On Sat, 19 Jun 2004 17:55:58 -0000, Marty Shapiro
wrote:

I local flying club advertised a Wings safety seminar for which they
would charge $30. This was done in an message to a distribution list for
local area pilots. Interestingly, if one went to the FAASafety.gov web
pages and noticed this seminar, there was no mention of a charge, and one
could sign up for the seminar directly from the FAASafety web page.

I've been attending wings safety seminars for over 10 years and this
is the first one I've seen which asked attendees to pay. Many seminars in
fact went out of their way to encourage attendance by offering free
refreshments and/or door prizes, including one which featured John &
Martha King.

I have two questions:

1) Is it now FAA policy to charge for Wings safety seminars, and, if
so, could this tend to discurage pilots from attending and/or participation
in the Wings program?

2) Do other clubs and/or areas have charges for Wings safety
seminars?


I am very disappointed to hear this and sincerely hope that this is
not a trend. I attend nearly everyone that comes to my area and they
have all been free. Money is an object and I would have to start
looking very carefully at what the seminar was offering and trying to
determine if it offered more than the flying that I could do for that
money. Hopefully, this is an isolated incident.
Rich Russell