I'm not supporting CBS in anyway, and I do believe GA gets a lot of this
kind of publicity, as is often stated on this forum, because we are a small
"elite" minority. OTOH, I don't think the fear, rational or irrational, is
based on the Tampa scenario. It is based on loading up a small twin, or a
heavy single with explosives and following that with some suicide activity.
I don't know anything about explosives, but I suspect that the 900+ useful
load in a 182 could carry enough explosives to be pretty brutal in a crowded
place.

I know, I know - there are plenty of equivalent threats that are not
monitored (I liked the post about trucks/OKC). I just don't like to take the
stance that GA is no threat - what happens after some incident occurs? Does
GA become shut down?

On a macro scale the problem is trying to manage all terrorist risk at the
expense of common sense and reality. On a less grand scale, I just would
like to see GA as concerned and proactive, since I'm afraid of what the
government will do if they are allowed, through an incident, to become
reactive.

This doesn't take away from the fact that the CBS trailer is ridiculous.

Michael




"Max T, CFI" wrote in message
news:t0hNb.66605$xy6.125011@attbi_s02...
Here's the email I sent to our CBS channel 5 in S.F. last night.
So far no response.
Max T, MCFI


Brian,
Regarding the teaser for Wednesday's CBS Evening News:
"There are thousands of general aviation airstrips around the country with
little or no security. How can that be after
9-11? We'll have the story on Wednesday's CBS Evening News."

You might want to consider on the local news going to a local airport and
showing people how small these planes are,
how little they carry, and hence how tiny a threat they are compared to
airliners carrying thousands of gallons of
gasoline.


From the www.aopa.org website, AOPA President Phil Boyer testified before
congress in 2001 that "in this national
tragedy, it was airline security that was breached, and airline transport
category equipment used as weapons. However,
general aviation was the last allowed to return to the sky, and not all GA
is yet flying. "We're not talking about big
airplanes," Boyer told Congress. "We're talking about 4-place,
single-engine aircraft that are on average 30 years old,
cost the same as a car, and have the same weight and kinetic energy of a
car."

You only have to look at the pictures of the Cessna that the teenager flew
into a building in Tampa to see that these
planes are incapable of causing much damage. Most of these planes carry
so little fuel they don't even burn when
there's an accident.

Give me a call if you want to talk further. I'll be in a meeting from
9-11AM, but should otherwise be free.
best regards,
xxxxx