I also can't afford a private plane to fly off into the boonies without a flight plan (heck, I don't go for a walk in the woods without filing a flight plan with a friend). I can't afford a Breitling watch with a built in ELT I can leave on the bed side table. My friends don't own Google, so I probably won't have hundreds or thousands of people reviewing google earth imagery to try to find me. Nor do I expect the civil air patrol will muster fourteen aircraft to come find me. Over all, I doubt 50,000 people would be involved in search for me.

Is it distasteful for the Governor to send his widow a bill? Is that a double standard? Yes. But I don't find the current double standard any less distasteful either.

I think all of the citizens in the country deserve the same treatment from the government. If that means we send two dozen people to search for some guy no-one ever heard of, we send two dozen guys out to look for Brad Pitt. Or we send fourteen aircraft and thousands of searchers out to look for everyone who goes missing. Equality baby.

And I would be perfectly happy paying an insurance premium out to pay for search and rescue, especially if I was flying a small airplane or mountain climbing in winter or otherwise intentionally putting myself in extra danger.