Originally Posted by
soay
It seems crazy that if you flew yourself into Blackpool on business, which required to to take your toolkit with you, you could pass unhindered from airside, but not return to your aeroplane with it. If you travelled by passenger jet (excluding Ryanair, of course), your toolkit could go in the hold, but I can't see how that would work with a C172! The logical conclusion to the current state of siege is that "international" airports should not allow GA aircraft to land, unless they departed from a similarly controlled airport, or there's compulsory handling. Either option will hit GA hard at those airfields.
There must be a solution to this that satisfies both sides. My suggestion is to restrict passenger flights to BAA owned airports, but I am prepared to compromise.
Sad truth is they probably don't mind losing the GA at most PAX airports. The solution to your 'tools on a C172' problem is to contact the airfield ahead of time and ask for the items to be scanned through the 'out of guage' x-ray and escorted to the aircraft. Places like Blackpool would oblige.
Of course some of the points I was making were aimed at the 'tools' who stand at central search giving grief to the security staff before heading out to their 172!