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Editorial: Where The Heck Are We?
By Ed Downs
As is often the case, this month’s editorial thoughts were triggered by a press release. In many instances, press releases and/or news announcements offer current information that requires further investigation or thought. In this case, the press release was sent by one of In Flight USA’s premier advertisers, DuraCharts. The details of this release are in this issue, but what caught my attention was the announcement that sectional chart subscriptions are no longer available from the FAA.
Okay, not a big deal you may think? After all, with modern electronic flight bags, cell phone apps and advanced aircraft technology, the old concept of messing around with a big piece of paper in the cockpit seems incredibly old fashioned. But there is a “rest of the story” to be told about this announcement from the FAA.
Editorial: All We Can Do is Rant?
By Ed Downs
The title of this month’s column is both a statement and a question. Follow along and see if you can decide which interpretation is correct. With patient understanding from the editors and production team of In Flight USA, this writer has been waiting until the last minute, hoping for good news from AirVenture 2013 regarding the outrageous fees assessed by the FAA to support this year’s EAA program.
Regrettably, as of the time this is being written (EAA AirVenture 2013 is underway), the fees still apply and even Congressional efforts have had little or no positive effect.
The FAA tossed in an additional insult by officially announcing that FAA Administrator Michael Huerta was not going to attend the traditional “Meet the Administrator” event at AirVenture 2013. Virtually all FAA activities at the program were canceled, including Wings course participations and safety seminars. The official FAA explanation was that budget constraints prevented the FAA from attending and Administrator Huerta had previous plans made months earlier.