Aren't YOU Mad As Hell Over The Damage Being Done To Aviation?

I have been covering the world of aviation in a number of forms for nearly 40 years (my first aviation article having been published at age 14 in a school newspaper)... and never have I seen this industry, in ALL its many wondrous permutations, take as much flak and damage as it has in recent years and months -- and its leading me to a Paddy Chayefsky moment.

Remember "Network?" The somewhat outrageous and well-written 1976 movie starring Peter Finch featured a protagonist who reaches a breaking point of passionate frustration and announces to one and all (while on Network TV) that, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

I'm kinda feeling like that... and wondering, REALLY wondering, why we're not hearing a little more of that frustration and anger from the folks who represent us in all things aviation - and indeed, from everyone in the embattled world of flight.

This is not how it was supposed to be… decades ago, I could hardly wait to jump on my bicycle, pedal ten miles down the road and haunt the environs of Lincoln Park airport… where my newspaper and gas station job money would be well and thoroughly blown on 30-60 minutes in a Cessna 150 with Arnold Kufta or Tony Farrell. In those days, the sky posed no limit at all and when not flying, I hung out at the rickety wooden airport fence (which was more decorative than useful) with a number of other kids who could never get enough out of flying and just being near airplanes. We had great dreams… test pilot, airline pilot, flights around the world, maybe even flying rocketships… and we never doubted that any and all of this was possible if we tried hard enough. I loved every second of those days… when we were young and uninformed about what the uncaring world can and will do to those who dream of great things.

That's no longer true. The airport fences are big and bad and real now… too tall to climb over and bound to get you a call to the cops if you tried. Heck, even licensed pilots have to fear the airport fence… even when your airplane is a few feet away, on the other side. The enemies of aviation have grown and become too powerful for us to ignore and while we all wonder what our collective future holds, I really don't see enough effort being made, from those to whom we entrust such things, to make me feel like we're doing the right thing… much less enough of it to make a difference.

We are at the mercy of the bureaucrats and those who have made a career out of saying NO to the simplest things. We have watched one of the greatest, freest, most American pursuits known to man become unduly restricted and nearly decimated due to ignorance, greed, misinformation, and jealousy.

The FAA looks at our industry as something to control and regulate… finding new and restrictive ways to erode our freedoms, deny our rights, and limit our dreams. And when the rules don't fit the restrictions that they want to enforce, they make up new ones… often outside of actual law/regs… and threaten those who attempt to keep them within the confines of proper behavior with all manner of penalties… often bending the truth to fit their whims.

We have a TSA that is out of control, that seeks to restrict that which it does not understand, having fully and willingly forgotten the very essence of what they were created for… to serve the American public. If you trample on freedoms, if you deny our rights, if you make America less worth living in… then what's the point of trying to serve it? The TSA is an agency with an agenda… to control, to deny, to restrict, to limit, to regulate, to look powerful and to seek more power wherever it can find it… because that's how you build more powerful bureaucracies. The TSA is becoming one of the most dangerous agencies in the history of this nation… and giving these creeps any more authority, much less allowing them to hide behind a tinker-toy badge as if they were real-live law enforcement, is an insult to everyone who has truly served this nation and what it stands for.

The CBP is another bureaucracy looking for false validation and even more power. Making the process of visiting other nations (or better yet), coming home from having done so, overtly awkward and piled high with regs, the need to jump through inumerable hoops and bizarre (often unworkable) procedures only insulates Americans from traveling the world, showing our flag, displaying our freedoms at work, and building bridges to other countries and cultures. There is no denying that they do have a job to do… but the recent ramp-up in complexity, overt bureaucracy, and restriction does nothing but prove that America has lost its way… to drift among a sea of restrictions and bizarre regulations that get in the way of true security and safety. Worse yet, the growing reports of flyers being attacked (and yes, that IS the word for it) by TSA and CBP personnel, on airport ramps, often with guns aimed at our friends and families, while they blindly impede our liberties and freedoms -- with no demonstrable need to do so (expect for playing junior commando whenever they feel like it) makes my blood boil… this is not how a nation founded by patriots should be acting towards its citizenry in the 21st century. Worse… question these goons about such actions and be prepared to find out that they will NOT respond to you because you, dear American citizen/aviator, have no right/need to know. 

God bless the… (name of once-freedom-loving nation having been forgotten in all the regs, restrictions and other fuss).

There's more… even tonight, I am working on getting more data on this weekend's FAA ramp checks of a peaceful Father's Day event in which free airplane rides were publicized on a local TV station… which prompted the FAA to come in and start (as reported) indiscriminate Ramp Checks at this public event at a private airport… which we have often been told (by the FAA, no less) is normally out of bounds for such activity. Already, those who supported this community outreach with their airplanes and pilot services are reporting that they are rethinking their future participation in such events… thereby denying aviation a chance to reach out to the public and possibly grow our ranks with a little old-fashioned aero-evangelism.

Remember our story about the FAA invasion of a charitable Alabama airlift in which FAA staffers conducted ramp checks while kids were left to swelter within airplanes grounded by their demand, until the requisite paperwork was presented? The kids in this scenario were a small group of troubled kids  facing all manner of difficulties -- handicaps and life-threatening illnesses, among them… all they wanted was a peaceful day of clowns, games, treats and an airplane ride… and what they got was a number of Feds acting under a questionable mandate and for even more questionable reasons (not the least of which is the fact that this particular FSDO has an ongoing and documented dispute with one of the leaders behind this event).  We are told that one of the children on the ramp that day, one that had to wait in the heat while the feds played power-trip, had his day spoiled by all this… just weeks before this child died. Damn it, that's just so… wrong.

And don't get me started on a government who attacks our industries, our jobs, our professions and our dreams. A government that uses misinformation and innuendo to steal away that which is uniquely American and free and great about what we love. That's NOT America… that's idiocy. And it will go on until we stop it.

There are many more tales like this… and we are desperately trying to cover them… even though the Alabama story has already resulted in threats to our livelihood (one of which seems to have been acted on… more info to follow) as well as our access to the skies by those we assume to be involved (Doncha know that they never quite identify themselves in between the deplorable language and threats?). But the big question is this, while we're covering all of this that we can… why isn't everyone? Why are the alphabet associations playing so nice with those that victimize us? Where is the outrage? Where is the mobilization? Where is the aggressive effort at all levels of government? Where is the active effort to stop the erosion of our freedoms each and every day? We (aviation, et al) are a considerable and politically powerful demographic… an industry that wields much weight in terms that the political world used to pay attention to… when they came up against aggressive and organized resistance to the constant attack on our freedoms. We need to hold our decision-makers accountable for all that they have harmed and MAKE them responsive to a mandate to undo the damage and rebuild one of the greatest aspects of the American experience… something uniquely American, I might add -- at least since 1903.

Am I wrong about the need to fight this? Am I spitting into the wind and ranting for no good reason? I may be wrong about the nature of the battles we face, but there is NO denying the change in our fortunes and the decline of aviation… just go to any nearby neighborhood airport, at least one that hasn't been turned into condos or restricted into oblivion by NIMBYs, and count the future flyers at the airport fence… if they let you get close enough to it, to do so. 

And good luck finding a single soul left with an undisturbed dream.

The future of our dreams is being stolen from us, bit by bit, day by day, reg by reg, outrage by outrage.

Why aren't organizations like EAA and AOPA (and yes, others, too) ALL over this? Why does the "World's Largest" pilot's organization seem more intent on making speeches, preaching to a diminishing choir, raising money, placating political buddies, and alienating their supporters… than in wading in, rolling up their sleeves and fighting this nonsense as aggressively as they can? This is not the time to get along, folks, it is the time to stand up, take action and be heard… and for the last six months or so, I've been singularly unimpressed with the direction of AOPA and a number of other alphabet groups.

We, as aviators and aviation professionals need to stand up and DEMAND that our organizations and association represent us far more aggressively, far more effectively and with a clear eye to reversing the destruction of all things aviation.

We need to tell them ALL one thing -- with a clear and forceful voice… that we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore.

FMI: ARE YOU MAD AS HELL??? Tell us why!, www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMBZDwf9dok&feature=related