>I usually spend the next hour telling them how 43 people get killed
>in a bus crash in Canada yet the interrogator sees no danger in
>meeting a bus head-on on a narrow, winding road but sees great danger
>in flying. Asked my 100+ criminal law students yesterday: "How many
>of you have heard of the Hindenburg?" Surprising, *all* of them not
>only raised their hands, but many of them could tell me that 36
>people died in the crash of the Hindenburg.
>
Sure . . . and it isn't JUST media coverage. We do it to ourselves
consistently. AIRSHOWS . . . geeze I wish we'd just quit doing
them. You get a bizillion people to pay good money to get in
and watch pilots do absolutely crazy things in the sky, trail
lots of smoke and make lots of noise. Certainly some in the crowd
are quietly wishing to witness a real munch of some kind . . . .
Then all of those folk go home totally oblivious of the fact
that only .1% of the "little" airplanes do that and the pilots
are quite professional. But when they drive by a grass strip
with a few raggy airplanes tied down, the image of their last
airshow visit pops to mind.
There's a growing movement in this part of the country to REVISE
our fly-in agendas. I attended three this summer that were technical
support fly-ins only. No open-to-the-public paid admissions to come
watch any sort of "show". The public was sure invited (along with
their kids for Young Eagles rides) and they might have to pay to
attend the forums but the whole event was pure airplane business.
With by NOT inviting EAA, we avoided the booths with preserved
aligator heads and Christmas tree decorations, along with rocket-powered
Peterbuilts. By not inviting DareDevil Joe, we avoided the FAA.
All-in-all a quiet, fun, informative weekend that probably returns
more on investment to promote amateur-built aviation than anything
else we could do. Watch our website for these events to show up
again, and I hope many others with the similar goals.
Bob . . .
AeroElectric Connection
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(o o)
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