Beside our busy lives, we continue to prepare for our flight across America. We had not a lot of time to blog recently, mostly because life happens, but many things are going on behind the scene. We build new relationships, expand our network, collect arguments that we’ll use to promte General Aviation, refine the route, prepare details… and continue to raise funds.
For the time being, we’ve approximately 15% the budget we need. The half of it comes from your donations - thank you - and the rest from our own funding. If you feel like supporting our effort and encourage our flight, use the yellow buttons on the right hand side. You can also show your support by buying tee-shirts with our nice logo.
We’re also getting in touch with other aviation supporters, associations, organizations, and charities. Being touch with so many different people is both exhilarating and exhausting. It’s just like sensing the pulse of General Aviation. Some new supporters seem to pop-up almost daily, and our facebook fan page just passed the 110 mark recently.
If the trip itself is as intense as the preparation, which I hope, June and July 2010 will be passionating fascinating, and I’m sure we’ll come back with tons of memories and hopefully a slightly better General Aviation. Preparing the route, the details, some events, and some promotion are important, but I’m not sure anything can prepare us for all the discoveries we’ll make and all surprises that we’ll have. I hope most of them will be good…
If you live anywhere near our route and want to meet, or have funny ideas to support General Aviation, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Alexander Hamilton may be best known for his famous quote: “Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.”
My question is what do you stand for? What are you passionate about?
Your family of course, your friends for sure, but what about hobbies or business?
For many of us General Aviation can fit into to each of those, as I share aviation with my father by teaching him to fly, 95% of my friends are pilots or have expressed great interest in flying, to top it off I operate an aviation business and stand for General Aviation.
We know if you’re passionate about something there is always the oppressor. The victor and the villain. General Aviation has come under intense scrutiny in the past few months. Worries of security threats are at the peak of many congressional debates.
What sort of security threat do I impose in a Cessna 150? What about the Collings Foundation and their B-52 that tours the country inspiring our youth and allowing veterans to reminisce in the past?
General Aviation is no threat to America. It’s the AngelFlights, mission trips, air ambulance, and business men and women who really understand how beneficial General Aviation is.
So my question is to you, what do you stand for? Is General Aviation on your list?
If you think General Aviation pilots are rich yuppies playing around in expensive, noisy, and polluting toys, please consider the following story - interestingly published on September 11th…
Hurricane Jimena hit Baja in late August, destroying basic infrastructure like roads, power supply and telephone networks, water supply and damaging buildings. The rescue efforts were dramatically impaired by the lack of infrastructure. Who came to the rescue ? The Baja Bush Pilots group.
The group is organized to provide supply to the area when disasters strike the region. They operate from the Mulege airstrip which was in the path of Jimena. The available runway there was 2.200 feet. Who else than General Aviation could operate in this kind of conditions ?
They do this silently, not looking for fame or fortune. They just do a tough job in hard conditions to bring support to their community. Do you still think the same thing about General Aviation pilots ?
If you also have great actions you want to talk about, please contact us or let a comment on this post.
A recent article published by USA Today was clearly against General Aviation. We won’t quote it here, other organizations and bloggers have already commented on in and demonstrated what was wrong in this article. Even AOPA was involved in preparing this article, and quoting their reaction:
AOPA’s media relations staff learned of the story a week before it was published and had a lengthy conversation with the USA Today reporter, but was not included in the article.
This article is a perfect example of the incorrect perception media - and consequently public - has of General Aviation. The very aim of our flight is to create a great GA event and use its momentum to pass a positive message. We will certainly face incredulity, disbelief and unexpectedly negative reactions. There is only one way to react to such critics: stay cool, in positive control, and explain, tell, demonstrate how General Aviation profits to all of us. Not only amongst the flying community, but publicly. Pilots often have very interesting discussions but sometimes fail to make them open to others.
You can read more about the article in question from the following links, and build your own opinion:
Av8rdan’s world of flying - AvWeb - No Plane No Gain - AOPA - EAA
These site are all in favor in General Aviation, as we are. It’s fine to expect biases from such sources, but not from a general audience newspaper. If you feel like starting to evangelize the cause of General Aviation as we do, remember to always stay cool, open, ready to answer strange questions.
There’s only one good thing in this article from USA Today: it provoked a strong reaction amongst the online and offline aviation community. Thanks to new media it’s easier to react and do our best to limit the damages. The whole GA community stood up at once, and this is great. Adversity is great to create new links and there’s a lot to learn in such circumstances ? Are we too optimistic ? May be, but we strongly believe in what we do. If you feel the same, please support us. Buy miles and help spreading the word about our efforts.
The giveaway we organized around the Flyabout movie is now over. We want to say thank you to all those who left a comment. The answer were varied and great fun to read. From pole to pole, to flying to Hawaii, and also a very nice circuit in the pattern on someone’s first solo flight.
