General aviation and flight training in the USA is about to be regulated into oblivio

[Toilet Porpoise]

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

[411A]

Could be, but consider...many general aviation airports have little or no fencing or security of any kind, other than a sign. Any reasonable kind of action that would prevent the theft of an aircraft or equipment would be a step in the right direction. Common sense should prevail, such as coded gated access.

[Roadtrip]

This is typical gross overreaction, fueled by a sensationalistic new media in the States. The lemmings and knuckleheads in the US (and there are a lot of them) have been conditioned by frightened liberals that everything must be 100% safe. And if it has to do with those nasty little unsafe airplanes, the more restrictions the better.

Never mind the fact that a suicide killer in a large car or truck can cause much more carnage than a deliberate airplane crash. But they don't want to hear that, because then it may affect THEM and their Chevy Suburban Land Yatchs instead of some poor guy trying to get his pilot's license.

Don't worry, this crap will blow over too when some idiot mows down people at the mall with a pogo stick -- then they'll be calling for abolition of those instead.

[SaturnV]

Roadtrip, there are several previous instances of near-catastrophe and near-carnage involving light planes which did not result in widespread new restrictions. There was a light plane that crashed into the upper stand of the Baltimore Colts football (American-style) stadium shortly after a game had ended. Thirty minutes earlier, and it is likely hundreds could have been killed. And, not all that long ago, there was the light plane that crunched into the south facade of the White House, about 25 meters from the Oval office. Fifteen meters higher, and the plane would have hit smack-dab into the Presidential living quarters.

I don't recall the 'liberal' media calling for general aviation restrictions after those events.

I do recall that the current Administration, over the editorial objections of the 'liberal' press in Washington, closed DCA for three weeks, and then only reluctantly re-opening it to commercial flights (albeit emplying security measures not used at other US airports, like pre-screening and approving all flight crew flying DCA segments, air marshals on every flight, and the rather remarkable prohibition against passengers getting up out of their seats on flights landing at or departing DCA).

[BEagle]

I've always wondered what the UK government would have done if the murderer at Dunblane had used a golf club rather than a firearm.....

Ownership of a hand gun is virtually illegal in the UK now; as usual, the nanny state visited the sins of one maniac upon the well regulated sport of many others. Now we see speculation that GA will be restricted in the US as a result of one disturbed individual? Time for a bit of commonsense, methinks?

[Toilet Porpoise]

From the San Francisco Chronicle


There is little that authorities can do to stop a private pilot with a death wish.
Aviation safety experts say it would have been impossible to have predicted that 15-year-old Charles J. Bishop would crash a light plane into a high-rise building in Tampa, Fla., Saturday evening. And once they realized he was a threat, it was too late.

"We haven't been able to stop kids from getting guns and taking them to school," said Jim Burin, director of technical programs at the Flight Safety Foundation, based in Virginia. "How are we going to stop people from intentionally crashing their planes? There's nothing you can do."

The boy's flight caught military officers at MacDill Air Force Base by surprise when he flew into restricted air space at the high-security base. Officers there said that the plane did not appear to pose a threat but that the base would have been hard-pressed to defend itself. Although MacDill -- which is home to the command center running the war in Afghanistan -- has heavy machine guns poised to fend off threats, it has no jet fighters or anti- aircraft missiles to shoot down threatening planes.

Since Sept. 11, security measures have been tightened and retightened at commercial airports throughout the nation. But there is only so much officials can do at general aviation strips -- some of which are tiny swaths of land in remote locations.

Unlike commercial pilots, those flying small, private aircraft are not typically required to tell the Federal Aviation Administration where they are going. Nearly 70 percent of all flights nationwide do not file flight plans. "Once they are in the sky, there is no way to really restrict them -- especially if they want to commit suicide," Burin said.

Experts say it is impractical and probably impossible to have a squadron of jet fighters ready at a moment's notice to shoot down wayward planes. Moreover, even if they could, it would cause a danger to people on the ground.

