Comments

Paraphrasing the song, Aviation got 99 problems, but Obama ain't one. Politics has less to do with the decline of aviation than our corporate culture does. Wall Street wants bigger returns on investment and has no qualms shutting down a US factory and moving their jobs to China if it means a fatter bonus check. Finance, Insurance, Lawyers and the like gorge themselves on the blood of hardworking, hard thinking America, stifling growth and creativity, while contributing no value to society Case in point: A new basic Cessna runs $300k and up. What do you get? An aircooled engine, magnetos, mixture controls, etc. Honestly? How are we still paying up the nose for archaic technology that pre-dates my parents, while a $25k Hyundai has uber-fadec liquid cooled 100k mile trouble-free operation. I can build an RV-10 for half the cost of a 172 and end up with a plane that just blows it away in performance. When did custom-made become cheaper than mass-production? Henry Ford is turning over in his grave. Obama just thinks jet operators need to pay their own way, not get welfare tax-breaks that the rest of America pays for. Please keep politics out of this publication unless there is a compelling reason to do so. You are only tarnishing the stellar objective reputation of Flyingmag.

Holly Springs has several highways to the north, as well as farmland and pastures all around, especially to the south. The runway is oriented N to S. This sort of crash makes you wonder if the pilot would have been better off without using the chute. He is in critical condition after deploying the BRS below recommended altitude, and I just wonder if, using the roadway/pasture options easily available from 300' at this particular location, he wouldn't have been better off trying an off-airport landing rather than deploy a chute that did not have time to slow his descent and do its job.