In a message dated 7/15/2006 10:17:01 AM Central Standard Time,=20 marv@lancaironline.net writes:

<= FONT=20 style=3D"BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=3DArial color=3D#000000 size= =3D2>All=20 pilots are
pretty good, just as all drivers are pretty good. We n= eed=20 to cut them a
little slack, like we do drivers, who are also us, and wh= o=20 handle amazing
complexity, without someone telling them 'Okay, you can=20= pull=20 out into traffic
now; and you gan climb that hill, and you can tu= rn=20 onto I-70..." And they do
it with an acceptable lev el of safety,= and=20 without medicals every two years.

Terrence,

Drivers are safe? Over 40,000 people are killed on our roads every year= .=20 Over a million are seriously injured. GA Pilots are safe? Part 91 flying is=20= 25=20 time more hazardous that Part 121. Let's sit at the end of Runway 27 and wat= ch=20 and listen. Heck, some pilots don't even bother to read the NOTAM before fly= ing=20 to OSH. Some don't even know what a NOTAM is. Come to Oshkosh and sit down w= ith=20 me and let's go over the Lancair accident statistics. You show me where the=20 airplane let down the pilot, versus where the pilot let down the airplane. B= e at=20 the Lancair Forum at 1730 Thursday.

Airplanes have been improved immensely in the last ten years or so. I h= ave=20 EFIS screens with moving map, datalink weather, a bitching betty telling me=20= when=20 I get too close to stall. Sterling Ainsworth had that and a turbine powered=20 airplane.. but he flew into convective activity because he did not pay for t= he=20 Canadian WSI subscription, iced up his pitot tube (which most likely ha= d=20 pitot heat off) and put the aircraft into a full power dive until the t= ail=20 departed. How much safer could his airplane been designed? He purposel= y=20 flew an airplane into conditions he knew before hand were hazardous-- did it= =20 anyway and somehow this kind of accident is the airplane's fault? I call it=20 "free will."

Cirrus's have a ballistic parachutes yet pilots still fail to pull the=20 handle when they should. Too late, too fast, out of the envelope--fatal and=20= this=20 is the airplanes fault?

Of course everything could be better with future techology -- but we ai= n't=20 got it today and even if we did you can't force everyone to run out and buy=20= it.=20 There will still be someone 100 years from today flying a J-3 Cub to Oshkosh= and=20 they will still be flying the Ford trimotor there. I hope to be there.

Regards,

Jeff