Despite a difficult month of September, the number of fatal accidents involving experimental aircraft fell over the last year. From Oct. 1, 2019 to Sept. 30, 2020, there were 44 fatal accidents. Six fatals involved experimental light sport aircraft, one each in racing and R&D categories, and four in the exhibition subcategory. Most of these, 32, involved experimental/amateur-built aircraft—they make up the bulk of the fleet—but this number is an improvement over the previous year’s tally of 38. In September alone, however, there were 11 fatal accidents in the experimental category, up from a peak of eight in June and an average of 2.6 accidents a month for the first eight months of the fiscal year. July is typically the highest-risk month.
“ What’s more puzzling to me is the “protest” reference. What, exactly is being protested? ”
What’s not to get here?
You can’t get a haircut due to social distancing and COVID. But it’s perfectly acceptable to “protest” and throw rocks at the barber shop.
You can’t participate in “mass gatherings” such as birthday parties and backyard Bar-B-Ques, but you can gather by the thousands if you call it a “protest”.
You can’t go to church, but it’s OK to burn one down in “protest”.
So then, it’s perfectly fine to do whatever you want to do, just as long as you call it a “protest”.
Say you want to meet up with a few hundred like-minded individuals at a certain airport on a certain day. If you call it a fly-in, you can’t do that. But if you call it a protest, you’re good to go.
Sadly I see many (too many) folks who just don’t get how bad Corvid has affected the public and why large/small/any gatherings need to be avoided at all costs. I live in a densely populated area (NYC) and we were hit HARD by this insidious disease…I know first hand how bad this is IN REAL LIFE. I didn’t/don’t need any media telling me what or how bad this really is. My brother even got it and thankfully survived it…Any kind of large gathering can and should be avoided for ones own safety/health Thankfully Jack saw this and did something about it. Calling him a pawn or dupe is just plain STUPID and all who think this is some kind of joke are more than welcome to visit us here in NY and see first hand how serious this really is, it’s still here, it hasn’t “gone away”…
For those who are protesting, it’s their right to do so, as in it’s illegal to stop them from doing it, and with the proper precautions it can be done. Sometimes a message has to be put through no matter the cost and folks everywhere are seeing this and doing it. Does that make it safe and a smart thing to do for ones own health? Nope. But it IS their LEGAL choice and in this case I agree with it. To compare Oshkosh to what is being protested is ludicrous and dumb. Most of the flying population that visits Oshkosh is older, very susceptible to Corvid and should NOT be going there anyway, Jack knows this and acted accordingly. Don’t knock the man or organization for caring about your health and well being and wait till next year, I’m sure it’ll be a blast!
I would love to know what propaganda is being referenced in the above comment. Is it the 2.1 million cases of COVID-19 reported in the US so far? Maybe the 20,000 new cases reported in the US yesterday alone? Possibly the 118,000 people who have died in the US from the virus in less than 5 months? How about the fact that 5% of the people in the US who’ve contracted it have already died? Is that propaganda? “Fake news” that we should simply ignore? SMH
It’s sad to see fellow pilots behaving so blatantly irresponsibly. Particularly those pilots who have access to airplanes that they can fly to Oshkosh (I don’t know how far-reaching this “protest” is), which I assume for some is more than just a local flight to them.
I’m as disappointed as the next pilot that Airventure has been canceled this year (I already had in mind which events I was going to attend and was particularly looking forward to it this year, with my planning for it having started LAST summer when I wasn’t able to attend). But I also have a fair idea of what goes into planning something as large as Airventure, along with how much lead time is required. Even if it was 100% certain that covid would be completely gone by late-July (in fact, it’s 100% certain that it WON’T be gone by then), canceling still would have been the right thing to do because preparations would have had to begin during the middle of the spike in cases. And unlike other events, EAA actually waited as long as possible before canceling the event.
The worst part is, these “protestors” (and they’re not actually true protestors) are only going to increase the perception that all pilots are just spoiled rich brats who don’t care about others. People are out protesting actual social injustices, while a few spoiled pilots are out “protesting” that they’re upset covid forced a cancelation of their favorite social event.
I would like to propose an alternative plan. I propose that on July 20, the date OSH would have opened, that we all wear our OSH shirts from years past and post a photo of ourselves doing so to social media in support of the EAA. They made an extremely hard financial decision solely to protect the safety of their venders and guests. We should show our solidarity and support through such.
I’m not sure if Phil meant it this way, but the “propagandizing mainstream media” could also refer to certain “news” sources that are claiming covid isn’t a big deal. Since some of the pilot population follows those news sources, that would make it a contributing factor to this Airventure “protest”.