"I don't think you could ever guard against erratic behavior by a human being," said Marion Hodge, the owner of Aeroventure flight training school in Petaluma, adding that you don't just shoot down a plane because it was stolen without knowing the circumstances or the motive of the pilot.

One of Hodge's student pilots stole a small plane during the weekend, then crashed into a hillside. The pilot's death is under investigation as a suicide.

But it is uncommon for pilots to intentionally crash their planes, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Safety board officials said there have been 21 cases of suicide flying since 1983.

Fifteen-year-old Bishop was too young to be flying solo. But the teenager was a student at the flight school at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, and it is not uncommon for young trainees to be left unsupervised while getting the plane ready to go. Pilots need to be 16 years old to fly solo and 17 to carry passengers.

"This was not a breach of security, this was an abuse of trust," said Phil Boyer, the president of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, in a written statement.

"An apparently troubled young man who had legitimate access to an aircraft abused the trust of his flight instructor and stole the airplane with tragic results," he said.

In the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the nation's focus has been to beef up security in commercial airports across the country. Armed National Gurad troops patrol terminals, passengers are thoroughly searched and baggage is scrutinized.

Jerry Snyder, spokesman for the FAA's Western Pacific Region, said the federal agency is doing all it can to improve security at both commercial and general aviation airports.

Meanwhile, pilots said they are watching their own colleagues. But generally, those responsible for suicide flights are well-known pilots or students at local airports who have not shown erratic behavior.

Just this past weekend, Steven Jack Greenberg, a student pilot, crashed a Cessna 152 he had stolen from Aeroventure. Authorities said the 40-year-old San Rafael man was being investigated for felony involvement with a child younger than 14. He had recently been served with a search warrant.

Greenberg came to Aeroventure "with a lifelong dream" to fly and had amassed 94 hours of flight training, more than double the 40 required to become a certified pilot, Hodge said. He never showed any strange behavior, Hodge said, adding that she had denied flight training to two people in the past whom she felt she couldn't trust.

Last year, a New Hampshire man dive-bombed his Socata TB-20 plane into the roof of his house. The day before the kamikaze flight, the man's wife told authorities she was terrified of her husband. Authorities later ruled that the fiery crash was a suicide.

In 1994, officials couldn't stop an inexperienced pilot from crashing a stolen airplane just feet away from the president's bedroom.

The pilot, Frank Eugene Corder, 38, was killed on impact. There was no damage to the White House except for a cracked window, chipped plaster and skid marks on the South Lawn.

"Cars drive into stores every day," said Richard Collins, editor-at-large of Flying Magazine. "And there is nothing really anyone can do about it. At least it's more difficult to steal a plane."

[polzin]

411A.... What if the thief climbs over the fence?. Personally , every time I steal an airplane I have someone fly me into the airport .

If I was given an open book test , I would forget the book.

[fokkerjet]

Even with aircraft that have several flightdeck crewmembers onboard, they can't stop someone who is hell bent to commit suicide. In the past several years there's been Silk Air (737-300) and Egypt Air (767-300), both of which cost the lives of hundreds of innocent passengers and crewmembers. <img src="mad.gif" border="0"> Why single out GA, and uncontrolled airports for that matter, when you have commercial airline pilots, leaving major international airports doing the same thing, with paying passengers going along for the ride.

[PaperTiger]

411A
I don't see how keypad gates would have stopped either of the recent occurrences. The 'thieves' were authorized to be airside. Our local airport has such gates but everyone knows the code and the only incident we had is when someone climbed the fence in the dead of night and 'rearranged' a couple of Cessnas with an axe.

Bad enough that major airports are armed camps, fencing in every little airfield might be good business for the fence-makers but a clear signal that the war on terrorism is lost.

(edited - i before e, i before e)

[ 09 January 2002: Message edited by: PaperTiger ]</p>

[zerozero]

I'm not sure if GA will be regulated into oblivion but I can imagine psych tests for *every* pilot applicant from now on.

For better or for worse (I don't really have an opinion here) many airlines already use them.

