Crusty O'l Fart wrote:
Screw Jim Stephenson!
He sold the sport pilot as a good thing for ul pilots.....it's not. Bye
bye 2 place expemtion. Hello to Jim Stevenson's design, build and
certification business (up and going the second sp was a go. I think
we've been hoodwinked by Jim Stephenson, and I know that I am not alone.
I believed him when he told me (directly) that sp was going to be a
great thing for ul pilots. I was such a sucker to believe him.......
I will not renew my ASC membership or BFI. I am a CFI anyway, and I will
be swithcing to an EAA UFI. I still believe that they are looking out
for pilots (it is my opinion that Jim had his engineering buisness in
the sights the whole time).
I thought Mark Smith was being overly critical of "sprot pile it". Now I
see that he was right!
Again: SCREW JIM STEPHENSON!
I agree with most of what you say, not sure on the screwing part, I'd
sure be a bit choosier !
But I have been flying for many, many years, build planes complete, have
a better safety record than any other BFI I know anything about, my
students rent my planes, and without exception, don't bend them up,
I sell evryt few parts locally, mostly plugs and such, some upgrade kits
and such, but no massive amounts of rebuiuld crash type parts,,,, and i
can tell the difference between crash parts and upgrade stuff,
the FnAA took this all away when they did away with the BFI program,
USUA let them, making some good comments to the NPRM, but waaaay too
late to do any good,
FnAA said " FAA disagrees" to most of the comments, and they got more to
this NPRM than any other, ever,
I'm ****ed,,,,,,,,,not that I will be out of business, but more that I
feel I owe training to the ul group,
as planes change hands, new planes get built, , etc, new ulers need
training available at reasonablbe rates,
I charged 55 an hour, and this is up time, not paperowrk and such,,,,,,
just makes me mad they saw fit to screw with a good program, at least
locally,
some say the abusees were rampant, and to this, Jim Stephenson is the
number one abuser of the BFI system, with ASC reps handing them out like
candy, with little training, etc, just money,
I sent lots of locals to another ASC ( I was USUA) AFI with the
suggestioin to call ahead and ask the specific question,,,,,,,,
" How much money should I bring to get my BFI this weekend ? "
seems like I heard 500 was about right,
one lap around the field, some coaching on the FOI test, etc,
I'd bet there are less than 10 percent of the BFI's from last year this
year
--
Mark Smith
Tri-State Kite Sales
http://www.trikite.com
1121 N Locust St
Mt Vernon, IN 47620