General aviation and flight training in the USA is about to be regulated into oblivio
General aviation and flight training in the USA is about to be regulated into oblivion…
AOPA President Phil Boyer appeared on three major news broadcasts this evening, including "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer" (PBS; 6 p.m. ET), "The News with Brian Williams" (MSNBC; 8 p.m. ET), and "The Point: Tracking the Terrorists" (CNN; 8:30 p.m. ET).
AOPA has presented a list of recommendations to the DOT and FAA asking for changes to our current regulations.
I truly believe the Boyer has no idea what he is doing here. In the wake of Sept 11, we had a flurry of politicians demanding new and stronger regulations for flight training in the USA, some were outright draconian essentially shutting down our flight schools to all but a small handful of foreign students.
As a former recovering CFI I can tell you from experience, if it were not for the foreign students I had at the time, I would still be time building!
Our Looney politicians never take things cautiously where laws and regs are concerned. These morons would legislate into oblivion anything if they thought it would get them re-elected.
And at present every grandma and soccer mom is so paranoid a kite can get lose and the local 911 switchboard lights up like a Christmas tree!!!
The recommendations include:
· Issue new, difficult-to-counterfeit pilot certificates (licenses) that would include a photograph of the pilot. First-time applicants would be required to show a government-issued photo ID to prove their country of citizenship before obtaining a U.S. pilot certificate.
· The U.S. government should review all existing and new pilot certificates to ensure that the pilots are not on any terrorist “watch lists.”
· Aircraft owners should take appropriate steps to prevent the theft of their aircraft.
· The identity of an individual renting or purchasing an aircraft should be verified by checking a government-issued photo ID.
· The pilot of a general aviation aircraft should verify the identity of all passengers, and ensure that those passengers know what's in their baggage and cargo.
· Pilots should be on the lookout for any suspicious activity on or near an airport, and should report that activity. Airports should post signs warning against tampering with aircraft or unauthorized use of aircraft, and include phone numbers for reporting suspicious activity.
· The Transportation Security Administration should develop a profile to identify individuals that should receive additional scrutiny before being permitted to buy or rent aircraft, receive pilot training, or work in areas that provide access to general aviation aircraft.
Now most of these items seem fairly sensible although the idea of a “difficult-to-counterfeit pilot certificate” is laughable to me. In this day and age the art of counterfeiting a certificate would be perfected before the ink was even dry on the legitimate ones!
The last one is kind of troublesome if you think about it. Coming from the same group who would oversee baggage screeners I could only imagine what polluted rules this would create.
But mainly my gripe lies in the “going a step further” area the other politicians are talking about.
Limiting the number of student visas for the sole purpose of flight training.
Levying a hefty tax on general aviation rentals and fuel to cover the added cost of the security that would be required to monitor the 5400 plus airports we have.
Barring G/A aircraft from Class B facilities and restricting the use of facilities that also have airline service.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg mind you. Once our “security conscious” officials get the momentum rolling our user fees will make touch-n-go’s at Heathrow seem cheap!
TP