How Stupid Can The Non-Flying Public Be?

This comment, from an article written on the Titusville, Fl crash made me laugh and want to strangle the author. My comments are in yellow.


"#1 Phil White - Nedw smyrna Beach Fl - 3/2/2008 3:38:00 AM Why do the Federal and State authorities continue to allow experimental planes to be built and fly. Are these planes checked before their first flight by any authority or does someone just build the plane and take off? So, Phil...they were flying something that was built over a weekend with chewing gum and electrical tape, huh? Try putting 4, 5, 6 or more years of your life into building an aircraft. Too many people die in these planes and something should be done to regulate them as automobiles are. Phil, do you realize that more people are killed each year in cars, than were killed in the entire Vietnam war? (57,695 killed by cars in 2006 - 52,000 American soldiers were killed in battle in all of Vietnam) If you want to see a lot of deaths, go to the NTSB aviation database and search for all Cessna/Fatal. The reason why the experimental class of aircraft has seen a rise in accidents is because more are now flying. For comparison, which automobile has the greatest number of accidents? The Toyota Corolla. Because it's unsafe? No, because it is the all-time largest selling automobile is existence. After working 10 years as a trauma tech, I can assure you that cars kill much more than aircraft. You can't build and experimental automobile and drive it without federal and state authorities looking over your shoulder! Usually most of these crashes are experimental planes with an older person behind the controls. Older pilots are evidently not as regulated as the older people with automobile licenses are. They should probably be checked more often both mentally and physically the automobile owners." Okay, now you hit a sore point! I lived in Cape Coral, Fl "the home of the newly wed, and the nearly dead", I can attest that older drivers are NOT checked, physically. Try flying with anything wrong. Have a heart attack...they take away your driver's license? Nope...but a pilot will be grounded. The funniest part is that the "old pilots" were on the ground in their RV-8 and were hit by the Velocity aircraft. The comments that this "expert writer of commentary" left show how poorly the non-flying public understands flying. We need to educate them