"M" == Michael writes:
M On Jun 13, 6:04*pm, Le Chaud Lapin
M wrote:
So basically what you're saying is that there are some people
in FAA who want something like a PAV, but when it comes times
for approval, "Ralph" in FSDO/MIDO puts up a brick wall for
whatever reason.

I've lost track of the original post, but the above summary of the OP,
if correct, shows a basic lack of understanding of bureacracies. In
fact innovating thinking happens at the lower leves, but the managers
try squelch it.

M Imagine what it would have been like if the federal government
M had decided to regulate driving on a national level just a
M couple of decades after the first cars appeared on the US
M roads. Imagine if every design change needed federal approval.
M There never would have been a Henry Ford.

Imagine if the auto industry dragged its collective feet and resisted
all attempts to improve safety by the Feds. Hey, you don't have to
imagine that. Only because of Ralph Nader do we have the safety
features of today (seat belts[!], air bags, and the like). But most
other post-industrial countries enjoy even better safety features
because they don't let their corporations write regulations.

M Regulating aviation made it safer - at first. It's just that
M the regulations stifled progress.

At first? Still is. True it stifled progress, the pendulum has swung
too far in that direction. But how much of that is due to liability
fears, not the FAA.

--
Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is
the only animal that has the True Religion, several of them. He is the
only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if
his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in
trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and
heaven.
~ Mark Twain