Certainly, certain elected officials have outright abdicated their responsibilities at handling covid, and that is also a big contributing factor.
Russ, you need to give you social views a rest in your Avweb articles. You risk losing readership. We are here for your cool airplane articles! Not your views on Covid-19.
Sad to see that pilots can be as willfully ignorant as any in the general population. Obviously the skills to fly a plane don’t confer judgement in other areas and certainly not basic humanity, judging by the comments. Thanks for reporting on this…it is aviation news and very appropriate that AvWeb take a position on it.
Brian S. Yes, indeed. Fake news should be scrutinized and ignored. Possibly the 118,000 people who have died in the US from the virus in less than 5 months??? Who did you get that from? Not the CDC. More like CNN. What demographic was affected by this “flu”? Aha…Old people (with medical issues) and blacks primarily. That counts for over 95% of the “supposed” cases of death which have also been shown to be exaggerated. NY supposedly inflated their deaths by 52%, (Also, NY forced retirement homes to take in infected people and guess where most of their deaths happened?) Illinois 35%, Colorado 30%, see the trend here…who rules these States? When you do your homework and seek the truth you will see that yes, indeed this COVID 19 was very contagious. But the elderly with health issues were the ones truly at risk. Just as with the regular flu which killed over 600,000 last year. This has been Chicken Little Syndrome on Steroids. And the trend in our country these days seems to be “If I’m scared, I’m going to scare you too”. My wife was tested positive. She had a fever for about 3 days and it went away just like the flu people have been getting for decades. I’m actually an at risk person 64 yrs old with a lung condition. I didn’t get it at all. That’s real news.
>…most pilots think of themselves as being decisive, independent sorts who can think on their feet. What’s amazing is that [perception] survives participation in one of the most highly regulated and controlled activities imaginable. The system is built on strict adherence to policy, procedure and regulation. Conformity is not only required, it’s celebrated.
This seeming dichotomy is not a mystery at all. Conformity is required—and should be celebrated—for Normal Procedures. Being decisive and able to think on your feet is required—and should be celebrated—for those situations when Normal Procedures no longer apply. In fact, it’s allowed for and expected by regulation:
14 CFR § 91.3 (b): In an in-flight emergency requiring immediate action, the pilot in command may deviate from any rule of this part to the extent required to meet that emergency.
> Just as with the regular flu which killed over 600,000 last year.
I’m not sure which specific year you mean, but I checked the CDC’s website for the data you claim. The CDC reported roughly 75,000 deaths due to flu in the 2017-2018 flu season, and 34,000 deaths in the 2018-2019 flu season. Where are you getting your numbers Doug?
It may be that we are not in control of the ings affecting us.
Control is defined as “the power to influence or direct people’s behavior or the course of events.” Many of us expend a great deal of energy in life trying to get it, maintain it, and not lose it. When we are not in control, we know it. Would you like to be the hockey puck or the hockey stick? For us in Florida, would you want to be the golf ball or the golf club? The puck and the golf ball are “in the game”, but neither one is in control.
Pilots have many things to manage and keep under control when making a flight. Bringing it down to earth, drivers of a vehicle have many things they can control, such as the route to take on a trip, the decision to stay within the speed limit or not, and when to leave and start the journey. One thing that is not in our control if you are a pilot, a sea captain, or the key driver on a family vacation, is the weather.
Weather is the one thing that we cannot control. It is consistently there, good or bad, and the only control we have over the situation is how we decide to deal with it.
Presently many have said our country is out of control and we have issues we need to “weather”. Events have been thrust upon us such as Covid-19, mandates of stay-at-home orders, closing of schools, and canceling of events in our normal daily lives. After months have having Covid-19 controlling our lives and the resulting frustrations, add the death of George Floyd to a tense and frustrated society and you have the perfect storm. We are frustrated and angry because so much of what we are experiencing is out of our control. Using the hockey puck analogy, we have been “pucked” by events and situations we cannot control.
In my opinion, much of our current political vitriol and divide is based on what we feel we can’t control, and what we would want to happen. Things can’t change because opposite sides have dug in so deep. If you took folks from both extreme sides of the issues, put them in two separate rooms and asked them to make a list of the things they want, not point fingers or blame at the opposite side, but identify what needs to change to have a functioning society, I expect the lists would be pretty much the same. We need to start listening to each other and finding common ground. Doing that we would have much more control over the outcomes we all want.
“Possibly the 118,000 people who have died in the US from the virus in less than 5 months??? Who did you get that from? Not the CDC.”
Right you are. As of 6/15, the CDC is reporting 115,000 deaths, not 118,000. And they also disagree with Brian’s assertion of “20,000 new cases reported in the US yesterday alone” - they’re reporting over 25,000 new cases.