150's and 172's about the only planes flying!!

Jose wrote:
I think Margy is talking about appearing IN the event, not just
attending as a visitor.


Ok, that makes much more sense.

In fact, it took us longer to taxi to the museum (when we appeared at
the first "Be a Pilot" day) than it did to FLY to Dulles from
Fredericksburg!


Dulles is no joke. I spent an hour taxiing there once. They were
changing runways, and I was unlucky.

Jose
Well, Landmark provides overnight parking for participants who want to
come in early and the taxi from there is at least 5 miles. They are on
the NW corner of the airport and we are about a mile and half south of
the runways and halfway between, but our gate access is on the SE corner
of the airport. So it's a long way, but a very nice taxi for at least a
mile through the woods after you exit the first gate from the main
airport.

Margy

Margy Natalie wrote:

Well, Landmark provides overnight parking for participants who want to
come in early and the taxi from there is at least 5 miles. They are on
the NW corner of the airport and we are about a mile and half south of
the runways and halfway between, but our gate access is on the SE corner
of the airport. So it's a long way, but a very nice taxi for at least a
mile through the woods after you exit the first gate from the main airport.

For the big airport squeamish (since the taxi route takes you through
just about everything on the airport) and to make the ATC issues easier
we did a taxi for many of us as a "flight" (either me or Michelle in
the lead). This works pretty well except for last year where I kept
telling them (Navion in the lead, five airplanes back to the biplane),
every controller kept asking "is that four planes", no it's five,
everything back to the biplane...(the reason I put the biplane in
the rear, I figured it was pretty distinctive for Dulles).

I used to be based at Dulles (and Margy actually learned to fly
there), but it's much busier now both for the airlines and all the
bizjet traffic that was effectively kicked out of National.

"Ron Natalie" wrote

I used to be based at Dulles (and Margy actually learned to fly
there), but it's much busier now both for the airlines and all the
bizjet traffic that was effectively kicked out of National.

Do you think they will ever open National back up to the smaller guy again?
--
Jim in NC

Morgans wrote:
"Ron Natalie" wrote

I used to be based at Dulles (and Margy actually learned to fly
there), but it's much busier now both for the airlines and all the
bizjet traffic that was effectively kicked out of National.

Do you think they will ever open National back up to the smaller guy again?

I personally doubt it. Government rarely cedes control that it has
taken. Although it does happen occasionally. I was amazed when PA
repealed its helmet law a few years ago*. I still can't believe that
happened, but it does show that if enough people lobby long enough they
can occasionally make a difference. Maybe the same cam be true with
National. I'm just glad I made one flight in prior to 9/11. I had to
fly in at night as I couldn't get an IFR reservation until after 7 PM in
the winter, but it was a neat flight. I got to hold over the city for a
few minutes waiting for a break in the airline conga line. I could see
several of the monuments and buildings and it was very cool.

* Just for the record, I'm a big believer in wearing a helmet while
motorcycling and bicycling and never ride without one, but I'm not a fan
of helmet laws for adults. I think adults should make that decision for
themselves. I am in favor of insurance companies charging higher
premiums for people who ride without a helmet, or smoke, etc., but I
much prefer to let the market deal with such things rather than
government. If someone is willing to pay the cost of taking a higher
level of risk, I say more power to them.

Matt

Matt Whiting wrote:

I personally doubt it. Government rarely cedes control that it has
taken. Although it does happen occasionally. I was amazed when PA
repealed its helmet law a few years ago*. I still can't believe that
happened, but it does show that if enough people lobby long enough
they can occasionally make a difference. Maybe the same cam be true
with National. I'm just glad I made one flight in prior to 9/11. I
had to fly in at night as I couldn't get an IFR reservation until
after 7 PM in the winter, but it was a neat flight. I got to hold
over the city for a few minutes waiting for a break in the airline
conga line. I could see several of the monuments and buildings and
it was very cool.
* Just for the record, I'm a big believer in wearing a helmet while
motorcycling and bicycling and never ride without one, but I'm not a
fan of helmet laws for adults. I think adults should make that
decision for themselves. I am in favor of insurance companies
charging higher premiums for people who ride without a helmet, or
smoke, etc., but I much prefer to let the market deal with such
things rather than government. If someone is willing to pay the cost
of taking a higher level of risk, I say more power to them.

Matt

Arkansas got rid of the adult helmet law a few years back and in the very
same session of the legislature passed a much more stringent seat belt law.
The thing that was interesting was that they didn't really talk about
personal freedom with the helmet law. They just talked about tourism. Seems
Arkansas had lost a number of biker events because we had a helmet law.

"Gig 601XL Builder" wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net wrote in message
...

Arkansas got rid of the adult helmet law a few years back and in the very
same session of the legislature passed a much more stringent seat belt
law. The thing that was interesting was that they didn't really talk about
personal freedom with the helmet law. They just talked about tourism.
Seems Arkansas had lost a number of biker events because we had a helmet
law.

It might also be because some groups have successfully argued that helmets
have been the cause of death in a number of motorcycle accidents, and there
is much less evidence to support the same claim against seat belts.