This is a tangent from @Jim K 's thread about his most recent maintenance woes. First, Jim, thank you, bless you, and may you find the departure end of the runway soon.
But reading his experience -- which I recommended that he document at book-length under the title I've given this thread -- has given me cause to think about my own view on how to expand general aviation, indeed WHETHER we should be trying to expand GenAv.
I've always taken umbrage at the over-regulation of aviation; that our government is the obstacle; that if there were a "Federal Automobile Administration" at the time of Carl Benz, we'd currently have not the 230 million licensed drivers in the US that we currently do, but much closer to 700k which is the total number of US pilots, civilian -- including student, private and commercial, plus military.
Maybe I'm wrong about all that. Maybe it's a hidden blessing. If his experience is the way the system will run -- mislabeled parts, glaring material defects -- there'd be planes falling out of the sky like raindrops. Are the people involved so careless because 'Ehhh, it's just a bunch of uber-wealthy hobbyists'; and 'that set screw/gasket is going to rot on a shelf before it gets used; who cares?' Would there be more competence and accountability if there were a larger customer base, or would it just be more of the same?
But reading his experience -- which I recommended that he document at book-length under the title I've given this thread -- has given me cause to think about my own view on how to expand general aviation, indeed WHETHER we should be trying to expand GenAv.
I've always taken umbrage at the over-regulation of aviation; that our government is the obstacle; that if there were a "Federal Automobile Administration" at the time of Carl Benz, we'd currently have not the 230 million licensed drivers in the US that we currently do, but much closer to 700k which is the total number of US pilots, civilian -- including student, private and commercial, plus military.
Maybe I'm wrong about all that. Maybe it's a hidden blessing. If his experience is the way the system will run -- mislabeled parts, glaring material defects -- there'd be planes falling out of the sky like raindrops. Are the people involved so careless because 'Ehhh, it's just a bunch of uber-wealthy hobbyists'; and 'that set screw/gasket is going to rot on a shelf before it gets used; who cares?' Would there be more competence and accountability if there were a larger customer base, or would it just be more of the same?
