Registration Red Tape, Ain't This Fun!

[Bill Greenwood]

You would think that the employees at the FAA could find some real work to do, perhaps is closely supervising airline maintenance now that so much of it is outsourced to 2nd world and even 3rd world countries in Latin America, and most major airlines have gone through bankruptcy or are on the brink of it.

And we know how busy they have been with vital safety work like making sure the Alec Baldwin doesn't use a cell phone on the airplane.

And let's give them credit where due, last year there was not even one fatality on a major U S airline, so someone at the FAA and the airline must be doing something right.

But, there must have been at least one employee with time on their hands and/or perhaps a grudge against private general aviation.

The have come up with a scheme that we have to re-register all our planes. Now normally when the govt, any govt, does something new it is really all about money and whatever the disguise it is a way to get more money out of the public.
But this does not seem to be the case here, they are only asking for $5 per plane.
But it still a hassle and for no reason that I can discern.

And they sent me a notice about it, well in advance. But did they do the logical thing and make the notice that they mailed out be the paper to re-register, so that an owner can just fill in a few lines and sign his name and mail it back with the $5? Heck no, that would be much too logical, and maybe not have enough paperwork to keep the employees going.

No, we have to go online, to print out the silly form, the one they could have easily mailed me when they sent the notice. Now that may be really easy for someone who lives on a computer. But for me, I am not that good with a computer, so I have got to go find one with a printer that works, maybe the local office supply store and get them to print out this magic form, so I can send it in with my $5.

So what the effect of this is that being able to use a computer or at least having someone to do it for you is now a defacto requirement to own a registered airplane.

And most of all, I am 99 % sure that this is a total waste of time, that once all these forms are sent in, they will go into some file and never even be looked at again.
And not one pilot will be any safer, or have any benefit at all from having any more red tape on file with the FAA.

I have 2 main fuel tanks in my plane, and each has 2 indicators. One indicator is sometimes erratic. I could take the time to try to fix this now, once before it was a dirty ground wire. Or I could spend the time on this form nonsense. I guess I am a little old fashioned in my thinking that a fuel gauge might be more important that more red tape.