Letter to the Editor

Barack Obama's segregation of rural America

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Dear Editor,

Representative Adrian Smith recently opined on "the problems facing rural aviation." An excerpt:

"This year many small airports around the country are facing a barrage of flight cancelations ... Businesses and entrepreneurs are more likely to invest and expand in communities with dependable transportation services including aviation ... New federal regulations which require co-pilots to have at least 1,500 hours of flight time are contributing to the problem. It is difficult for the small regional airlines which serve rural communities, to hire and retain pilots which meet this certification. Airlines are then forced to cancel scheduled flights if they are not able to comply with this arbitrary rule. Cancelled flights also threaten funding for small airports through the Airport Improvement Program which helps pay for projects to improve infrastructure, including runways, taxiways, noise control, navigational aids, safety, and security.

"To qualify for program funds, airports must reach 10,000 enplanements per year. Many small rural airports which previously qualified for the program are unlikely to reach this target because of cancelled flights ... I introduced legislation which would ensure these small airports are not penalized twice by the unintended consequences of these new rules. The Small Airport Regulatory Relief Act would require the Federal Aviation Authority to use enplanement numbers from 2012 -- before the regulations took effect -- when calculating appropriate annual funds for airports through the Airport Improvement Program for the next two years. While more must be done to address the underlying causes of the flight cancellations, including the new pilot regulations, this legislation is a good first step to spare small airports from more unnecessary harm ... "

Three key words in Adrian's commentary are "arbitrary" and "unnecessary harm." There is nothing "arbitrary" about the new regulation. It is intentional; it is meant to intimidate rural Americans; and it is indeed meant to cause harm -- significant harm, in that it erodes the economic and social welfare of rural states, and thus makes them more dependent on government largess. I do not believe the requirement of increased pilot flight hours was meant to further safety or efficiency; rather the intent is to punish rural states, whose populations tend to be conservative -- and thus we are the natural enemies of a socialist regime whose leader is inclined to Marxism.

I see this new FAA regulation as a malicious attack on rural America. It is but one more example of Barack Obama's ongoing campaign of intimidation and punishment, via his continued acts of executive tyranny, which he is directing and implementing against free enterprise and our traditionally conservative American culture.

I question the wisdom in securing federal funding for the purpose of making upgrades to rural airfield facilities, without first addressing the root cause of their planned demise -- the FAA, under the control of the increasingly lawless and subversive Obama regime. Efforts to fund and modernize rural airfields will be in vain, unless this "arbitrary" rule is rescinded, or else modified to address its segregation of rural communities.

Mr. Smith's proposed legislation puts the cart before the horse -- without pilots to fly the routes there is no need for regional airfields! Emphasis needs to be placed on undoing the regulatory bias intended to isolate rural communities. It does us no good that we have well-funded airports but few pilots, and thus no flights to service them.

One correction to Rep. Smith's comments -- FAA is not an acronym for "Federal Aviation Authority;" rather it is the Federal Aviation Administration. However, with the Obama regime, "authority" -- as in life under the rules of an oppressive authoritarian oligarchy -- would be appropriate.

Bruce C. Desautels

Stratton Nebraska

Comments
View 3 comments
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
  • Baloney!!!

    -- Posted by S&P1958 on Fri, Aug 15, 2014, at 7:50 AM
  • I agree that the training hours for pilots needs to be addressed by Congress. More training is fine but the huge jump is not necessary.

    -- Posted by dennis on Fri, Aug 15, 2014, at 8:25 AM
  • I find it ironic that it is Obama segregating rural America when 3 years ago, Republicans partially shutdown the FAA because they wanted to end funding for the Essential Air Service program that provides flights to the same rural areas Bruce claims is being segregated.

    While the hours increase was gross overreaction the Colgan Air crash, The airlines did have several years to prepare for them. Instead some, like Great Lakes, decided to hold off making sure they would be ready for the change in hopes that congress would change the hours to lessen the pain.

    A year after the law went into effect, congress, seeing the pain the hours have changed, still has not made any indication that they really care to get involved with changing hours.

    The regional airlines that planned ahead felt some pain, but were still able to get their flights out.

    The ones that didn't plan ahead bled pilots like crazy to the higher paying majors, then took another hit when reliability went to 0 and they had to start cutting out routes. It's going to take a lot of time for them to win back the customers they lost because they stranded them at an airport.

    As a side note, the one airline that seemed to lose the most pilots and had to cut the most routes, is the same one that receives the most funding from the government due to EAS subsidies.

    Now with the cost for obtaining an ATP certificate reaching over $100,000 what's really going to end up happening is that wages pilots are paid will be going up.

    -- Posted by npwinder on Mon, Aug 18, 2014, at 1:49 AM
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: