Need to vent: No VFR flying in the USA
Still no VFR flights here. If you're planning a trip out here and were thinking of going flying, you might want to think again. Also, as a private pilot, you probably don't want to travel to (or within) the US with any pilot gear.
There is talk of flight schools going belly up, and VFR never being re-instated. Rumours of flight service stations telling pilots "you might as well take your airplane apart".
Hopefully all of those are rumours will come to nought. It has only been one week since the tragedies of last week, and I imagine that VFR is so low down on the totem pole that it will be the last to be addressed by the government. However, it is potentially the hardest to address.
Perhaps we will see the introduction of mandatory flight plans (I don't really see what good that would do though from a security perspective). Perhaps all aircraft will be required to be assigned a transponder code? If so, the current system cannot handle that I'm told.
The point of this post? Just to get it off my chest. It goes without saying that I feel sorry for all the victims. But I also feel very sorry for anyone involved with private aviation here: stranded private pilots away from home, flight schools, CFIs, etc.