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How The FAA Shot Down 'Uber For Planes' (fee.org)
SonicSpike quotes a report from the Foundation for Economic Education that first appeared at Forbes: Imagine traveling from Boston to Martha's Vineyard in under an hour and for less than $70. Believe it or not, this option was available from Flytenow's website or app, by looking for a general aviation pilot who was making that trip, and then splitting the cost with that pilot and whoever else was sharing the flight. Entrepreneurs were bringing private air travel to the masses until Flytenow's leadership met with members of the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure that they were complying with all laws and regulations. Instead of embracing this service, the FAA used tortuous logic to ban Flytenow and other online flight-sharing websites because it considered these to be "common carriers" (such as Delta Airlines). Private pilots cannot possibly comply with the myriad regulations that apply to the large airlines. In what follows, Flytenow founders Alan Guichard and Matt Voska explain why the federal government should make the FAA allow flight sharing to get off the ground.
He does the U.S. mail run to McCartney
He regularly takes sight-seeing tourists with him on the run, since it is allowed under their contract.
There are absolutely no regulation requirements for the travelers.
Pilots like my father are, of course, subject to all FAA regulations including medical, regular license renewal, insurance requirements, etc...
All of this information is available to anyone who asks, that would include Uber
In fact, there is far more oversight on a private pilot than on a cab driver. There is no way for Uber to know immediately if a driver with a suspended license gets into a car and picks up a fair.
In the case of nearly all private pilots, however, the moment they leave the runway they are on someone's radar. If they haven't filed a flight plan, the FAA will know within minutes.
There is absolutely no reason for this except airline influence. It's a convenience technology that should be covered by existing regulations, nothing more. Like Expedia for private pilots.
My $0.02 will always be worth more than your â0.02, so
The fatality rate for general aviation is 82 times that for commercial flight. Are these people utterly insane?
If a flight costs me 1/2 the price of a commercial flight, and many, many hours of time saved (because I don't have to go three hours ahead of the flight time each way in case the TSA is having a bad day) why not?
Let me choose how I am willing to trade money and time for risk.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Small (especially single-engine) planes are SEVERAL ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE more likely to crash than large jets, and pilot experience has very little to do with it.
Don't believe me? OK, search Google for the last single-engine plane crash within 100 miles of your home. Chances are, unless you live in the middle of nowhere, there's been at least one within the past 2-3 years. Now... when's the last time a commercial jet crashed within 100 miles of your home (9/11 doesn't count)?
I live in South Florida. We've had exactly THREE nearby commercial jet crashes within the past 50 years... ValuJet flight 592 in 1996, Fine Air flight 101 in 1997, and Eastern Airlines flight 401 in 1972. One was the result of criminal corporate malfeasance, one was the result of breathtaking stupidity (an overweight cargo jet whose contents shifted during takeoff), and one was the result of pilot error that modern flight control systems make nearly impossible. Both MIA and FLL average at least one jet taking off or landing per minute, for approximately 18 hours per day, every day. Literally millions of people fly to and from South Florida on commercial flights every day, with a 50-year fatality rate that averages out to almost zero.
Now, contrast that with crashes of single-engine private planes. FXE (Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport) has had at least 3 crashes since 2009. I used to work at an office adjacent to one of its runways, and LITERALLY heard a plane crash about a quarter mile away while sitting at my desk. Another plane ran off the runway and ended up in a nearby parking lot. Another crashed into a residential neighborhood a mile away. And that's just one airport in Broward County. I think both of Miami's general-aviation airports (Opa-Locka and Miami Executive) have had at least 3 crashes apiece in the past 5 years, too. And I'm not even counting the planes that fall into the Caribbean between South Florida and the Bahamas.
Compared to commercial jets, single-engine private planes are deathtraps, and the FAA knows it. It doesn't have the political capital to ban them outright, but it's not going to allow several times as many people to put themselves (and others) at risk by allowing an Uber-like service to encourage more private flights with more passengers on board. It's either going to rigidly enforce its ban on commercializing private planes, or increase the regulatory requirements ON private planes to compensate... and if it encountered too much resistance over maintenance and equipment regulations, it would move to severely restrict the operation of private single-engine planes in urban airspace.