On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:41:19 -0000, Dylan Smith
wrote in
:

On 2007-02-10, Mxsmanic wrote:
Europeans are already accustomed to having their lives run for them by
bureaucrats (now in several layers both domestic and international). It does
not occur to them to _resist_ things. The ones who were willing to resist
injustices and incompetence crossed the Atlantic and Pacific centuries ago.

Europeans do actually resist - as evidenced by the massive response to
the CAA's Mode S transponder proposals. However, the GA population is so
small it is effectively disenfranchised - the CAA basically responded
'well we're going to do it anyway so there'. When you are 50,000 voters
out of an electorate of 40 million, your opinion counts for nothing -
especially when the CAA is leaned on heavily by moneyed corporate
interests like the airlines - the executives of which can remove their
donations to political parties if the CAA doesn't do what they want.

In the end your only option if you don't like the CAA is to move
somewhere else (typically the US). However, most pilots like enough
_other_ things about their own country that they aren't prepared to move
over just a single issue.


It would seem there is another option, garner support from other
like-minded groups of voters:

ELECTORS GROUP OPPOSES USER FEES
(http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#194438)
Well you never know who your friends are, and the aviation
alphabet groups can add the League of Rural Voters to the growing
list of organizations opposed to the Bush administration's plans
for reorganizing the FAA. In a statement issued last week, League
President Neil Ritchie described GA as the "lifeline to rural
communities" and says the mix of user fees and tax increases
contained in the package will force many operators to ground their
light aircraft, reminding the government of just how useful that
fleet can be in times of trouble. "General aviation played a
crucial role in efforts to evacuate Hurricane Katrina survivors
and continues to play an important role in our preparedness for
future disasters," Ritchie noted. The group is even more irritated
about what the plans might do to airline service in the
hinterlands.
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#194438