Young Eagles and the Pilot Protection Policy

[Bill Greenwood]

When the Young Eagles program began years ago I was friends with Steve Buss and I flew a number of kids, one at a time at Oshkosh and other local ones. I really enjoyed it and they seemed t0. There was friction between the head of the Erie based chapter and othere EAA people. One year at 12 noon with a dozen kids waiting in line to fly, the chapter president closed down the table, stood up and left. A couple of us finished those waitng to fly. This one guy scheduled an event at Erie to compete with us, same day ,next year. I think he moved away, hope so.
Ideest the idea that Ive become a pervert lately, but the kids are more important so this year I wentt the tent a filled out the form on line. I recall one question was pareticularly insulting, but I did it. They said they would contact me but I havent heard yet. Id love to interogate those behind this red tape. but its not the kids fault and EAA claims there have been some incidents, which I doubt. We did flights for our kid school classes as well as my sons scount troop never had an red tape., and every parent signed our homemade permission letter. Only one kid did not go and that was because he was afraid not his parents.

[FlyingRon]

Your scout troup ignored the BSA guideance. They wanted to see my insurance, certificates, aircraft logs, etc... I told them, no. I wasn't really inclined to tell them I had more than 250 hours, but I figured that was innocuous enough. Of course the pedophilic bureaucrats at the BSA haven't heard about basic med yet either.

I did get a letter from Steve Buss thanking me for not killing any young eagles.

[Bill Greenwood]

We flew both the school classmates as well as the scouts as a private event, we invited the kids but not through officail scout channels and told them it was not offically scouts. This was years ago and no one was red tape prone. I did do one flight for a teen age son of a friend as an official Boy Scout flight so he could get his aviation badge for Eagle Scout in my T-34, again with no extra paperwork.

[AndyGoldstein]

We take the same approach with Scouts: We won't deal with their red tape for official events, but we're happy to fly them as individuals. Actually, we can't deal with their paperwork because I don't know who's flying until maybe an hour into the event. One of our chapter members is a scout master and arranges occasional merit badge events. He has the parents sign a waiver that acknowledges that the flight is not a Boy Scouts event, but an EAA Young Eagles event. Seems to work fine and no one has complained.

Re the original question: Far as I can tell we didn't lose any pilots because of the YPP thing.

- Andy

[vaflier]

We lost 4 pilots and planes at our airport due to it.

[Bill Greenwood]

I haven't heard anything from EAA since I filled out the Young Eagles forms at the Blue Barn at Airventure, so I phoned them today and Michelle said the reason is that there is no record of a background check being done. I filled out what ever paper or computer answer that the volunteer at the counter told me to do. Anyway she said the person who was in charge of this is not with EAA anymore, so she'd have to check into the paperwork and let me know what the status is. I am not good with computers, and was disgusted with some of the questions , so maybe I didn't do the application right. Like most of us, I think all this is unecesary way overdone, but must admit that the news is full of cases these days where teachers, clergy, or coaches molest children.

[cub builder]

I will not comply with the EAA's background checks, so no longer fly YE. The chapter I was formerly associated with lost half of their YE pilots and now attempts to put together one event per year vs the four annual events we used to do. They are no longer able to fly all the kids that want to fly, so now the kids have to make reservations and fly by appointment only. But it is much more organized with fewer planes and the number of kids restricted. Too bad for the kids, but it's what the national management team wanted.

-Cub Builder