FAA Goes after Chicago on Meigs

Neil Gould writes:

And, how many centuries do expect we should wait to find out whether
you're right about that?

It could happen tomorrow.

Your notion of "private planes" is pretty narrow if you think they'll be
eliminated by closing airports.

That's not what I think. But it would take very little to see all
PPLs suspended indefinitely in the U.S. One nutcase crashing into a
city with a load of anthrax aboard in his private plane, and you could
all say goodbye to your "right" to be private pilots. Things can
happen fast when hysteria rules, and hysteria is increasingly the norm
in society.

Right now, private pilots are protected by the fact that most of the
public doesn't know anything about private pilots, and so they don't
object to them. But put this type of aviation into the spotlight, and
people will start to worry about it (with help from the media and
politicians), until there is an outcry for "protection" from the
"dangers" of letting "anyone" fly.

Using GA airports for anything with a broad consumer base, such as
conventional commercial airlines, would risk drawing too much
attention to them and their users. Since most people don't care about
any type of aviation except the type that takes them where they want
to do, they'd rather close and airport and prevent non-commercial
pilots from flying than take the "risk" of "terrorists" threatening
the country with their little planes. Is that what you want?

Around here, there are a significant
number of _private airports_ on large parcels of _private land_ with
pilots that share these resources so that other _private planes_ have a
place to come and go at will.

That could change overnight.

Unless someone starts confiscating property en masse, I can't see
your vision coming true.

Private aviation could be prohibited with a stroke of the pen.
Private pilots are not numerous enough in society to prevent this from
happening, or to reverse it once it occurs. They are a tiny minority,
protected from the majority by near-invisibility. If they make
themselves too visible, they become targets of opportunity.

And, should someone decide
to start confiscating property en masse, I'd point out that pilots are the
single most heavily armed group of citizens that I know of short of those
that belong to a militia as a hobby.

Unless they intend to overthrow the government, that doesn't matter.
And if they do intend to overthrow the government, then perhaps there
might be some justification to the concerns that the rest of society
might have.

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