From: geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation,rec.aviation.misc
Subject: Re:  Public perception of general aviation
Followup-To: rec.aviation,rec.aviation.misc
Date: 7 Nov 1992 01:25:32 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Menlo Park, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: purplehaze.corp.sun.com



In article <1992Nov4.172724.17063@odin.corp.sgi.com> amazon@annexia.esd.sgi.com (Stormwind) writes:

>in an interesting discussion with a
>co-worker today over the outcome of a 
>local vote on an airfield (moffett,
>for the locals), i encountered a very
>interesting viewpoint.


Stormwind described the problem from the standpoint of resentment for
financial reasons -- something I hadn't considered and frankly, find
a little surprising.  I guess it's just that it never occurred to me
to look at general aviation through the lens of some kind of crypto-
socialist "oppressed and downtrodden masses" trip.

I had a conversation about the upcoming election with a friend a few
weeks ago, and the topic of the Moffett measure came up.  He lives in
Sunnyvale, more or less under the approach path to Moffett.  The guy 
was quite adamant about voting against the measure.  When I asked him
why, he told me that he was concerned about noise.  

I told him that airplanes in the landing pattern tend to be at low
power settings, and that Cessnas and Pipers and the like tend to be
quite a bit less noisy than the P-3s and C-130s he has to put up with 
now.  I went on to mention the facilities at Moffett, and how they'd
be such a sterling windfall to the gen-av community.  (And I'm not
even a private pilot, just a lifelong airplane nut.)

Well, it turned out that what really worried the guy wasn't noise so
much as the perceived danger from small planes crashing through his 
roof! I couldn't believe it -- this otherwise levelheaded guy was 
coming on like some kind of irrational phobic.  (But then, he also
accuses me of being enamored of "things that go fast and explode.")
When I expressed my surprise at his anxieties, he predictably cited 
"all those accidents" in which planes bound for Reid-Hillview had 
crashed into the parking lot at Eastridge.  

Not having any statistics or accident reports available, I pretty much 
threw up my hands in frustration at that point -- although it's been
some time since I remember hearing about a short landing at R-H, and
I can't recall that there've been all *that* many since the eye of public
attention became focused at the time Eastridge opened back in the early
Seventies.

The point, though, is that I was taken aback by my friend's perception
of general aviation as blatantly and inherently unsafe, and a Threat To
Life As We Know It.  It made me wonder how prevalent that impression is 
in society at large in this day and age -- that "I'll fly on a 747 if I 
have to, but you won't get me up in one of those little Piper Cubs!" 
mindset.

(Ever notice how all small airplanes are "Piper Cubs" to some people?  
Arrrgh!)  



Geoff


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Geoff Miller                    + + + + + + + +        Sun Microsystems
geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM  + + + + + + + +     Menlo Park, California
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