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aharrin1
,
MD
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Displaying 1-5 of 7
For the Love of Meigs
from aharrin1
wrote 1 year 24 weeks ago
It is just so unfortunate that people are against airports. This 'not in my backyard' business is ridiculous. When I was very young, every Friday my grandmother brought me to Suburban Airpark in Laurel, MD. I am 24 years old now, I have a Bachelors and Masters in Aerospace Engineering and a Private pilot's license. My memories of that airport and my grandmother are what sparked the love of aviation that is now so deep within me. I had the chance to visit Suburban Airpark often when I was going to college at UMD and I would ride my bike there just to hang out. Unfortunately Suburban is also facing closure as a real-estate developer purchased the land before the pilots based there had a chance. The real estate developer has left the airport in complete disrepair in an attempt to get the pilots to leave. He also convinced the FAA to come in and changed the displaced thresholds of the 2300ft runway by 825 ft in both directions. Just this year he was able to convince the local zoning commission that the airport is no longer serving a purpose and had it re-zoned so he can build 800 condos there.
It is a sad state of affairs and people just dont realize the value of airports and how much they contribute to the local economy. We as pilots need to help educate the public as best we can by holding events at our airports. Holding BBQs, open houses, young eagles, charity events, etc. can really bring a lot of business and awareness of the airports value. Many people believe that GA is for the 'rich' which is not true at all as I am living proof. I have not been given a silver platter and I have worked for everything that I have. Don't think it cant happen to your airport because when your airport does come under attack, it may be too late...
DOT: Not So Fast, LightSquared
from aharrin1
wrote 1 year 22 weeks ago
@Verneer, I agree with you 100% but if history has shown us anything, it is that the all mighty dollar is more important than human lives. The hedge fund that supplies the money for LightSquared is made up of billionares that only care about making more money. To them, the: "we've spent so much money" argument is totally valid and you better believe that they have some sort of influence within the FCC that they are able to get away with their horse $#!+. Reasonable human beings would say, "gee, GPS is vital to just about every industry that does anything relating to construction, transportation, navigation, and defense. We can't compromise even the slightest if there was even a hint that GPS could be unreliable", however, what we are seeing from the FCC is: "well, go ahead and try to build your wireless network. We'll, lets see what we can do to mitigate the damage to the GPS band. We'll, lets see what kinda filters we can develop. We'll lets perform a research study to see how bad the interference actually is..." That right there is indication that the decision makers in the FCC are having their puppet strings pulled....
Drones A Coming Crisis for GA
from aharrin1
wrote 1 year 15 weeks ago
I work in the UAV industry and I am also a private pilot. There is a ton of misinformation in this article which was clearly written to get GA pilots all riled up. First up, UAVs have been operating in the national airspace for years and most people don't even know it. Why do we operate UAVs within the national airspace? well, I'll tell you one thing, it isn't to spy on you. How can us engineers design something and field it without testing it first? Second, when we are flying a UAV, we have to alert the nearest ATC controlling agency and tell them exactly when we launch it and exactly when we recover it. During this time, we have to remain in visual contact with the UAV at ALL times. Even when the UAV is operating in 'autonomous' mode, we must not only remain in visual contact with the UAV, but we must also have a qualified UAV pilot with override controls IN HIS/HER HANDS ready to take back control for any reason. This article implies that Predators and Global Hawks are going to be tooling around the skies at 3000ft. News flash, Predators and Global Hawks have been flying around withing the NAS since their inception, and we havent had an incident yet. Maybe its because they are operating at 25,000ft and 65,000ft respectively AND there is a human pilot at the controls when over the continental US. This article, in my opinion, was written to scare us GA pilots into thinking that every time we go up in the pattern, there is going to be a swarm of UAVs for us to dodge. Tisk tisk, Flying Mag. You all should have thought about this a little before scaring half the pilot population to death. You want to know what the REAL threat to GA is?! The exorbitant costs. You should write about that.
The Evolution of the Cessna 172
from aharrin1
wrote 1 year 15 weeks ago
too bad the new ones are waaay overpriced
AOPA Comes Under the Gun
from aharrin1
wrote 33 weeks 2 days ago
I retain my membership with AOPA and renew every year. I have also donated money to them to help support their programs. I enjoy getting info from them, their flight planner is very convenient, they were helpful when I was purchasing an airplane for the first time this past year, they helped me secure cheap insurance, they helped me secure a low interest rate loan for the plane with Bank of America. These are all good things for pilots/owners.
However, I DO feel under represented by AOPA as a piston driver. I am absolutely in love with aviation. Specifically general aviation. AOPA needs to cater more to people like me (oh, BTW, we are probably the majority). I don't have a ton of money. I cant afford just about anything they put in their magazine. Flying Magazine is just as bad though..... $500,000+ airplanes.... yeah, ok, how about helping to find a way to make aviation more affordable. They (AOPA) are always saying they want to increase the pilot population and have done studies on how to make training more effective, etc, etc. You want to know the answer? Its $$$$$. If learning to fly didn't cost $7,000-$10,000 (if your lucky) and airplanes cost less, and fuel cost less, and avionics (holy crap are avionics expensive) were cheaper. More people would not only learn to fly, but more people would own airplanes. But companies like Cessna don't even care about piston drivers. You know the jigs that are used to build the 172 have been paid off decades ago and that the time it takes to build one and the materials are not even close to the $300,000 they charge for a new one. But, because it doesn't even make the bottom line of the report the CEOs get at the end of the month when they are focuses on selling Lattitudes and Longitudes they just dont care, and thats what has happened to AOPA. They are focused on the people with the money. Not people like me. If your airplane didn't cost $500,000 or more, AOPA says "wait in the back of the line".
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