I can imagine a day when Joe Sixpack Private Pilot needs a 10 year background check, a security clearance and a note from an FAA appointed psychologist saying that he's fit to fly his family down the coast.

It's the end of an era really. America has been extraordinarily fortunate that we've enjoyed such a long period of relatively cheap and liberal general aviation.

And I'm ambivalent, quite honestly. I learned to fly at the local airport. Those Mom and Pop flight schools are really a lot of fun, but let's be honest: Ozzie and Harriet ain't running the show.

I imagine that in 20 years America will get its pilots either from the military (once again) or Euro-style (ab initio, academy cadet).

Either way, the candidate will be screened like something out of the "Right Stuff."

[411A]

Well polzin, you are right of course about flying in....the best targets are KingAirs' now, for the drugie trade.
Last week I found some dork trying to cut the padlock on my hangar...after I rearranged his hairline, called the cops...who rearranged him again. He now resides in Sheriff Joe's jail awaiting trial....looking at ten years minimum.
And the local police have increased patrols on the airport as there is some expensive hardware about. Hope they shoot first...and ask questions later.

[polzin]

411A .......... GOOD for YOU. Wish I could have been there to kick him. After of course, you got him down.

[reportfurther]

THE FAA SUGGESTS FLIGHT SCHOOL SECURITY ENHANCEMENTS...

Yesterday, reacting to last weekend's crash by a flight student into a
Tampa skyscraper, the FAA issued recommendations that aim to try to
avert such incidents in the future. The recommendations expire after
six months, and are not mandatory. The FAA said flight school operators
should implement the suggestions in ways they deem appropriate to their
operations. The recommendations focus on greater oversight of student
pilots, and include: Keep all pre-solo students under the supervision of
a flight instructor at all times. Positively identify all students
before every flight. Require that all students complete their medical
exam before beginning training, to allow a chance to detect any
disqualifying mental condition. And more. AOPA yesterday called the
recommendations "reasonable and practical," though we expect they'll
seem uncomfortably Big-Brother-like to some.

...SAME TOPIC, DIFFERENT JOUR: AVIATION SECURITY, CONT'D....

On beyond flight schools: Suicidal jihadians with explosive shoes and
armed journalists can still find their way past airport security and
onto passenger- and fuel-laden aircraft. At the same time, an aged
congressman with a metal hip and an armed Secret Service agent are,
respectively, strip-searched and simply not allowed to board. Anyone
with the intelligence of a 15-year-old child apparently can steal a
light aircraft, fly it through military airspace and slam it into an
office building. Fortunately, nobody's seriously advocating the denial
of our freedoms as a failsafe solution to protect us from ourselves --
at least not yet. Unfortunately, so long as the insane and foolish
continue to kill and die for reasons the rest of us fail to comprehend,
so too will the noble and the brave die to protect us. And those who
belong to neither group will struggle to walk the line between self-
protection and paranoia.

...CESSNA 172 VS. BANK, GA VS. FEAR...
Pilots are quick to point out that the Cessna 172 that crashed into the
Bank of America building in Tampa on Saturday all but bounced off,
killing only its sole occupant. Even general-news media seem to be
growing wise to the useful load and speed limitations that make your
average GA aircraft not especially terrorist-friendly. Many reports
have thus far portrayed the Tampa event more as an unfortunate troubled-
teen episode than a general aviation security crisis. NBC's Dateline
Tuesday focused on the boy's unsettled home life. There is also a
question about an adverse reaction to a prescription drug ... hardly
problems that can be solved by increased security at small airports.

...FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN, AND THE HUNT FOR BAD APPLES
In a sickeningly positive twist, the surreal image of a light aircraft's
tail hanging from the 28th floor of an office building has at least
imprinted on the public the reality that your generic light aircraft is
capable of relatively limited damage in such applications. Further,
millions of viewers have now, through a familiar local newscaster,
visited a small local airport and seen the concerned, patriotic, honest
people working to improve security there -- some now require security
badges and thumbprints -- and how even those measures would not have
stopped last week's crash in Tampa.