Yes, Peter was a very strong crusader for aviation and GA in particular during his term as AOPA President from 1982 to 1995 back in the days when they had over 10,000 members.
He was a great bloke and mate and had a sense of humour that kept us all on guard as sometimes you did not see the joke till it was history! One of his historic letters was written in regard to the introduction of the Y codes for locations indicators (YMML in place of AMML etc). Every word in the letter started with a "Y" - it was just so good and to the point, especially when the change was conducted without any discussion or consultation with industry (what has changed?) One of his famous editorials in the magazine has been published on the AOPA web site and it is worth quoting just part of it from December 1992 (
maybe some things don't change?):
AVIATION-
NO LONGER RIVETED, JUST SCREWED
No longer the "lucky country", we are to be the clever country"... or so the Government would have us believe. Unfortunately in aviation a more correct description would be "dumb".When it comes to aviation matters, Australians are decidedly dumb. We are dumb because we do not speak out when the "clever Government" decides to rip off millions of dollars from our industry. We are dumb because we let the Government get away with it without so much as a murmur.
And it goes on....
RIP Peter, you are a legend and will not be forgotten !