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In article ,
"Roger Long" om wrote: I picked up a 1989 book in our local swap shop called "Unfriendly Skies" by Captain "X" and Reynolds Dodson. It's an "as told to" about the deregulated airline industry and a pretty good read. It sounds like not much has changed in the last 10 years except the airlines are losing even more money. Some good almost crashing stories by the Captain. Boy, does this guy hate AOPA and little airplanes! He makes a big deal about the then recent fight over the creation of Class B and C airspace and how AOPA fought the transponder requirement. I'm a little shocked to hear this. I like crossing that invisible magenta line and knowing the everyone I meet for the next few miles will probably have one and be talking. Has anybody else read this book? -- Roger Long I am a veteran of that battle -- its intent was to put everybody under "positive control," which the system could never handle. At that time, there was a coterie of seven who ruled FAA -- two of whom were Keith Potts, then head of ATC and Herman McClure, then head of FAA Western Div. They had no use for the Little Guy, and wanted to push us off the map. Eventually, we formed a petition to reassign Potts -- McCluire was also reassigned. |
#2
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![]() Orval Fairbairn wrote: At that time, there was a coterie of seven who ruled FAA -- two of whom were Keith Potts, then head of ATC and Herman McClure, then head of FAA Western Div. They had no use for the Little Guy, and wanted to push us off the map. It would not surprise me at all to find that this book is a collection of anecdotes assembled by one of these guys masquerading as a pilot. George Patterson Battle, n; A method of untying with the teeth a political knot that would not yield to the tongue. |
#3
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My Hat's off to you Orval, if you fought the "keep little airplanes
away from the airports their fuel taxes paid for" war. IIRC, airlines in the past were nearly exempt from fuel tax, so most inter-city airports were largely funded and built by General Aviation. But airline management with the FAA nodding along, wanted to ban GA entirely from those airports. I remember that AOPA was fighting against the expense aspect that a transponder and later mode C would impact on its members. (remember Roger, traffic was not as dense in many areas as it is today, the need for ATC seperation was not as obvious as it is today.) The Deregulation act of 78', however, has turned the Orient Express of the skies into Amtrack. The golden years are over as long as long as gov looks at aviation purely as a money-getter. And that's a foolish outlook when you consider that all of aviation (including aerospace) has only returned 2% on investment, historically. You wouldn't put your money in a S&L with that kind of dismal return. This country's big enough to build new reliever airports everywhere. But every time we put our hard-earned dollars into an aviation trust fund or Soc Sec system it just gets raided by the political flakes. Scotty, please beam me back to the thirties... pacplyer - out Orval Fairbairn wrote in message ... In article , "Roger Long" om wrote: I picked up a 1989 book in our local swap shop called "Unfriendly Skies" by Captain "X" and Reynolds Dodson. It's an "as told to" about the deregulated airline industry and a pretty good read. It sounds like not much has changed in the last 10 years except the airlines are losing even more money. Some good almost crashing stories by the Captain. Boy, does this guy hate AOPA and little airplanes! He makes a big deal about the then recent fight over the creation of Class B and C airspace and how AOPA fought the transponder requirement. I'm a little shocked to hear this. I like crossing that invisible magenta line and knowing the everyone I meet for the next few miles will probably have one and be talking. Has anybody else read this book? -- Roger Long I am a veteran of that battle -- its intent was to put everybody under "positive control," which the system could never handle. At that time, there was a coterie of seven who ruled FAA -- two of whom were Keith Potts, then head of ATC and Herman McClure, then head of FAA Western Div. They had no use for the Little Guy, and wanted to push us off the map. Eventually, we formed a petition to reassign Potts -- McCluire was also reassigned. |
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#5
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![]() "Orval Fairbairn" wrote in message news ![]() My favorite was then AA CEO Bob Crandall's articles in several magazines (Fortune comes to mind) stating that "nearly 70% of our near-misses are with private planes." Ed WIschmeyer and I wrote letters to Fortune telling them that what Crandall REALLY said is that "more than 30% of our near-misses are with other airliners, flown by multi-pilot, professional crews under positive control" and that, since AA had 10% of the airliner fleet, more than 3% of their near-misses were probably with their own planes. In addition, since GA makes up more than 90% of the total number of planes, AA was having "more than 30% of their near-misses" with less than 10% of the planes out there. That part was never published, but Crandall shortly thereafter contacted AOPA t work on a "partnership." I hope that some lower-level AA exec got his wings clipped on that one! Probably -- I'd bet Crandall didn't accept blame for it. When was the last time (if ever) you heard a corporate exec take responsibility for some screw-up? Anyone? You don't get to the top of the heap in corporate America by falling on your sword; you get there by shoving other people onto theirs, or impaling them on yours. |
#6
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![]() "Orval Fairbairn" wrote in message news ![]() My favorite was then AA CEO Bob Crandall's articles in several magazines (Fortune comes to mind) stating that "nearly 70% of our near-misses are with private planes." Ed WIschmeyer and I wrote letters to Fortune telling them that what Crandall REALLY said is that "more than 30% of our near-misses are with other airliners, flown by multi-pilot, professional crews under positive control" and that, since AA had 10% of the airliner fleet, more than 3% of their near-misses were probably with their own planes. In addition, since GA makes up more than 90% of the total number of planes, AA was having "more than 30% of their near-misses" with less than 10% of the planes out there. That part was never published, but Crandall shortly thereafter contacted AOPA t work on a "partnership." I hope that some lower-level AA exec got his wings clipped on that one! Probably -- I'd bet Crandall didn't accept blame for it. When was the last time (if ever) you heard a corporate exec take responsibility for some screw-up? Anyone? You don't get to the top of the heap in corporate America by falling on your sword; you get there by shoving other people onto theirs, or impaling them on yours. |
#7
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In article
, Orval Fairbairn wrote: I am a veteran of that battle -- its intent was to put everybody under "positive control," which the system could never handle. At that time, there was a coterie of seven who ruled FAA -- two of whom were Keith Potts, then head of ATC and Herman McClure, then head of FAA Western Div. They had no use for the Little Guy, and wanted to push us off the map. Eventually, we formed a petition to reassign Potts -- McCluire was also reassigned. Sorry about the mixup -- but it was Homer McClure -- not Herman McClure. An old friend who used to work at Douglas told me a Homer story about "Dr. McClure" coming in for a factory visit. Someone asked him if he was an MD or a dentist, to which Homer replied; "PhD." The Douglas people said "Oh, then you're Homer -- we only refer to MDs and dentists as "Dr" around here." |
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