StRaNgEdAyS
Well-Known Member
A little feedback for a letter please
Hey there all, It's a bit long, but I'd like a little feedback on an open letter to the Oz Public I'll send to the pollies and try to get published in our major newspapers.
It's a first draft, and will likely need some refinement and/or expansion.
Hey there all, It's a bit long, but I'd like a little feedback on an open letter to the Oz Public I'll send to the pollies and try to get published in our major newspapers.
It's a first draft, and will likely need some refinement and/or expansion.
Dear Australia
So it's a brand new year, and while we are celebrating spare a thought for one of the greatest pieces of our heritage that is under attack. I refer to General Aviation, what many of you just think of as light aircraft. The reasons for this are wide and varied, but I'll go through a few of the biggies.
General Aviation in Australia is in grave danger of being sold out by high fees, taxes and costs.
Now it's been a long held myth that pilots and aircraft owners are among the wealthy elite of our society, and such an idea is far from the truth. A lot of Professional Pilots are more than likely to be existing at or below the poverty line simply to be doing the thing they love so much. Did you know that it is not unheard of for pilots to work for $50 a DAY to build the hours they need for those oft thought as lucrative Regional Passenger Transport jobs? Did you know that the servicing of some certified light aircraft can cost as much as it would to BUY a small car these days? I'm not even going to touch the subject of fuel prices, I can be pretty sure you all feel the pinch on that regard.
General Aviation is in grave danger of being sold out by non-flying airfield owners, corporations, City and Shire Councils to real estate developers for what is perceived as a profit.
This is almost beyond comprehension. While many homeowners find the buzzing drone of light aircraft an annoyance, how many of you as kids used to rush outside and look up trying to find it, how long has it been since flight held no magic for you? Much of the general population feel that air travel can be handled by the large RPT companies and the need for local airstrips is diminishing. I ask them to consider things like the Air Ambulance and other emergency services who without local air service facilities would be a much longer time coming. There are other losses to consider, like the prospects of anyone in these areas learning to fly is fairly directly tied to the availability of services, instructional training costs enough already, if we compound that by forcing the next generation of rural pilots to travel hundreds of kilometres to undergo that training how many will consider Aviation as a viable career choice or hobby then? While the promise of a nice fat profit from selling the land off to developers sounds enticing, think of the greater cost in the future.
General Aviation is in grave danger of being sold out by the Government and you the Australian Public.
Recently since groups of PASSENGERS took control of some HEAVY JET aircraft with rudimentary bladed weapons the world has been in the grips of Aviation phobia. I just want to say this.
NO TERRORIST ACT HAS EVER BEEN COMMITTED USING A LIGHT AIRCRAFT. That statistic is not likely to change.
It may come as a surprise to you all but believe it or not most General Aviation pilots are pretty good when it comes to the security of their aircraft. The odds of anyone using a light aircraft to commit a terrorist act are insurmountably high and the chances that someone who has invested no small sum of money into their training and/or their aircraft is not likely to be cause deliberate damage to anything, yet we are lumbered with excessive and expensive security measures which in the cold light of day will do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to prevent the situation they so erroneously fear anyway. The chances of the Public or Property coming under a much more effective and devastating attack from an ordinary passenger vehicle are so incredibly high when compared to that of an airborne attack if it wasn't such a serious matter it would be laughable. I wonder how the public would react if the government decided to slap the same ridiculous security controls on the use of everyday passenger vehicles? The backlash would be so severe I wonder if they'd notice the walls flashing past they'd be out so fast. It is a sad fact that the collective of Australia's General Aviation pilots lack the political pulling power to put up serious opposition to anything the government decides to do to us. The real story there is one of cost recovery and General Aviation is just another casualty of cost cutting. Australian Government Departments are slowly being roped into a practice of 100% cost recovery for the services they provide. Gone are the days where we can rely on government funded safety and security. If they called it what it is, maybe it would not look as attractive to the legislators, but since they dressed it up as securing the nation against terrorism, no matter how ineffective it actually is, it seemed like a great idea so people jumped for it. The scary thing is, since they got away with doing it to us, how long do you think it will be before they start doing it to you?
