LETTER TO THE EDITOR
I read with interest the article on special issuance renewals, “Waiting for a letter from OKC to fly again?”), where you state that it’s not as bad as a few years ago. As a pilot who has been on a special issuance for over 20 years, I would like to add that it is much better that in the past, and this is mostly due to Dr. Warren Silberman, who took over as director of the Airman Certification Branch about 10 years ago. In the early 1990S, it used to take months to get renewed, and the old certificate would expire in the meantime. The last few years that I got renewed, it took only a matter of weeks.
I met Dr. Silberman at Oshkosh, and listened to a number of his forums. He is a pilot and a real aviation enthusiast. He spends much of the show helping pilots with their renewal problems. He has to do his job, but he makes every effort to keep us flying.
HUBERT “SKIP” SMITH, State College, Pa.