I apologize for the length of this post, but I think it will be worth the couple minutes to read. Please do.
After seeing THIS POST by AirJudge in another thread, some thoughts crystallized in my mind. Allow me to explain…randomly.
I submit to you that the real driver behind the decline of the races and the problems that we’re seeing is the Federal Aviation Administration. Let me explain:
First: The post-2011 race rules, particularly the 250' altitude restriction, are dumb. Most of us agree on that. Unfortunately the FAA followed the lead of the rest of our politics and decided that they needed another rule, even when the existing rules on airframe modifications etc had been broken, to make sure this didn’t happen again. Now the "fix" is worse than the original problem and makes a repeat of the 2011 crash more likely with fast airplanes with high speed differentials stuffed into a donut of air too small to allow safe margins and maneuvering. You'd swear it's like the FAA has decided to kill pylon air racing and is thinking "Let's set up the conditions for another horrific crash, then the media will take care of the rest."
Second: RARA is in the stranglehold of the FAA. The rest of aviation, from warbirds to vintage airplanes to aerobatics and homebuilts and then your average Cessna drivers, have representation and lobbying muscle in Washington with the EAA and AOPA. Between Warbirds of America, the International Aerobatic Club, Vintage Aviation Association, EAA, and the AOPA, issues related to these “special interests” are spread around to the members, acted upon by lobbyists, and then passed along to members of the caucuses for legislative action (or inaction).
Air racing has none of that. So those of us (like me) who find themselves thinking “Why won’t RARA just stand up to the FAA a little and just say ‘no’” don’t realize that that’s very much akin to telling someone who was pulled over for speeding to “stand up to the cop” and say no to the ticket. Definitely not recommended.
To get a bureaucrat to move, you have to go to their bosses and start threatening their cash. That’s when things happen. (If you’ve been involved in general aviation recently you know what I mean with the Pilots’ Bill of Rights, the Part 23 rules rewrite, and 3rd class medical exemption. When the lobbying organizations finally got tired of years of dealing with stonewalling FAA officials and went right to Congress to get what they wanted, the FAA moved faster than you ever thought a government bureaucracy could move. It was amazing.)
Most of the gripes that folks have with the races can be traced to FAA actions. Tiger’s altitude DQ, PM’s “deadline cut”…even the nasty security people on the crowd line can all be laid at the feet of the FAA. To provide background on the last one: FAA is cracking down on non-show personnel behind airshow lines. My local airport runs a small grass-strip airshow every year. Recently the feds have gotten pretty anal about the show line for what is essential a big pilot’s and family get together. It’s frustrating. It’s impossible to exercise any kind of leeway at all (obviously with safety…no people around when planes are operating etc) because the feds expect everything to be locked down and every single possible, thinkable, obtuse, and unlikely eventuality or imagined scenario accounted for to the point that people have to be herded through designated areas and moved around like cattle just to have the event.
*****
So I submit to you, the fans of the world’s fastest motorsport…let's focus some of this negative energy on the FAA and see what changes. This is not coming from some anti-government nut. Hardly. But let's see some accountability from FAA and more of a two-sided discussion on rules here. It's not cool being dictated to like children. I’m pretty sure RARA has racing’s best interests at heart, and though they may not move as fast as we’d like or do what we want, they are in a tough spot. Low attendance means little money. Little money means little advertising. Little advertising means less awareness, which means less attendance…and around it goes. Let’s pull together on this and put some positive muscle behind helping the positive elements of what RARA has done to move to the forefront instead of just griping about what we didn’t like.
Unlimited Air Racing may die, but let’s not be the ones to stick the knife in it.
N.B. (Perhaps I could back this up even further and say that even the FAA isn’t to blame, our society is. The FAA is scared of getting sued. That’s it. So they regulate us to death to make sure nothing happens so that they don’t lose their jobs and get a beating on TV in the process next time there is an accident. But that’s another topic…)
After seeing THIS POST by AirJudge in another thread, some thoughts crystallized in my mind. Allow me to explain…randomly.
I submit to you that the real driver behind the decline of the races and the problems that we’re seeing is the Federal Aviation Administration. Let me explain:
First: The post-2011 race rules, particularly the 250' altitude restriction, are dumb. Most of us agree on that. Unfortunately the FAA followed the lead of the rest of our politics and decided that they needed another rule, even when the existing rules on airframe modifications etc had been broken, to make sure this didn’t happen again. Now the "fix" is worse than the original problem and makes a repeat of the 2011 crash more likely with fast airplanes with high speed differentials stuffed into a donut of air too small to allow safe margins and maneuvering. You'd swear it's like the FAA has decided to kill pylon air racing and is thinking "Let's set up the conditions for another horrific crash, then the media will take care of the rest."
Second: RARA is in the stranglehold of the FAA. The rest of aviation, from warbirds to vintage airplanes to aerobatics and homebuilts and then your average Cessna drivers, have representation and lobbying muscle in Washington with the EAA and AOPA. Between Warbirds of America, the International Aerobatic Club, Vintage Aviation Association, EAA, and the AOPA, issues related to these “special interests” are spread around to the members, acted upon by lobbyists, and then passed along to members of the caucuses for legislative action (or inaction).
Air racing has none of that. So those of us (like me) who find themselves thinking “Why won’t RARA just stand up to the FAA a little and just say ‘no’” don’t realize that that’s very much akin to telling someone who was pulled over for speeding to “stand up to the cop” and say no to the ticket. Definitely not recommended.
To get a bureaucrat to move, you have to go to their bosses and start threatening their cash. That’s when things happen. (If you’ve been involved in general aviation recently you know what I mean with the Pilots’ Bill of Rights, the Part 23 rules rewrite, and 3rd class medical exemption. When the lobbying organizations finally got tired of years of dealing with stonewalling FAA officials and went right to Congress to get what they wanted, the FAA moved faster than you ever thought a government bureaucracy could move. It was amazing.)
Most of the gripes that folks have with the races can be traced to FAA actions. Tiger’s altitude DQ, PM’s “deadline cut”…even the nasty security people on the crowd line can all be laid at the feet of the FAA. To provide background on the last one: FAA is cracking down on non-show personnel behind airshow lines. My local airport runs a small grass-strip airshow every year. Recently the feds have gotten pretty anal about the show line for what is essential a big pilot’s and family get together. It’s frustrating. It’s impossible to exercise any kind of leeway at all (obviously with safety…no people around when planes are operating etc) because the feds expect everything to be locked down and every single possible, thinkable, obtuse, and unlikely eventuality or imagined scenario accounted for to the point that people have to be herded through designated areas and moved around like cattle just to have the event.
*****
So I submit to you, the fans of the world’s fastest motorsport…let's focus some of this negative energy on the FAA and see what changes. This is not coming from some anti-government nut. Hardly. But let's see some accountability from FAA and more of a two-sided discussion on rules here. It's not cool being dictated to like children. I’m pretty sure RARA has racing’s best interests at heart, and though they may not move as fast as we’d like or do what we want, they are in a tough spot. Low attendance means little money. Little money means little advertising. Little advertising means less awareness, which means less attendance…and around it goes. Let’s pull together on this and put some positive muscle behind helping the positive elements of what RARA has done to move to the forefront instead of just griping about what we didn’t like.
Unlimited Air Racing may die, but let’s not be the ones to stick the knife in it.
N.B. (Perhaps I could back this up even further and say that even the FAA isn’t to blame, our society is. The FAA is scared of getting sued. That’s it. So they regulate us to death to make sure nothing happens so that they don’t lose their jobs and get a beating on TV in the process next time there is an accident. But that’s another topic…)
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