Writing about politics?

[Bill Greenwood]

There is a big difference to me, between "hand-wringing excuses" to overlook some error by and pilot and trying to understand the situation. No one on here, least of all me, was calling him a "saint".
Understanding means knowing how and why this pilot did it and most of all how and why it could happen to some other pilot.
I would rather try to solve the problem than just find joy in someone being punished, and try to learn from it so as to prevent a similar problem from happening again.

This is part of what I was trying to write in my post above, but I got interupted and chad to close it before I was finished.

I try to be, and pride myself on being a safe pilot, but I have once landed on a closed runway and I have once done a flight without checking the notam and flew into an airport where one of the 2 runways were closed.
Neither was really dangerous, I'll write more about them later.

[Mike M]

A pilot that can't be bothered to check NOTAMS should have his ticket yanked.

let the one without sin cast the first stone. since the statute of limitations ran out over 35 years ago, i'll admit i have not ALWAYS checked notams thoroughly enough. (runway was open, ramp to fuel pumps torn up, fuel truck broken) but an unrepentant man who says he won't promise to be more attentive to notams in the future because "pilots who fly a lot just don't do it" is a man who will make the same error again. initially i didn't believe the quote, but it appears accurate. it was reported in numerous media.

in his alibi, mr inhofe claimed the notam wasn't properly disseminated. i can't verify that but it's possible it wasn't. one of the FAA's own websites says "Notices, restrictions, and advisories may change at any time and without notice. This is an official source of NOTAMs for Pilots and other authorized users." https://pilotweb.nas.faa.gov/PilotWeb/disclaimer.jsp

another says "Depicted TFR data may not be a complete listing." http://tfr.faa.gov/tfr2/list.html

just a couple of years ago, i phoned FSS about a stadium TFR and was told they don't know for sure when those are effective. let's not even start on political bus-tour rolling TFRs.

A L W A Y S get a duat.com or duats.com briefing, save yourself a copy, and if you can't do that, phone fss. those methods record what the faa provided and when you got it. practice your go-arounds so you can do one from any altitude and look for obstructions on the runway especially big X's. oh, and it's pro'ly not a good idea to say "i didn't get a brief and i don't intend to in the future" unless you're a senator, too.

[Bill Greenwood]

There is a valuable movement in safety analysis to look at not only what someone did wrong, but how and why they did it?/ What were they thinking? For instance, anyone that can read knows cigarettes are bad for you, but some young people still start smoking. Why do pilots fly into bad weather, even knowing it is there, or try to fly farther than fuel allows?
We do I eat more donuts that spinach?
As pilots, I think we want to learn from others and also know ourselves,where our strenghts are and where we have to be extra focused and cautious on perhaps a weak area.