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Comment by defen | Hacker News Reader

Not having read Outliers, I can't really comment on the argument presented here. However, I found it rather... odd?... that he chose Martha's Vinyard as his example destination for a private pilot, who would need to "check the weather, ..., and decide whether the risks are a reasonable match for his or her skills and equipment", considering that there was a very famous plane crash under similar circumstances, of which I'm sure Greenspun is aware. It struck me in an odd way - I guess it just seems a bit callous to throw in such a veiled reference in an article about airliner crashes.

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One of my readers pointed me to this discussion. The Martha's Vineyard reference was just a typical destination for folks at our flight school. There is no point in renting an airplane to go to Providence; it is quicker to drive! There is no point in renting an airplane to go to New York City; the car service from Teterboro costs more than the Amtrak ticket from Boston. Block Island, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Montauk, on the other hand, are destinations that are actually much easier to reach by private airplane than by car or train. KMVY has a good on-airport restaurant. KMVY has an ILS and GPS/LPV approaches, plus an approach lighting system on Runway 24, which makes it a relatively easy place to land in actual instrument conditions. And the island is home to three of my favorite girls (one of whom has four legs).

KMVY averages 141 operations per day, so the JFK, Jr. crash in 1999 has been followed by approximately 500,000 less eventful takeoffs and landings.

-- Philip

My apologies then - I didn't know that KMVY was so busy, and that it is a popular destination for people at your school.

I saw that, and was 50-50 if he was referencing JFK Jr. explicitly.

On one hand, Greenspun is a pretty noted Libertarian and not a fan of the Kennedys. On the other, he often references flying to Martha's Vineyard for day trips in his other writings about aviation, and it seems like a pretty sensible place to fly to if you're into civil aviation and looking for a day flight somewhere from Boston (where I believe he's based).

I'd agree; from reading his blog for a long time, he is in fact based out of Boston, spends a lot of time engaged in small-scale civil aviation, and does visit Martha's Vineyard more frequently than your average bear. (Check out http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2009/08/15/complete-marth... ).

Nothing says it can't be both - it's a location that naturally comes to his mind, his point is valid (weather conditions can be dangerous there, Kennedys aside), and it happens to be a dig at some people he hates.

Packing that much into a short phrase is called good polemic writing, people.

I'm friends with Philip and I doubt he'd consider himself a libertarian. He's more of a _Slate_-style counterintuitivist, although he'd probably object to any kind of political label.

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