Max Trescott Aviation Trends Aloft

1000 New Comments on LASP & The Doobie Brothers

Thanks to everyone who submitted a comment on the TSA’s LASP program. More than 1,000 comments were submitted in the last 5 days, bringing the total to about 4,000, which may be a record for an aviation related NPRM. Having read dozens of the comments, I can tell you that they were respectful, well thought out, and relevant to the day-to-day work of the commenters. They all opposed the NPRM—I didn’t see a single comment favoring it. Many aviation bloggers and Web sites helped spur pilots to action. There's a www.stoplasp.com Web site. And the image I used for this post? Borrowed from flightlineinternetradio.com. Even BNET wrote an artice opposing LASP.

One comment was filed by a King Air pilot who was a former FBI agent. He faulted...

Phase II--Contact Your Senator regarding LASP

Since my original blog post, I’ve been in contact with some of the top leaders in the GA industry. They too are concerned about LASP and agree that your help is needed. You may have noticed that other popular blogs, including www.jetwhine.com, www.plasticpilot.net, www.aviationchatter.com, www.myflightblog.com, www.askacfi.com, www.av8rdan.com and mileofrunway have all echoed the need for pilots to take action now. In the last few days, more than 500 additional comments have been logged at regulations.gov, bringing the total to over 3,400. Comments are due to the TSA by midnight of February 27, 2008, so you’ll need to act soon. For details on the issue, read the earlier post TSA’s LASP: A Solution in Search of a Problem.

As important as it is to register your comments with TSA, it may be even more important to contact your elected representatives, particularly...

TSA’s LASP: A Solution in Search of a Problem

General Aviation is facing a huge threat and it's not User Fees. In fact, I would gladly accept a program of user fees over the TSA’s proposed Large Aircraft Security Program (LASP). Why are user fees better? Because they would be less expensive ($25 per flight versus $44 per flight), provide the same increase in security (very little) and wouldn’t destroy the convenience and utility of general aviation.

Benjamin Franklin clearly had these kinds of rules in mind when he said “He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.” In this case, the TSA wants us to give up our personal freedom to fly when and where we wish through an airline-like screening program that does little to improve security. Of course...

Join My Electronic World

The world is becoming ever more tightly connected each day. The reverberations between Wall Street and my version of Main Street—the general aviation world—are becoming more intense. Just in the last 24 hours, I’ve come across a couple of surprises which I’ll share in a moment. First, if you haven’t already downloaded my Free “Learn to Fly” eBook, please do it now and send it to any friends who you think might want to learn. Let's all do our part to keep General Aviation healthy.

Electronic communication is also becoming pervasive and I’d like to invite you to sign up and join me in several ways. Want to be the first to know when my new...

Clever Marketing 101—From Air Force to Zeppelins

I've always been a fan of clever marketing. You can instantly recognize great marketing when you see it since it is always creative, effective at generating attention and often fun in the process. Sadly, it’s far from a daily occurrence, but it’s fun to sit back and grin when you see it. I worked for a large high tech firm for 16 years in marketing and later 9 years in sales and I saw a lot of ho-hum marketing with occasional flashes of brilliance. This is the norm in most industries.

A lot of people confuse marketing with...