Submitted by N3922B on October 03, 2012.
@Stan3818 - you are 100% right on this one.
It horrifies me that 1/3 of the people read your post and concluded it wasn't a good comment. They must be terrific at ADM.
Inhofe is a black eye to aviation. There may be some good that came of the pilot's bill of rights.
You're right, the media should not brush over his abysmal flying and attitude towards safety.
The reason Senator Inhofe was pursued by the FAA was not because of an unfortunate misunderstanding. It was because he displayed an appalling lack of sound judgment and reckless flying behavior in landing on a clearly marked, closed runway with vehicles and personnel scattered on it - rather than perform a go-around. He was rude to airport officials and stated, among other things, he was supposed to have "unlimited airspace." To this day, he remains unapologetic about the hazard to himself, his passengers, and the airport workers created by this reckless action. Instead, he chose to "blame the system" to deflect attention from his own poor airmanship.
It truly boggles my mind that prominent aviation organizations and magazines (save for a few lonely exceptions) have chosen to cheer Senator Inhofe and kiss his ring. They explain this away as a circumstance where the ends (The Pilot's Bill of Rights) justify the means. I simply do not agree. If magazines like 'Flying' and our alphabet groups want to have credibility when they speak about GA safety, then they ought to speak the truth about the Senator's selfish and unsafe flying conduct.