Private Planes: Freedom, Security, and Responsibility

by Ron Natalie Dec 14, 2005 at 04:35 PM


Skylune wrote:

To clarify, I did not say GA was "responsible." I said that GA schools
provided the training.

Nearly every pilot, with the exception of a few military types are
trained at GA schools. Ya gotta start somewhere. Nobody is going
to let you fly an airliner first.

There is plenty of blame to go around, with most falling on FBI
bureacracy, and airport "security" at Logan IMO.

And what about the INS who failed to oversee the visas properly.
Or the FAA to even pretend to scrutinize the existing watch lists
against the airline manifests.

Or the airport security at Dulles and Newark?

I agree with your statements and the sentiment of your questions. No
reasonable person wants to "stop" GA or GA flight schools. I certainly
don't.

We want them to be good neighbors. In my current case, they are not, and
hide behind FARs, anonimity provided by the planes, etc. In fact, I have
been threatened with harrassment, and worse, by certain of the pilots just
for raising the point that the Part 150 recommendations were never
implemented, and are routinely ignored. So now I am ****ed, and will
pursue any legal means to make THEIR lives a bit more difficult.

When I lived a few miles away from FRG, we did not experience any of these
problems. Sure there was some noise, but it was not a big deal because
that airport took noise abatement and neighborliness more seriously. (When
I did my short lived training years back at FRG, the instructor always
stuck to the published arrival/departure procedures, avoiding residential
areas.) Rarely, if ever, was my home buzzed, despite my proximity to a
very busy GA airport.

Sadly, that is not the case everywhere, as I now have the misfortune of
knowing first hand.