Regarding Comments On AVweb
Thank you for your message about reader comments. I agree with you.
I am president of an organization representing the GA flight instructor community. Before, I was the chief instructor for a regional airline. Over the years, so much industry energy has been spent discussing topics concerning the existence of a pilot shortage or not, and flight time versus flight experience requirements for airline pilot hiring. These discussions can quickly become polarized, logic is lost, and no one wins.
We are all ambassadors of aviation. I suggest we focus our energies on providing quality training at every level, maintaining a culture of professionalism, and creating pathways to yes for future aviators. If we do, everyone wins.
Keep up the good work and best wishes for continued success.
Paul Preidecker
I’ve just read with relief Tim Cole’s announcement that AVweb will no longer tolerate the growing lack of civility in the Comments section.
I’ve read AvWeb with pleasure since its inception. Until recently. The unpleasantness in the Comments section has led me to read less and to seriously consider canceling my subscription.
Even today, some commenters have used the section for irrelevant political sniping…and to criticize Tim’s announcement. May they be less welcome here. And may AVweb return to being the best online source for all things aviation.
Joseph
Thank you (and Tim Cole) for the post regarding comments. I am a former pilot and am currently heavily involved in the aviation industry.
Recently, I was getting very close to bailing on this website. I was so shocked at the toxic comments about our current Sec of Transportation – nothing of substance but calling him out due to his private life and how terrible the government and the FAA are. I showed these comments to my 18-year-old daughter, shaking my head as I was embarrassed about aviation and what it seemed GA had become since I was active. However, later when I went to show my wife, I saw the comments were gone. It showed that you all have standards and are keeping the discussion on the topic.
Thank you for the bold statement about how comments will be handled in the future. I will continue to review AVweb daily and share the news and updates with my co-workers and stakeholders. We do hear you all. Thanks.
David R.
Hearing Aids For Flying: RIC Models Worth A Try
This is a good article. I’m not a pilot (yet) and I am a traveling technician for Gulfstream Aerospace. I have been deaf since I was one year old. i wear a pair of Resound super power behind-the-ear aids. They are Bluetooth enabled. My work around is to use an accessory called MultiMic. Basically I can take any audio source, connect it to the MultiMic, and it will be piped in directly to my hearing aids via Bluetooth. I still wear the headset for the microphone, and use an adapter to connect the MultiMic to the audio jack. My ears sounds like I am plugged in directly to the audio panel. Many other hearing aid manufacturers do offer Bluetooth accessories to enable this for their respective hearing aids. Hope this helps out a fellow aviator. Thanks!
Nathan K.
I fly a Cherokee Six using Bose A20 headsets and Phonak hearing aids. All I have to do is use my smartphone to turn down the hearing aids to minus two or minus three and the feedback goes away. If I forget to turn them down before donning the headset, there is a reminder tone (feedback squeal) to remind me. Most modern good quality hearing aids have wireless adjustability. My suggestion is that if you need hearing aids, spend the extra money and get good ones that have wireless adjustability.
Carl F.
While I am not there yet, I anticipate I will be in a few years. If you ask my wife, she says I need them now. What?
This is a good article for me to start the research and keep an eye on progress. Thankfully, the cost is now included in many insurance plans. Medicare as well. Hopefully, this will allow new research and products to benefit all of us.
Joe P.
I don’t find the hearing aids (OTE in my case) to be a plus in terms of clarity when using my Lightspeeds, so I do put up with the hassle of removing and replacing while hoping to avoid forgetting, dropping or losing them.
I think back on communicating using the old cabin speakers (and a hand mike). Most of them were only marginally understandable even using young ears. I, and doubtless most of my contemporaries also, would never be able to deal with that now. Noise canceling headsets are right up there with GPS as the innovation the past few decades.
John W.
Poll: Which Is Your Number One Accident Fear?
- Having had two engine failures in my flying career, that is my biggest concern, but a midair collision would be a close second.
