AVmail: February 4, 2013

Each week, we run a sampling of the letters received to our editorial inbox here in AVmail. One letter that's particularly relevant, informative, or otherwise compelling will headline this section as our "Letter of the Week," and we'll send the author an official AVweb baseball cap as a "thank you" for interacting with us (and the rest of our readership). Send us your comments and questions using this form. Please include your mailing address in your e-mail (just in case your letter is our "Letter of the Week"); by the same token, please let us know if your message is not intended for publication.

Letter of the Week: Who Should Pay?

Regarding the story about iPad apps for aviation: Compare the cost of an iPad app to that of FAA paper publications needed.

Why shouldn't the FAA be compensated for gathering the data that goes to the app-makers? Why, and how, do people think they are entitled to something for nothing? Or, in Mr. Goldstein's case, pay nothing at wholesale so they can add some value and sell at retail. Come on.

John Sullivan

How to Find Me

Regarding the "Question of the Week": I use a handheld 406/121.5 MHz/GPS PLB, and I fly often. The RV-8A I built has a 121 MHz ELT in the tail.

Brad Snodgrass

Since I rent, I don't have much choice in installed equipment. I carry a 406 PLB, since my days in CAP taught me the 121.5 ELT in the tail is only useful as ballast.

John Clear

We have a 406 MHz ELT and carry a survival kit but haven't adopted ADS-B yet. It's still not fully implemented in the area we fly.

Jim McNeill

Pilots as Targets

Regarding the story about shots hitting an aircraft, there needs to be more public notice of this problem. It happens too often.

It usually gets into court and the charges are dropped or reduced to nothing. I was shot at 12 times, and the aircraft was hit three times with a .270 deer rifle. The guy only got six months. I guess pilots are not that important to the general public.

Wayne Slaughter

Lock Issues

I read your article about key locks, and all the problems seem to have to do with the key; don't lose your key, don't give it to someone, don't get it duplicated, or that someone may be able to "bump" your lock with a similar key. So, what about combination locks? Doesn't this solve all those problems? What's your view?

Crista Worthy

The article about how to defeat locks by Dave Hook was interesting and woefully useless.

So, what does he suggest? Tripwires? Booby traps? 24-hour video surveillance with alarms on doors? Armed guards in the hangar?

Come on, AVweb, if you run an article about how easy it is to neutralize the security of hangars and aircraft locks, please wrap it up with some useful suggestions. ... Discuss some economical and effective security measures, including effective locks!

John Townsley

Read AVmail from other weeks here, and submit your own Letter to the Editor with this form.

Editorial StaffAVweb