ATC to be privatized

[saber25]

I agree with RV builder, political advocacy is also my primary reason for being in EAA. Indeed, if this isn’t the forum for discussion on a policy that could have such negative impact on GA I don’t know what forum would be better.

While traveling around northern Europe for five weeks several years ago, we observed just one general aviation aircraft and that was in the vicinity of the Normandy coast. My friend in Freiburg Germany is in a flying club and the constraints and costs associated in that country make flying barely possible, even for someone with a well paying career.
As for improving the system for the airlines… as someone who was employed at a major carrier, it was obvious we created many of our own problems. It boggled my mind that at a major terminal we would receive our pushback at simultaneous times with our competitors. We would then trundle off to the parallel taxiway at KORD behind everyone else, enduring many minutes of delays as the preceding planes took off. Finally the 12:00 o’clock rush was off and the next race was an hour away.
It might also be noted that in 1965 when I first went to work at SFO, that airport had four runways. Decades later while holding somewhere over the Stockton area at a flight level with severe clear, I mentioned to my passengers that although we had clear skies at SFO, you couldn’t get a 10 pound load in a five pound bag. With the same four runways, the arrival rate was limited by blacktop while the airlines all wanted to land at the same time. I was paid to fly, management was paid to plan and manage. I doubt privatization will help them with either.