We will advise the lucky winners per e-mail very soon. We plan to continue our giveaways along with our efforts to promote General Aviation, so stay tuned. If you want to read more on Flyabout, visit www.flyaboutmovie.com.
We recently got a comment from Joseph Geist about how the way General Aviation is perceived changed over the last years. Joe’s solo is now 42 years away, but he’s still a great supporter and promoted of General Aviation. His comment triggered a short e-mail discussion. One of his messages is so exactly representing the values that we want to promote and defend that I could not resist but publish it here (with Joseph’s authorization, of course):
Vincent,
I am no longer an active CFI-IASMEL, nor do I fly B-727’s, which type I flew for the airlines, but just three weeks ago I introduced two young men to the world of general aviation in a C-172 in Nampa, Idaho. They both spent about 30 minutes in the left seat, and came away hooked for life. I feel that if we ever stop introducing the young ones to the thrill of flying small planes, then we start a time clock to terminating general aviation in this country.
That would be a sad day for all of us. In my 42 years since soloing, I have flown as a bush pilot in Alaska and as an airline pilot in B-727’s. The job of capturing the hearts of this country’s future aviators has always been paramount. I applaud your efforts to showcase flying coast-to-coast in a small plane in the post 9-11 era. Your flight will make a positive difference for an untold number of aviators, future aviators, and non-pilots alike.
Thanks again for giving me the opportunity to share.
Joe
Thank to you Joe, for being a great aviation professional. Your message reinforces our determination to make this flight happen and to spread the word about how good General Aviation is. People like you are a great example. If all pilots could make the same thing, many people would make their dream of flying come true and join the aviation community.
Eight years ago, dramatic events occurred and changed a lot of things in aviation. Not for the best.
Today is to remember, and never forget what happened. Today we must stand united and pay due respect to the victims, all of them, direct and indirect. The lives of thousands people got terribly, definitively affected. Our thoughts go to them today, and to their relatives who continue to suffer from this tragedy.
No polemics, no promotion, but moments of silence and reflection.
Pilots often fly across or around things. We prepare a flight across America and we’re by far not the first to take such a flight. Recently, Joel Glickman flew around the USA to meet with friends. Another example is Monika Petrillo - the first woman who ever flew around… Australia. She did it VFR, in a Cessna 172 with her father as co-pilot. Monkia produced a movie about her adventure, and it changed in her life. You can see the trailer and read more under www.flyaboutmovie.com. This movie is about more than flying, it’s about people, encounters, and how flying can impact your life.
Monika was kind enough to give us a signed copy of her DVD to help with our promotion! All you have to do in order to win it is to leave a comment on this post. Tell us around or across what you’d like to fly. You can also leave a comment about a flight you already took. Tell us the story of your project or flight, why it is important to you and what it represents for you.
We’ll select the best story on the 20th of September and send the DVD to its author. Size does not matter - flight around the local lake have the same chance as flight across an ocean, what’s important is how YOU tell your story.
Good luck!
(Note to non-US readers: this is a zone-free DVD, which any player worldwide can read)
Our August giveaways winners are Keith Jones (@keithjjones) and Chandra Almond (@chandra_pearl). Both knew about our giveaway via Twitter, where they follow our account, @FlyingAcrossUSA.
Being the first winners, Keith being the first to be selected, he could choose between the two CD-ROM courses from Max Trescott and he decided to have the G1000. Chandra got the GPS & WAAS IFR CD-ROM course.
Keith sent us the following text, to be published as a message to all our supporters: “Vincent and Jason’s flight across the U.S. is a remarkable undertaking that demonstrates the power and flexibility of general aviation aircraft in a world dominated by commercial airlines. I am happy to support their flight and encourage others to do so as well. I am pleased and thankful for winning August’s drawing for Max Trescott’s CD-ROM from Jason and Vincent, and I look forward to seeing their adventure unfold.”
We’ll very soon have new giveaways, but in a slightly different form. Stay tuned, continue to spread the word, and to buy miles. General Aviation needs promotion and you can help us to improve its image.
Long story short, a dad decided to fly his son to school in a light helicopter to celebrate the first school day. Everything went fine, the helicopter landed safely, in a quiet area of the campus. But the dad did not warned the school or coordinated this flight with them. Alarmed, the school staff warned the Sheriff’s office and the FAA. Oops.
Was this legal and conform to the regulations or not ? This is not our point. Was this a cool thing to do ? Certainly. Was it smart to do it without warning the school ? Probably not. As pilots, we’re holders of aviation’s image and reputation. Such maneuvers are safe, but their impact is not always positive. The Orlando Sentinel published this article about the helicopter to school ride. The article is factual and do not speculate, kudos to the reporter for that.
Some of the comments are very negative, like the two copied below:
“I don’t appreciate this parent jeopardizing the safety of my sons who attend ERHS with his unauthorized helicopter landing. He should be prosecuted.”