Mxsmanic wrote:
Judah writes:

But what if the weather is bad or there is low visibility?

I walk IFR.

Just because it doesn't present value for you doesn't mean it has no value.
Evidence would suggest that GA presents value to some number of people in the
world, because there are many people, both pilots and otherwise, that use
General Aviation as a form of transportation. If there is no value in it,
they wouldn't use it.

I think it more likely that many private pilots use the pretext of
transportation as an excuse to fly. Not that there's any harm in
that, but they should just admit it and not try to pretend that
aircraft are actually practical transportation for general purposes.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

Self deception is an integral part of the GA game. They have an
organization, the AOPA, that puts out complete propaganda about the
utility of GA for travel, as well as how simple it is to fly. Look at
the GA Serving America Website. It is replete with nonsense about the
utility of VFR GA for transportation. It really is quite humourous.

Rather than focusing on improving pilots' skills (though they devote
much of their efforts to this), the AOPA strays into political matters
such as whether taxpayers should keep providing subsidies to
recreational pilots. It also successfully lobbies the FAA (which it
has huge influence over) to create new categories of licenses, the
weakest of which (Sport Pilot) requires NO MEDICAL WHATSOEVER. It
constantly tries to get medical rules loosened, so that some geezer on
his last gasp still has the legal right to fly 1000 feet over private
properties. In short, it is a very nefarious special interest lobby
that has contempt for all but its pilot members, who it refers to as
the "elite". Reading a few entries on the NTSB GA crash website puts
the notion of private pilots being elite to rest. As you know, there
are quite a few boobs flying around. Some of the pilots themselves
admit to this.