USAToday, in typical sensationalistic fashion, presented a fictionalized piece about general aviation on June 18th. I found it to be inaccurate. Seems that I’m not the only one.
From AOPA:
A USA Today story, “Unfit for flight,” published June 18 “gets the general aviation safety record wrong, it ignores efforts by the industry to make general aviation safer, and it violates basic tenets of fairness and accuracy when it comes to good journalism,” AOPA said in response to the article.
The three-part report paints GA aircraft as death traps, pilots as “amateur,” and aircraft manufacturers as villains, and pits pilots against manufacturers. AOPA, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, and Textron had provided information to the reporter, information that was not included in the sensational, one-sided, inaccurate report.
Shell has announced a lead-free replacement for the 110LL that is currently used by most general aviation piston aircraft. From the AOPA website:
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has teamed up with the Association of California Airports and other aviation organizations to support the first California Aviation Awareness Day on April 24, 2013.