- Drone collision. Much harder to see than real airplanes, becoming more numerous and operated by untrained, social media-hungry idiots. Also, unlike birds, they’re full of hard materials like metal and glass.
- Wing separation.
- Low altitude stall.
- A cabin or cockpit fire. Especially during a trans-oceanic flight.
- CFIT in IMC from loss of positional awareness.
- Making a poor or distracted decision.
- Smoke/fire or oiled up windscreen.
- Landing screw up.
- Approach stall.
- Fuel fire.
- Doing something really stupid involving any of the above or something else. Being dumb enough to do something that I know I shouldn’t. Getting overly confident in my abilities or “get-home-itis.”
- Hitting power lines or tower.
- Stall/spin during a base to final overshoot.
- Cockpit, engine fire.
- Mechanical failure (including engine).
- Flight control failure. The other choices are easier to mitigate against.
- Airframe breakup in-flight.
- Controlled flight into terrain.
- Structural failure.
- Poor maintenance.
- Fire in the cabin. I had smoke in the cockpit on a corporate jet and couldn’t get on the ground fast enough.
- Bird strike.
- Loss of control surfaces.
- Ground loop.
- Me as the source of Pilot Error.
- Engine failure over water.
- Water in fuel.
- Stall/spin due to distraction.
- Electrical fire.
- Messing up badly.
- Powerlines.
- Myself. Brain fart.
- Doing something stupid, like over shooting final and not going around immediately.
- Airframe failure.
- Open fire in the cockpit or loss of one of the primary controls.
- Bird strike – we have an abundance of bald eagles near our home field.
- Sudden tailwind that takes out the lift. It happened to me and I quit due to compressed spine.
- Vacuum failure.
- Stall-spin.
- Mechanical/structural issue that makes control difficult/impossible.
- Drone strike.
- Loss of control.
- Gear-up landing.
- Pilot incapacitation.
- Under-trained pilots , unable to fly without the new tech.
- Control failures.
- Screwing up.
- Broken coffee maker in the galley.
Put me down as one of the few NON-PC readers and contributors that would like to make sure that AvWeb doesn’t abandon its unique status as a “call-em-as-we-see-em” site. I write for several aviation magazines, and when I met Paul Bertorelli in person, I told him I admired his insouciant commentary. (“casual lack of concern, indifferent, lighthearted.”) Paul’s perfect reply was right in character–“Back where I came from, we would call that “Smartass!” In my opinion, it has made Paul the premier General Aviation Writer today–and in conjunction with other AvWeb writers, has made AvWeb THE PLACE TO LOOK FOR TRUE AVIATION NEWS–UNBOUND BY ADVERTISERS OR “POLITICAL CORRECTNESS.”
It has also made AvWeb THE “Clubhouse” for those with opinions (and let’s face it–have you EVER seen an aviator without an opinion?) Yes–some readers take it over the top a bit–but a simple admonishment to “tone it down a bit” or “please–no personal attacks”–or “let’s just stick to aviation facts” would have sufficed.
Avweb management ITSELF went “over the top” on their admonishments. A simple “no personal attacks” would have sufficed. “Let’s hear what readers REALLY THINK has become the AvWeb “brand”–and you risk losing that title by caving to the PC crowd.
I subscribe to a lot of aviation publications, but most of them don’t write as objectively as the AvWeb crowd. I can get “news” from any of them–but for unfettered opinion (from both writers and users) there is nothing like AvWeb and Aviation Consumer. Delete if you must–but be careful–there is a fine line between dissenting opinion and censorship. We can get product reviews ANYWHERE–you risk your unique status if you temper what people REALLY THINK–about products, process, or government officials. You are correct in asking to restrict personal attacks on individuals for their non-aviation beliefs or actions–but as government officials, they SHOULD be held responsible for their behavior in office. As representatives of ALL OF THE PEOPLE–“IT GOES WITH THE JOB.”
Let’s all get back to work–reporting upon and reviewing the industry virtually unfettered–delete if you must–but don’t give up on a valuable and winning formula for publication.