Gene Whitt's Lawsuit

wrote:
Hello everyone on this board. Thanks your support of general aviation.
Here are some details. I am a CFI trying to offer instruction at the
Sand Springs Oklahome William Pogue Municipal Airport.

The terms of your offer need to be clarified.

If you are running advertisements to the effect that you or your
"enterprise" is to offer flight instruction to the public, then I can
see why the airport manager would get nervous since the airport is
implied as being party to it.

If you met one or more private individuals owning aircraft that want
your instructional service, then you can have a private agreement, in my
opinion, to provide him/her with instructions as long as FAA 61/91 are
adhered to.

It gets more tricky if you have an aircraft based at that field and you
offer primiary instruction in it to individuals and student pilots,
since it invariably comes to student pilots taking off solo from and
landing at that airport, when you, the instructotor must be availble,
and ther is some risk extant.

I have been
informed by Ken, the "Airport manager, Attendant" that I may not
provide CFI services. I have contacted the FAA, and a gentleman in
Austin Texas and countless peers who all side with me on the issue.
The airport attendant, Ken has provided me with several pages of
"minimum Standards," which are unreasonable to say the least. The
standards require me to rent space, build a building, a parking lot,
with bathrooms and public phones and classrooms. All of this- save
for handicap access and insurance, two plane and pavement to the
runway!!!... CLEARLY not in a CFI's budget.

This means the manager is offering the opportunity for you to set up a
formal flight school, which could be feasible, or it could be absurd
depending on your intentions and resources.

I will fight this battle with all of your support and for general
aviation.
If anyone would like to come out for a flying lesson at Sand Springs,
Oklahoma, just bring lunch money and gas money and I'll show you what
I am dealing with. My tel number is 918.271.1099 Best Regards, Homer
Woolslayer, Equinox Instruction

Sounds like you have an airplane, and have established an "enterprise".

Perhaps tere is middle ground. But the insurance companies always end
up being the spoilers in such situations since they want to reduce THEIR
risk to zero.

Good luck.

Angelo Campanella