U.S. AOPA would not be directly interested but its big political influence members would well be very interested in hearing that Europe is screwing its US licensed pilots in this way, while trying to sell Airbuses to the U.S. military, with the "allegedly" "interesting" "methods" used to sweeten the deal already causing much controversy....
Very simple really.
The sale of a single Airbus is worth more than doing anything about the whole European FRA scene. Airbus = EASA = France = EU in practical political terms. 1 phone call would be enough to kill off any EASA proposal, especially a purely "political envy" one like FRA controls which has no safety angle whatsoever.
Look at this on a "regulator human" level. Most political moves make some people happy, even if they upset some groups. Banning handguns was supported by many people (like it or not). The EASA proposals are not going to make anybody happy - except a few politicians, and a few elitists, and a few axe grinders like EU FTOs hoping to pick up business but none of these people would be willing to stand up and openly admit to their leanings because they would be too ashamed of having chased business in such an underhand way.
Last edited by IO540; 1st October 2010 at 02:27.