Larry Dighera wrote:

A legislator who understands how to write balanced laws would not
discriminate against pilots; he would penalize anyone found to be the
cause of the restricted airspace violation such as ATC personnel, etc.
This congressional prejudice against pilots reveals an inappropriate
attitude that prevails throughout the nation.

Pop quiz- Who said the following: "Anyone knows you could load into an
SUV or a U-Haul much more dangerous quantities of explosives or
biological materials than you can in a small airplane. We need to look
at a risk-based system and spend our money where it makes the most
sense. We can't close off general aviation in this country."

Congressman John Mica. There are not many guys in Washington who are
more on our side than him.

Though pilots flew into the restricted zone over Washington more
than 1,600 times in 2003-04, only a few were penalized, Mica said.

Unintentional violations shouldn't receive severe penalties, he
said. But for those who deliberately disregard the rules, "I'm in
favor of throwing the book at them."

Just how does Representative Mica propose to determine if the
incursion was deliberate or inadvertent? Is he going to go to a
"higher source" like baby Bush did when deciding to invade, er
liberate Iraq?

Why don't you just get a big red marker and write "I AM A CRANK" across
your forehead? At least other people on the Internet wouldn't see it.

The report noted that airspace violations are almost all
inadvertent.

If so, Mica's proposed bill will be virtually meaningless.

Have you considered that might be the point? It's called feel-good
legislation, like midnight basketball or school uniforms. Congress
passes the law, and next time a pilot busts the FRZ and makes the news,
everyone will say, "and the pilot could be subject to a fine of up to
$100,000," thus proving how seriously we take it. By the time it goes
to
court and is dismissed for lack of intent, the evening news will be
back to covering shark attacks.

Pilots flying private planes are responsible for 88 percent of the
violations, and most occur in the eastern United States, where air
traffic is heavy and there's a lot of restricted airspace.

So who was responsible for the other 12% of airspace violations?

Who cares? 88% doesn't exactly make us look good.

I'm done sympathizing with pilots who get caught in this dragnet. It's
been around for nearly four years now and there's just no excuse to not
be aware of it. With GPS's costing under $500 there's simply no reason
to bumble your way into this.

IMHO the best we could hope for would be to reduce the size of the DC
ADIZ or to have procedures evolve to be more like Class B without the
requirement for ground-filed flight plans and such. So long as "weekend
flyboys" are busting the rules regularly, the donut-eaters making the
rules are going to keep things the way they are or even tighten the
screws more.

The current system is counter-productive but that doesn't excuse the
fact that a lot of pilots just can't seem to keep their **** together.
The more that people continue screwing up, the worse it will get for
the rest of us.

-cwk.