I logged my first biennial in 1981. That was just after I sold the
tail-less Stinson to an IA as a project (internal corrosion in the
horizontal stab.), and the previous flight in the logbook was in the
Stinson in '79. So the requirement came up circa 1980.

From the dejanews records on Google, it appears that net.aviation was
only chartered in late 1981, so there wasnt the same kind of forum for
flogging a topic like biennials that we have here -- just the letters
columns in the magazines.

My recollection was that pretty much everybody but dyed-in-the-wool
libertarians thought it was a pretty good idea.

Don