More Anti GA hysteria

Roger,
Propane trailers, as well as anhydrous ammonia trailers have what
is called an "excess flow valve" buried in the tank, unseen to the
naked eye. It works like a one way check valve but allows a
controlled amount of flow before it checks off and stops the flow.
It is there in case an unloading hose ruptures and specifically keeps
the tanks contents from "dumping".
Not to **** you or anyone else off in this group but, I will argue
that there is some irresponsibility involved in talking about of
effective means of terrorism in a public forum. Take the transponder
hijack code discussions after 9/11 that broadcast to the world
something that had been known mainly to pilots and not to the general
public until after that fateful day, for instance. Or the fact that
since the Oklahoma City bombing, the general public now knows how to
build anfo bombs. It is bad enough when law enforcement releases this
kind of information to the public. Please, lets not educate these
radicals ourselves.

Joe Schneider
8437R
Large scale chemical manufacturing industry for over 25 years.
Ammonia, methanol, ammonium nitrate, etc.

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
snip

The irresponsibility is in the media searching for easy ratings and
the
government for poll bumps by focusing so narrowly on what gets an
easy
response from the public. This deflects attention from the reality
that no
one is paying attention to.

I was driving behind a big propane truck the other day. On the back
is a
three inch pipe with a butterfly valve, the kind that is full open
with a 90
degree turn. The pipe had a cap but it had big grips on it so it
could be
easily removed. I've designed piping systems and had several miles
to study
it so I could see that it would only take about 20 seconds to remove
the
cap, turn the valve, and dump the tank's contents. There was no
locking
device of any kind. A passerby could dump this truck.
snip

While news reporting after OKC and 9/11 may have made the "general public"
more aware of things like amfo bombs and hijack codes, I feel pretty
confident that it didn't make much difference to the "radicals" who were
already interested in such things. Thanks to the Internet information,
for good or ill, is easily found no matter what you're interests may be.
It's a genie that's out of the bottle and it's not going back.

Laws, rules and regulations serve only to help keep honest people honest.
They will *not* stop those persons who are intent on causing harm to
society.

I think that there are very few people in the GA community who think that
GA aircraft have no potential as terrorist tools. What makes me (and I
think many others) angry is how GA is singled out to the exclusion of
SUVs, RVs, limos, rental trucks and boats. Under normal circumstances it
is possible to load up a truck with an OKC-sized amfo bomb and drive it
within the blast radius of *millions* of targets worth attacking without
anybody giving the truck a second look, unless it speeds or runs a red
light. It takes no special skill, no expensive training, no risk of
stealing a vehicle or spending lots of money to buy one.

If the government required background checks for everybody who wants to
rent a truck from U-Haul, or demanded that RV passengers and cargo be
screened by police before every trip, or that the Coast Guard search every
BayLiner and O'Day sailboat, the outcry would be deafening. We in
aviation are simply too few in number to be paid much attention to. Our
only salvation is that we are relatively "high value" compared to our size
and we can use economic arguments in our favor. Close down flight
schools? More than 50% of airline pilots are now civilian trained. Where
will new ones come from? Halt ag operations? The cost of food to the
consumer will skyrocket. Shut down little airports? The cumulative
economic loss will be in the billions of dollars. Those are the kinds of
cards we need to continue to play with the government and the public.

Dave Reinhart




JJS wrote:

Roger,
Propane trailers, as well as anhydrous ammonia trailers have what
is called an "excess flow valve" buried in the tank, unseen to the
naked eye. It works like a one way check valve but allows a
controlled amount of flow before it checks off and stops the flow.
It is there in case an unloading hose ruptures and specifically keeps
the tanks contents from "dumping".
Not to **** you or anyone else off in this group but, I will argue
that there is some irresponsibility involved in talking about of
effective means of terrorism in a public forum. Take the transponder
hijack code discussions after 9/11 that broadcast to the world
something that had been known mainly to pilots and not to the general
public until after that fateful day, for instance. Or the fact that
since the Oklahoma City bombing, the general public now knows how to
build anfo bombs. It is bad enough when law enforcement releases this
kind of information to the public. Please, lets not educate these
radicals ourselves.

Joe Schneider
8437R
Large scale chemical manufacturing industry for over 25 years.
Ammonia, methanol, ammonium nitrate, etc.

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
snip

The irresponsibility is in the media searching for easy ratings and
the
government for poll bumps by focusing so narrowly on what gets an
easy
response from the public. This deflects attention from the reality
that no
one is paying attention to.

I was driving behind a big propane truck the other day. On the back
is a
three inch pipe with a butterfly valve, the kind that is full open
with a 90
degree turn. The pipe had a cap but it had big grips on it so it
could be
easily removed. I've designed piping systems and had several miles
to study
it so I could see that it would only take about 20 seconds to remove
the
cap, turn the valve, and dump the tank's contents. There was no
locking
device of any kind. A passerby could dump this truck.
snip

Laws, rules and regulations serve only to help keep honest people honest.
They will *not* stop those persons who are intent on causing harm to
society.

I think that there are very few people in the GA community who think that
GA aircraft have no potential as terrorist tools. What makes me (and I
think many others) angry is how GA is singled out to the exclusion of
SUVs, RVs, limos, rental trucks and boats.


OK--I agree with this in spite of my earlier contention that I could not
imagine a scenario where my little Skyhawk could be used in an attack. Of
course I can, as much as I don't want to.

www.Rosspilot.com