Peter,

Thank goodness we have little people in this world who work so hard to
tear down those who happen to have worked even harder and succeeded in
doing well. I was never a fan of Mr. Travolta until the movie
"Phenomena". Nevertheless, I did pay attention to a very successful
actor who liked airplanes and who took the trouble to learn a great
deal about them and how to fly them rather than behave as do so many
musicians and actors and simply trash the interiors of the bizjets in
which they ride.

Travolta bought and was type rated in the DC-3 fairly early in his
career. Do you have that rating? He later was type rated in various
jets, including the 707, having completed the training and passed the
checkride required by Qantas which put its name on Travolta's airplane
on an around the world flight he made as a part of a fundraiser for
charity. Have you done an aviation charity flight recently?

Travolta has given numerous interviews in which he has spoken
enthusiastically about his love for aviation. How the interviews were
slanted, I don't care, he spoke of his love for flight. "Worf" an
actor on Star Trek has given a massive number of interviews in support
of general aviation and worked with the EAA's Young Eagles program.
Harrison Ford is one of the biggest supporters general aviation has.
He just signed on to do another project in support of it.

BTW, a question for every single one of us general aviation pilots:
when was the last talk or program you gave on general aviation in your
area? How about the last time you testified or argued in front of
your local government in support of your airport?

It's real easy to cast aspersions on famous folks on the Internet,
yeah, that CB radio for those who can type, but how many of us are
actually getting out there and doing something to support the aviation
we care for?

All the best,
Rick


"Peter Duniho" wrote in message ...
"Rick Durden" wrote in message
m...
[...]
We can certainly use all of the folks like Travolta that our little
industry can get. He's certainly gotten a lot of good press and
attention for general aviation.

Such as?

As near as I can tell, the handful of "famous pilots" who might have gotten
more involved with aviation and done things to foster the industry have not
bothered. People aren't going around saying "hey, did you see that
interview with Travolta? I guess we don't really need all these silly
restrictions on general aviation after all", or "hey, did you see that
interview with Harrison? Turns out you DON'T need to be a rich actor to
learn to fly".

What little press people like that have received, all they've done is
reinforced the idea that flying is for rich folks who can afford the fancy
toys, and that when you restrict aviation, you're not really hurting anyone
who can't afford to be hurt a bit.

These are people who, if they cared to, could use their substantial media
presence to fight on behalf of general aviation. I've seen absolutely no
evidence that suggests they've ever bothered to try.

Pete