Coms

Letters

Getting the lead out

The article titled “Getting the Lead Out” (June 2023, Flight Training) summarizes the aviation industry’s unleaded fuel transition strategy: complete the transition effectively and efficiently with no negative impact on safety…smartly and safely…by 2030. That’s 34 years after leaded gasoline was banned from on-road vehicles.

Unmentioned in the article, a California State University study cites the massive benefits the phaseout of leaded gasoline in on-road vehicles has brought, including more than 1.2 million fewer premature deaths annually, 125,000 of them of children, with tests showing lead in blood levels dropping dramatically by 90 percent or more, particularly in cities.

The article struck me as massively tone deaf to the severe consequences of burning leaded gasoline and instead focused on presenting how responsibly the aviation community is acting. To paraphrase the article: Ignore the pile of bodies in the corner; we have a really hard problem, and we plan to solve it 34 years after the auto industry figured it out. Are we great or what!

A more balanced approach would be appreciated.

Bill Burnett
Southport, North Carolina

Learn more about the transition to unleaded fuel at aopa.org/100ul.

Say it with me

I thought Sarah Deener’s article (“Say It With Me,” June 2023, Flight Training) was very well written. I especially like the statement, “Each declaration we make is an assertion that we know what’s happening, have identified the correct action to take, and are taking charge to execute it.” Impactful.

Randy Skelton
Spokane, Washington

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