A GA pilot in the White House

"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
| In a previous article, "Roger Long"
om said:
| Would they let him fly or would the TFR's keep him grounded?
|
| Who would bust him if he violated his own TFR?
|
| More importantly, what would they call the flight? "Civil One"?

It might not be technically proper, but they probably would call it "Air
Force One" out of habit.

That points up the reason the Secret Service would not let him fly. Besides
being an unnecessary risk, the call sign "Air Force One" was adopted after a
near miss involving the Presidential airplane. Before that they used
ordinary call signs. The idea behind "Air Force One" was to encourage
controllers to be more careful. Putting a President up in an civil general
aviation aircraft would expose him to all kinds of dangers the Secret
Service would find unacceptable. The airplane would be more vulnerable to
ground fire, it is more susceptible to mid-air collisions, low level
maneuvering would be regarded as dangerous, etc. Imagine trying to cram the
Secret Service detail, "the football," and everything else that goes with
President aboard a typical GA plane. It is tough enough if the President
just wants to go fishing for an afternoon.

The President's political opponents would "Tilt," too. "How can he risk the
fate of the free world so irresponsibly?"

No, once you become President, you can forget about doing a lot of things
that most people take for granted. You are almost as much a prisoner as the
Emperor of China was in the Forbidden City.