FAA’s safety standards rigorous
To the editor:
Your Saturday story, "Homemade aircraft: Plane crash kills three," quoted me as saying that experimental aircraft are "absolutely" safe. In fact, what I said was that Federal Aviation Administration regulations are designed to protect the safety of people on the ground as well as pilots.
I also stated that owners of experimental aircraft must conduct lengthy test flights in remote areas to demonstrate that the aircraft are safe before the FAA will authorize them to be flown over populated areas while the pilot is arriving at, or departing from, an airport.
Additionally, I noted that the FAA requires experimental aircraft to undergo safety inspections once they're assembled, and that experimental aircraft also must receive annual inspections, just like Cessnas, Pipers and other privately owned aircraft.
Ian Gregor
HAWTHORNE, CALIF.
THE WRITER IS WESTERN-PACIFIC REGION COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER FOR THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION.
Bad news
To the editor:
Good news, bad news. The good news? The Federal Aviation Administration doesn't allow experimental aircraft, such as the one that just crashed after taking off from the North Las Vegas Airport, to fly over populated areas, except for landings and take-offs.
The bad news? That's when they are most likely to run into trouble and fall out of the sky.
Jerry Fink
LAS VEGAS
Non compos mentis
To the editor:
Your report on the higher education budget approved by the Board of Regents really stirred my ire ("Regents snub call for cuts," Friday Review-Journal).
If I were king, I would declare the whole lot "non compos mentis," place all of them on the upcoming ballot with their budget voting records and provide the people of Nevada the opportunity to declare whether any of them should remain in office.
Shad Dvorchak
HENDERSON
Business as usual
To the editor:
What a dissapointment it was to see that Sen. Barack Obama had picked Sen. Joe Biden as the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee.
Sen. Obama's whole campaign theme has been for change. He had the chance to continue on with that theme until he picked Sen. Biden as his running mate. Sen. Biden has been in the Senate since 1972. He, like Republican candidate John McCain, is part of the problem with this country, not the solution.
It would have been just as well had Sen. Obama named someone such as Harry Reid or Ted Kennedy his running mate. It looks like whoever wins in November, it will be business as usual.
George E. Rowe
CALIENTE
Could have done better
To the editor:
Sen. Joe Biden for vice president? What a bummer.
The primary reason for having a vice president is to have someone who is qualified to take over in case something happens to the president. Is Sen. Biden qualified? He has been rejected as presidential material by his own party not once, but twice.
What is the Obama campaign thinking? With Barack "Fancy pants" Obama and Joe "Foot-in-mouth" Biden leading the party, the election could be a disaster for the Democrats -- and for the country.
It's no wonder that may of Sen. Hillary Clinton's supporters and others are going to vote for Republican John McCain.
G. Christensen
LAS VEGAS
Conservation works
To the editor:
It is amazing that some people believe the price of oil decreased because the president removed the executive ban on some offshore oil drilling. Why did oil speculators react to the president's order and not to the continuing ban by Congress? More domestic oil in 10 or more years may reduce the price of oil in 10 or more years, not now.
Fifty-billion plus fewer miles driven in the past 12 months and more than 12 billion fewer miles driven in June alone did have an effect. Supply and demand.
James Hall
LAS VEGAS
China's legacy
To the editor:
Congratulations to the Chinese government for hosting a dazzling Olympics.
For two full weeks, I nearly forgot about China's annihilation of Tibet, its grotesque environmental wrongdoing, its subjugation of tens of millions of domestic workers, its destruction of a pro-democracy movement in the late 1980s, its support of the murderous Sudanese and its well-documented pre-eminence as the regime responsible for more deaths than any nation in history.
Indeed, watching these games was the most impressive spectacle since the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Nolan Dalla
LAS VEGAS
