FAA Response to Young Eagles Petition

[Bill Greenwood]

I am not sure, but I think there was a fund raiser one night at the museum and quite a bit of money, maybe more than a $million was totaled up for the Young Eagles program.

My question is what this money is used for? Obviously there are some admin and advertising costs associated with EAA running this program, but I would think it would run in the tens of thousands $, not anywhere near a million. And insurance is probably a signiificant cost also. Are these funds also used for the summer air academy? Don't the participant in that pay a fee or not?

Since the main costs for Young Eagles and flying the adult first timers are furnished by the pilots/owners by using their own planes, it should not be so expensive for EAA.
I have flown some dozens of kids and some parents, and never asked for free fuel, it didn't really occur to me, but I thought this was offered by Phillips or Shell or some sponsor, not by EAA. Some pilots have flown hundreds of kids and at least one is up to 1000!, so fuel reimbursment would be a big factor for them.

What are the details for these programs and costs?

I am all for the programs, especially now putting some emphasis on flying people of the age that are likely to start taking lessons and go on to be pilots and EAA members.

And the most important thing is that these flights be safe, not whether fuel costs are reimbursed.
When you are flying some Mother's child, you are responsible for the most dear thing in her life.
We have shown that we can fly safely, with perhaps almost 2 million flown and as for as I know only a couple of accidents.
Let's not let our standards down, no shortcuts of safety on these flights.