Letters

Another day, another tax. Mr. McCollom’s idea of fixing the FAA’s operating capital deficit (A simple fix, May 5 issue) could be equated to the comedian Gallagher’s approach to slicing and dicing fruits and vegetables with the Sledge-O-Matic. In other words, we have a problem, let’s just tax everybody (some more) and see if it […]

I have been traveling and was way behind in my reading. I saw your comments regarding a vertical piston engine for a homebuilt helicoper (Ask Paul: What’s the best engine for a kit-built helicopter? March 10 issue). The Brantly used the V0-360 with a carb for the model B-2 and B-2A. I owned the TC […]

GAN could sell more issues than it could print! The thousands of model builders would subscribe if you would publish three-view drawings of all popular personal airplanes as you just did on the cover of the April 7 issue. You could add to those all owners who would like to plan their own T-hangars as […]

I continue to be astonished by what appears to be the inability of both the FAA and those now debating its funding sources to perceive a blinding flash of the obvious that surrounds the passenger excise tax issue. The portion of FAA income that does not originate from general fund revenues contributed by all income […]

Thank you and Larry Bledsoe for the Art Report in the March 24 issue (Black Cat gets stamp of approval). I was in the 466th Bomb Group in England when the B-24 “Black Cat” was lost, so this article by Larry Bledsoe has a special meaning to me. Jim Walston via email

Dear writers in General Aviation News dated April 7, 2006: Meg Godlewski’s cover (Cessna’s 172 Skyhawk at 50 Years Young) and Thomas F. Norton (Pioneers of Aviation): I found the article about the Cessna 172, known as the Skyhawk, to be either a little incomplete or a bit inaccurate because according to “The Legend of […]

To Charles Spence, Capital Comments: I read with interest your ongoing articles concerning user fees. Perhaps I am missing something, but it seems to me that Congress is trying to fix something that’s not broken.If the FAA indeed needs more operating capital, why not very simply add a few cents to each gallon of fuel […]

I know your aviation lobbyist group is based in Washington State and therefore has little direct staff knowledge about the UNC Horace Williams Airport (IGX) situation in the Raleigh Durham Chapel Hill area of North Carolina as you continue to rally to your members. However, you should at least know that the safety systems at […]

Regarding your Feb. 17 article “How innovation can save our airports” by Thomas F. Norton regarding the statement: “William T. Piper thought that every village in the United States should have an airport and, from the 1930s until his death in 1970, campaigned tirelessly and often successfully toward that end. Today it is Vern Raburn, […]