This year at Oshkosh the $45 air traffic control fee has the radical rich boiling over. The sequester, which they support and love, has hit them the hardest they say, not the schools, and certainly not the poor. A few small airports are now without controllers, airport still open, but the pilot has to look out for himself. Unfair they say, they are being targeted and now a $45 dollar fee has been added for some flight plans. Now if you have a 2, or 12 million dollar little jet, or even a 150k prop job, or a 900k twin prop job, the annual up keep and fuel if you fly much is hugh, for a Lear Jet it's in the hundreds of thousands a year, and we didn't talk yet about a pilots wages or hanger fees. Well kiss my ass, these guys spend more than $45 on a steak and baked potato dinner. Again the Radical Rich want a free ride for their hobby, oh excuse me, it's almost always a business expense for them.
I have a business associate that flies his Cessna jet to every Nebraska home game weather permitting, with a hired pilot, fuel, parking fee. My guess is that's about $2,000 a game. Living in Wichita, the Detroit of airplanes, the whining is constant that such high fees are going to wreck the industry, yes sir, do you believe that shit, you really think these millionaires will sell their planes and go back to standing in line at the airport with the public for $45? All they want is for us to pay their expenses.
Those that own airplanes don't want to pay for anything other than the plane and that is why aircraft mechanics usually make less money than auto mechanics. In the mid-80s I interviewed for a job with a regional airline. They offered me $6.75 an hour (if I'd had both the A & P, they would have paid me 25 cents more) and when I checked with the local Chevy dealer and asked what wage they would start a journeyman mechanic with 10 years experience, they said $11 an hour. And the local FBOs paid less than the regional airline.
ReplyDeleteActually, most the airplanes are owned by their business, few are owned outright. Writing it off as a business investment, depreciation, deduction on interest, write off the upkeep and storage. They aren't paying anything for it in most cases. The company pays and takes the writeoffs. Still, the Radical Rich want the tax payers to pay for air traffic control, navigational aids, radar and radio networks, weather briefings, airport lighting, runways, airports, fire/search and rescue. All this must be provided to the radical rich by the nation.
DeleteBy the way, that Trump jet was impounded in Newburgh, NY in '86 because he hadn't paid his hanger fees!!
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised he would shirk his bills, but surprised he lost a round to anyone or any court action. Along with the Kochs, the "comb over king" fits better than most the label of radical rich.
Delete