what I do is special,
and that I've got knowledge that very few others have, we've simply got to
get past this ego thing if general aviation is to survive.

General Aviation will survive despite what is done by you and me or
the government. You can't keep a good airman down. :-)