From: Mike Borgelt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
In practice the FAA regulates gliding with a very light hand.
Mike, your annual Christmas messages usually contain some errors but I'll
just mention one. There is no GFA equivalent of a posse of FAA inspectors
ramp checking a complete competiton entry AS THEY SAT ON THE GRID!
Yes, I know they've now said they won't do it again unless they think they
ought to. But it was certainly a real show of strength and it certainly
helps keep them all in line. As the French say "Pour encourager les
autres".
Light hand? Bloody likely!
Interestingly the FAA just doesn't seem to be the object of much hate or
derision amongst US soaring pilots unlike CASA/GFA here.
My own observation is that there is much more FEAR in the USA which pretty
well stifles public derision and makes hate keep its mouth shut. For all
its faults, GFA is fundamentally benign. The FAA, like all US Federal
bureaucracies is legalistic, rulebound, bureaucratic and rarely benign.
As an example I'd quote the recent abject vote of thanks on r.a.s. to the
FAA for taking a reasonable attitude in PERHAPS trying to undo an AD put out
by the FAA (itself!) in early December which set a maximum life of 3000
hours on Pegase gliders effective January 6 2006! This AD effectively
grounded most of the Pegase gliders in the US next year and seriously
devalued the rest. I think that was 51 gliders. There was some serious
chagrin expressed by a number of owners but nobody called the FAA names or
any of the things you'd say about the GFA or CASA if your Ventus was
grounded suddenly in the same way. Nobody seriously thought they had any
chance of challenging the FAA guy who put out the AD. The process had
finished, the FAA had spoken AND THAT WAS THE END OF IT. NO COMEBACK! And
certainly... NO CRITICISM! They were pathetically grateful that the FAA guy
later deigned to say something and over the moon when he said he hoped he
would be able to rescind it - but no guarantees. It smacked to me of fear.
Light hand? Get real!
Finally, correct me if I'm wrong but I understand that you fly your glider
as an endorsement on your PPL and that that choice is open to all who wish
to follow that path and can get a launch. Why do you rail against the GFA
which you are not a part of and are in no way harrassed by? Your previous
email made it sound as if that was something that was completely unavailable
but you know it's not.
I'm sure you don't mean to be but I thought it could be seen as misleading.
I guess it's just accidental.
Merry Christmas,
Graeme Cant
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