The French foreign affairs minister is expected to step down tomorrow,
over a matter of complicity and insensitivity related to her close
relations with now discredited Tunisian leaders. At the heart of the
matter however, is not the fact that she accepted courtesy favors from
the President, at a time when he was not in political turmoil and when
his leadership was considered central to stability in the region, but
the fact that she accepted, on two occasions, flights on his private
aircraft.

http://tinyurl.com/4fyvkxt

No one accuses her for her cloudy crystal ball concerning the way things
were to shake out in the region, because no one can honestly claim to
have foreseen it, but the toxic element is definitely the plane. That
symbol of privilege and luxury. Europe is now scrambling to find leaders
who have never been on a private plane and who have never known better
than coach-class on Lufthansa or KLM.The President of France is equally
criticized because he recently purchased a new plane (and sold the old
one).


Why post this to RAP? Because it’s one of the reasons why no one wants
to become a pilot any more. Polluter, CO2 contributor, noise-maker,
insensitive favor accepter, rich exploiter, wanting to get involved in
aviation today is akin to wanting to be Zyklon-B loader at Birkenau.
What a change, from a time where few had ridden on any airplane, and
aviation was a bright new field to look up to. A time when businessmen
who had their own aircraft were seen as shrewd and resourceful, to a
point where even an admission of having taken a ride on someone else’s
airplane sounds the end of a public career, and CEO’s of giant
corporations are forced to resign because they use airplanes.

It appears that orders are up and the future looks bright again for
business aviation, but I wouldn’t brush it off so quickly. Political
correctness, environmental Nazism and socialist homogenization are among
the forces driving our society today, and will signal the death knell
for private aviation other than light, recreational. Tomorrow’s airline
pilot is today’s bus driver, and more enticing venues will be shutting
down.