Building Support For The Pilots Bill of Rights 2?

[Buzz]

The EAA has done a wonderful job with their Rally Congress program. The website is very easy for people to send a letter to their House rep and their Senator.

Like all organizations, Congress will respond to the "squeakiest wheel" first. So my suggestion is we build the size of the wheel that is squeaking. EAA has given us the tool to do that with the weblink. We can do the rest with our own personal network and email address books.

This is an email I drafted to send to my family, friends and co-workers. Some of you may want to write something different. But you get the general gist.

If we consider how many friends, relatives, colleagues at work, etc. that EAA members have that would take 2 minutes out to do this as a favor to them, that number gets pretty LARGE.

The one thing all those people have in common is this is an outdated, arcane law that is costing them money as taxpayers to leave on the books. That's an additional reason for them to want to take the 2 minutes required.

My thoughts. Thanks for reading.

-Buzz
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"Dear Family & Friends,

Many of you may know that flying has been a passion for me. Many of you have taken a flight with me.

There is an outdated FAA law on the books regarding medical requirements for pilots like me. The effect of this outdated law is illogical.

The effect is the government can as equally qualified & skilled to take my family for a Sunday drive or a Sunday flight. But it can view me not equally medically fit to take them for a Sunday drive or a Sunday flight. That makes no sense.

There is a bill in Congress right now to get rid of this outdated law. It has bipartisan support. The law says if I’m medically fine to take my family for a drive, then I’m medically fine to take my family for a flight.

I’d appreciate it if you’d help get the law passed so I can continue to enjoy flying with my family.

I hope you’ll also help get it passed as fellow taxpayer. This bill will eliminate the wasteful government spending required to monitor and enforce this outdated law.

To help get this bill passed, I’d appreciate it if you'd take 2 minutes to click on this link. It’ll automatically send a letter to your Congressperson and Senators and ask them to support the bill that changes this law.

Thanks for your help!

http://govt.eaa.org/17422/support-pilots-bill-rights-2/

-Buzz

P.S. This outdated medical law is only for non-professional pilots like me. Airline pilots are under completely separate medical requirements.

[rwanttaja]

Nice idea, Buzz. The only thing I might suggest is changing "law" to "regulation" when referring to current FAA medical rules. You might also consider changing the second sentence from:

"There is an outdated FAA law on the books regarding medical requirements for pilots like me. The effect of this outdated law is illogical. "

to something like....

"Currently, the FAA judges a person's physical capability to fly based on standards developed in the 1920s. These standards were based on those established for Military pilots in the '20s, and don't reflect the actual physical condition needed to fly a recreational aircraft, or modern-day medical knowledge."

Just a thought. Good job, though.

Ron Wanttaja

[Buzz]

The only thing I might suggest is changing

Thanks Ron. All good suggestions.

The bipartisan support would seem to indicate that this is a bill we could get non-pilots to support if we'd make it simple for them to voice their support [which EAA has done with their website] and we make an appeal to them to do so. While they don't have a lot of personal reason for the bill to pass, non-pilots also won't be against supporting it if we ask them to.

Hearing from 10 different people an EAA member asks to voice their support would help that EAA member really leverage EAA's work on getting Congress to pass the bill.

I also think a congressional member's safe bet is NOT to take a position on a bill unless there is something in it for themselves. [For example, they'll get the bill's sponsor's support on one of their own bills if they support this one.]

So they'll "fence sit" on a bill like this that doesn't benefit a huge number of citizen's directly until they see a reason to get off the fence.

Hearing from a lot of constituents gets them off the fence on it faster I would think.

-Buzz

[Todd copeland]

This is exactly what I did right away. I asked all of my friends and relatives to write in and why. I provided them with the link to make it easy. Also made a plea on Glasair aircrafts forums as well as pilots of America forums to drive the support. After that, I also used my limited social media exposure, to ask people to write in and also provided the link there as well. I believe I've managed to get about 20-25 people to do it, maybe a lot more. If all of us do this, think where we can be in this fight.

[Buzz]

This is exactly what I did right away. I asked all of my friends and relatives to write in and why. I provided them with the link to make it easy. Also made a plea on Glasair aircrafts forums as well as pilots of America forums to drive the support. After that, I also used my limited social media exposure, to ask people to write in and also provided the link there as well. I believe I've managed to get about 20-25 people to do it, maybe a lot more. If all of us do this, think where we can be in this fight.

Fantastic Todd!!

One suggestion. Why don't you send your post to Sport Aviation as a "letter to the editor". There would be a lot of eyes reading your firsthand results there and thinking about what they could do themselves. It would be a timely letter right now with Jack Pelton just having talked about PBOR2 in his column this month.

-Buzz

[Don January]

I recieved a letter from Senater Heidi Heitkamp thanking me for my letter. Her letter states she values my input and will consider questions and comments ! I can't help but wonder if I vote for the next president will my vote even effect the outcome ??

[Todd copeland]

I'll do it!