Re: paying for flying training
My Parents hocked the house to get me on a flying career, (2,000 Aussie quid in those days), and until I realised brickies labourers got paid more than I could earn plus pay the loan back, I was content to spend and enjoy.
I hope I expressed my gratitude before they died for giving me the gift of flight.
I enjoyed flying so much and didn't want to ruin the feeling, so I gave it away to become a "recreational" pilot.
That was 40 years ago.
I gave my Son the gift of flight, my Wife also, and I am nurturing Grandkids in the same vein.
What can you say, except "I would do it all over again".
AOPA has resolved many problems for me, but of recent I was forced to resign (as a member), because they emphatically made it clear that they would let me swing instead of doing what they were elected to do for their members. Only because I disagreed with the policy of making money from the members by misrepresenting the ASIC mess, perpetuating the confusion, and refusing to fight the issue.
Ill informed blind adherence to the ADSB concept has also ruined my faith in the organisation.
Also as a recently resigned "elected" board member, I couldn't abide any confidentiality agreements and secrecy deals that made policy without members input.
I couldn't abide a sneaky amendment to the constitution under the guise of ridding any future board of one "gaunty" to give illegal power to an elite fiat, or Troika, who have since dispensed with the rest of the elected board to further their own agendas.
There is nothing wrong with AOPA except some (a few), politically agenda driven individuals who control it, proclaiming the same boring mantra of the past and the redemption. They need to fall on their swords.
These controlling few, are self made men worshipping their creators, and need tossing out at the next elections. The silent remainders are, in my opinion, and as I was, intimidated with threats of "I would sue the ar$e off you" by people capable of seizing my family home.
So much for democracy and AOPA.
When this sort of thing stops, I and many others may rejoin.