by
Darryl Phillips
The "Oshkosh" of the trucking industry is the Mid-America Truck Show held every year in Louisville, KY. Recently I spent a day walking the aisles, and found myself comparing trucking with aviation.
Imagine a single indoor exhibit that holds a dozen full size semitrucks. And the next exhibit holds even more! It goes on and on. Those are fancy rigs on display, and the smiles on the faces of drivers and their families as they climb into the cabs are familiar, they are the same smiles we see as we walk among the showplanes at Oshkosh or Sun'n Fun or NBAA.
I paused at a booth selling toy trucks. A number of drivers were buying gifts for their kids. Peterbilts, Internationals, Volvos, along with Mack, GMC, Ford, Kenworth, they were all there. The tractors and trailers were decorated precisely in scale, emblazoned with logos of CocaCola, Wal Mart, Sunoco, United Parcel, and hundreds more. If you see it on the interstate, most likely you can find it in miniature.
I couldn't help comparing this with aviation. My first airplane was a 1960 Mooney M20 and I've always wanted a model, but none is available. I'm sure a pilot who flies a King Air or Cheyenne or Citation would like to give his son or daughter a copy of Dad's plane, authentically painted. Shouldn't a cropduster's kid have the joy of flying his toy AgCat inches above the lawn?
Aviation would have a brighter future if all children had the opportunity - through models - to connect with the planes they see far away. Mom, why does the 737 only have two motors? Daddy, where did you sit when you flew to Chicago? Do airplanes have bathrooms? Where are they? Alas, in aviation the available models are planes of the government. Military aircraft. The trucking industry gives our next generation the stuff their dreams are made of, in aviation we limit their dreams to war.
At the truck show, there is a large section devoted to driver recruitment. Have you noticed the many semitrucks on the road with a "drivers wanted" sign on the back? There are tons of employment opportunities. Some trucking firms are so desperate they are exploring ways to import drivers from countries to the south and teach them to drive on America's highways. The driver shortage is real, and the pay isn't bad.
Now compare that to aviation. I've never seen an airplane with a "pilots wanted" sign on the tail. We have instructors who eke out a living (barely) while waiting and hoping for the airline call. Yet if just one student makes an error in judgement and prangs a propeller or gets lost on a cross country, the notation on the instructor's FAA record could end his or her airline chances permanently.
What's going on here? Aviation and trucking are ruled by the same Department of Transportation. Secretary Pena is the same top official, whether we're talking trucks or airplanes. And safety is safety, dead is dead on the highway or in the air. Why should the government treat airplane drivers so differently from drivers of trucks?
I think the answer is that truck drivers won't put up with it. They have backbone, something sadly lacking in aviation. For example, consider the recent problems with the Tennessee Public Service Commission. Truckers felt they were being treated unfairly and illegally, so they sued the state government in court and they won. The trials and appeals took just four years. The truckers won with the help of OOIDA, the Owner-Operator Independent Driver Assn. It's the equivalent of AOPA, except AOPA doesn't go after the government like the trucking organization does.
On May 17, 1995, after OOIDA had won in court time after time, the Tennessee PSC was abolished! It is possible to beat the government, but you can't win if you won't fight.
Compare that to aviation. It would appear that we love fighting. At any major airshow, warbirds are all over the place. We put on massive shows of strength and bravado, yet when the chips are down we aren't fighters at all. We have no organization in our pilot ranks that will take the government to court. How could we? We want to be on the side of the government. We paint our planes in government colors, we play aerial combat games, we do lots of things to pretend we are fighters. The only thing missing is the backbone to stand up and fight.
Truckers don't need childish trappings like military paint jobs or fake cannons. Does that mean they are unpatriotic? I would not walk into a truck stop and make any comments about unpatriotic truck drivers! Truckers love their country as much as anyone, but they're secure enough to not need stars and bars on everything. And I think they look out the windshield at enough of the United States to realize that the country and the government are two very different things.
Pilots see the country from a unique and wonderful perspective. Only we who have lived part of our lives aloft know how beautiful this country really is. Pilots have a unique understanding of how restrictive and vindictive and counterproductive the government can be, too.
Never confuse the country with the government.
Technology was all over the place at the truck show. Trucks are a little ahead of airplanes in the use of GPS, and light years ahead in datalink. But the display that caught my eye was the DBS satellite receiver. Intended for the off-duty driver or mate riding in the back, the dish is servo controlled to keep a lock on the satellite during the bumps and turns of the roadway. This little jewel could really move! Imagine 150 channels of digital-quality video while jouncing along the interstate potholes. Aviation has a long way to go.
And all this stuff is legal! What used to be a sleeping bunk is now a complete motorhome with stereo and VCR and fridge and freezer and microwave and toilet with shower. I didn't see a sauna, but maybe next year. The government doesn't interfere with what a truck owner wants to install. Compare that with the zillions of governmental restrictions on what we can put in our airplanes. We are required to get all sorts of approvals and federal blessings, and in many cases are prevented from installing something that would increase our safety. Truckers don't have to play Mother-May-I when they want to add an accessory, they just do it.
Engines. Now THAT is a subject for comparison. All the major producers were at the truck show with the most beautiful cutaway full-motion engine displays I've ever seen. I'm not an IA, but my son is and sometimes I get to help build up a powerplant. The difference between the sleek products going into trucks and our ancient airplane engine designs is astounding. In both cases reliability is paramount and cost is secondary, but trucks are improving their powerplants and we aren't. For instance, there is one truck engine that can step from 185 to 225 or 265 or 295 horsepower just by plugging in a different computer chip! On the other hand, if Orville and Wilbur came back they would understand every little piece of my Lycoming. Aircraft engines haven't really changed since Kitty Hawk, because the government has stupid rules and aviators won't stand up and fight them.
As I walked the aisles of the Mid-America Truck Show, I was reminded again and again of the differences between an industry that is vibrant and alive, and aviation. Cessna is building a new factory to produce a 35 year-old airplane design. If this were an auto or truck, they would be laughed out of business.
FAA requires most planes to carry more fuel than they need, and prohibits ultralights from carrying enough. The government makes the air carriers equip with black boxes in case of an accident, but doesn't use them on it's own 737s including the one that carried the First Lady and Chelsea, and a week later crashed in Croatia. The DOT requires air bags in cars, and prohibits them in airplanes. My pilot friend (name deleted) used to fly his Travelair all over the country, a couple of years ago he had a heart transplant and is much healthier now but as a result isn't allowed to fly at all.
And so it goes.