"Larry Dighera" wrote in message ...
On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:56:15 -0400, Peter Clark
wrote in
:

http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsite...712senate.html


Bloody hypocrites:

"Commercial airline passengers shouldn't continue to subsidize
corporate jets," said aviation subcommittee Chairman John D.
Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) during a Senate Finance Committee hearing.
"If we don't restore equity, then as chairman of this aviation
subcommittee, I will address the equity issue by looking for ways
to limit general aviation access to congested airspace."

And while neither Rockefeller nor Lott mentioned that S.1300 would
eliminate the 4.3 cents per gallon fuel tax the airlines currently
pay, it didn't slip past Roberts or Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.)

"I don't think that giving the airlines a tax break is the best
way to start modernization," said Roberts.

Sen. Bingaman questioned, with all that the FAA was trying to
accomplish, "why would you eliminate the fuel tax on the
airlines?"

And while Sen. Lott chastised most of the aviation community for
being unwilling to pay more, Sen. Roberts said that wasn't the
case for GA.

"The general aviation community is not unreceptive to an increase
in the gas tax," said Roberts. "They're for modernization as
well."




UPS has paid for ADS-B setups in many of their planes and they are already reaping the benefits of the reduced fuel
consumption, etc. There is no reason the other majors cannot do their own modernization also.

Most of the ADS-B requires very little FAA ATC and puts control with the flight crew. I for one am NOT willing to give
more taxes to the bureaucracy to they can blow it all on some boondoggle 'modernization' system. We do not need more
traffic controllers, we need more airports in more cities to relieve the congestion at the major hubs. ABS-B should be
implemented now, not later, and except for the equipment cost in the airplane, it can be basically cost free...