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.