Everskyward
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Everskyward
Did anyone else go? I guess I should have posted this before the fact but I forgot it was happening until this morning.
The event featured Craig Fuller from AOPA and Mark Udall one of the the US Senators from Colorado. I wasn't sure what to expect but I think it was designed to inform the Senator about GA and the concerns of people in this area. Craig Fuller spoke for a while mostly about what AOPA has been doing recently and also about the John and Martha King incident. Then Senator Udall spoke a little bit about himself. Although he is not a pilot, both his parents were. After that they took questions. The questions were pretty much what I expected although this was not a fired-up crowd by any means. Someone made the comment that government usually overreacts to situations. He gave the example of the new regulation to require 1500 hours for Part 121 pilots after the Buffalo crash. Other people were concerned about the prospect of 100LL going away. There were the standard comments about the TSA with a emphasis on the new badging requirements. Then there was the guy who thought prop locks should be required for airplanes. I guess there are all kinds at these meetings.![Confused :confused: :confused:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Mostly Senator Udall listened. I don't think he has that much knowledge of GA although he has certainly been exposed to it through his parents. He also said that he didn't have any staffers who were pilots. He concluded by saying that we need to balance risk with regulations and that risk is a part of life and we can't eliminate it. He tried to draw the parallel between risk in flying and in mountain climbing which is something that he enjoys, having climbed all the Fourteeners in Colorado (there are something like 50 of them).
I got an e-mail about this event and I went mostly out of curiosity. I didn't have any questions or issues I wanted to discuss but I could hear Scott in the back of my head telling me to get involved.![Eek! :eek: :eek:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
The event featured Craig Fuller from AOPA and Mark Udall one of the the US Senators from Colorado. I wasn't sure what to expect but I think it was designed to inform the Senator about GA and the concerns of people in this area. Craig Fuller spoke for a while mostly about what AOPA has been doing recently and also about the John and Martha King incident. Then Senator Udall spoke a little bit about himself. Although he is not a pilot, both his parents were. After that they took questions. The questions were pretty much what I expected although this was not a fired-up crowd by any means. Someone made the comment that government usually overreacts to situations. He gave the example of the new regulation to require 1500 hours for Part 121 pilots after the Buffalo crash. Other people were concerned about the prospect of 100LL going away. There were the standard comments about the TSA with a emphasis on the new badging requirements. Then there was the guy who thought prop locks should be required for airplanes. I guess there are all kinds at these meetings.
Mostly Senator Udall listened. I don't think he has that much knowledge of GA although he has certainly been exposed to it through his parents. He also said that he didn't have any staffers who were pilots. He concluded by saying that we need to balance risk with regulations and that risk is a part of life and we can't eliminate it. He tried to draw the parallel between risk in flying and in mountain climbing which is something that he enjoys, having climbed all the Fourteeners in Colorado (there are something like 50 of them).
I got an e-mail about this event and I went mostly out of curiosity. I didn't have any questions or issues I wanted to discuss but I could hear Scott in the back of my head telling me to get involved.