Do we, as a group, just suck?

"Thomas Borchert" wrote in message
...
Hilton,

The answer to your question is "Yes".

I guess it didn't make the news in the US, but we have a flight
prohibition for VFR aircraft coming for our capital, Berlin. Also for
big events and the upcoming soccer world championship next year. The
reason:

On Friday, an ultralight pilot who had killed his wife over her having
a lover decided that he didn't like the police catching up with him and
committed suicide. He did that by flying his Kiebitz ultralight into
the Berlin CTR without clearance or radio contact and crash it (and
himself) on a lawn between the "Reichstag" (our parliament building)
and the "Kanzleramt" (our Whitehouse). I am NOT making this up.

Politicos and the public went bananas over this, of course. Cynic that
I am, I can only be glad for the bombings in Egypt taking away a lot of
the attention from this.



Now maybe it never happens over there, but every so often people do take a
vehicle to commit spectacular suicide. Every so often they take somebody
innocent with them; apparently he didn't even do that, so suicide by
airplane was probably *safer* to the general population rather than having
him choose some other vehicle and going the wrong way up the autobahn.

The politicos should actually have applauded that Darwin did his job with
minimum damage, and they didn't have to unravel 50 vehicles from a
smouldering pile.

"Sylvain" wrote in message
...
Gig 601XL Builder wrote:


As far as cost AOPA already has some very good PR people on staff. And
the way things are going this type of activity that is exactly what I pay
my dues for.

doing PR is indeed a full time and high skill job; what I had in
mind was more of an informal grass-root thing, sort of, adopt
your local journalist, take him/her for a ride/free lesson,
keep in touch, etc.

I really meant that the AOPA PR people would develop the program and
training for the local "AOPA Media Watch" volunteers.

On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 17:13:06 GMT, Larry Dighera
wrote:


Enlightenment is not a natural human state. It is only achieved as a
result of acquiring sufficient knowledge and understanding. If the
institutions providing those requites fail at their task, we revert to
being governed by superstition and ignorance. Presently, it seems the
pendulum is swinging toward devolution.


Enlightenment took more than just a single generation. And I live in
the South, where the space shuttle engines were designed and put to
work this week. Call it sour grapes, but I had a boss that put
religion above physics. Now, I can't get a good reference from him.

I think that you are right about the pendulum swinging. It just hit
me full force.

Mike Weller

There will always be idiots and incompetents in any large group consisting
of human beings. Many pilots will always take the privilege of flying less
seriously than others and some less seriously than they should. The only
thing that would create a measurable difference (besides highly-effective
education/training) is a penal system that would effectively weed-out these
folks.

Right now, permanent certificate revocation is only available for
drug-related violations. Short of that, the worst the FAA can dish-out is a
revocation with the ability to get another PPL after a certain amount of
time.

Maybe they should start thinking about a permanent revocation on severe TFR
violations.
Or maybe they should implement a wash-out possibility (similar to the
miliary) during PPL training so these folks don't make it into the system in
the first place.

My $0.02

Marco Leon

"Hilton" wrote in message
ink.net...
Hi,

OK, you have to be pretty brain dead to live in Florida, fly near Pad 39B
and not know something is going to, or even may happen.

Shaw Pilots Intercept Plane Before Shuttle Launch:
http://www.wltx.com/news/news19.aspx?storyid=29178

I really don't want our airspace to be consumed by restrictions, but when
the Shuttle incident and the DC incidents seem to happen regularly... I'm
not even going to start about planes buzzing beaches and nearly hitting
people (Santa Cruz) and all the other 'bad for GA' stuff that happens. I
think that as a group, we need to take more responsibility for our actions
and I'm not sure if I see that happening.

Oh well, off to Oshkosh... If any fellow NGs are there, look for the guy
in
the WingX for the Pocket PC shirt. Well, there might be a few of us, but
I'm the ugly one.

Hilton





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Maybe they should start thinking about a permanent revocation on severe TFR
violations. Or maybe they should implement a wash-out possibility (similar to the
miliary) during PPL training so these folks don't make it into the system in
the first place.

Makes sense. Because after all, things will be so much better when
it's harder to obtain a pilot certificate, easier to lose it, and there
are fewer of us. I'm sure that even though we will represent fewer
dollars and fewer votes, the politicians (and various anti-noise,
anti-airport activists) will be reasonable and will reward us for being
responsible and policing our own ranks, and will not look at our
declining numbers as a cue that they can restrict us further in order
to appear to be "doing something" (or to increase the value of the
homes they bought at a discount next to the airport) with less
political fallout.

Michael

In article .com,
"Michael" wrote:

Maybe they should start thinking about a permanent revocation on severe TFR
violations. Or maybe they should implement a wash-out possibility (similar
to the
miliary) during PPL training so these folks don't make it into the system
in
the first place.

Makes sense. Because after all, things will be so much better when
it's harder to obtain a pilot certificate, easier to lose it, and there
are fewer of us. I'm sure that even though we will represent fewer
dollars and fewer votes, the politicians (and various anti-noise,
anti-airport activists) will be reasonable and will reward us for being
responsible and policing our own ranks, and will not look at our
declining numbers as a cue that they can restrict us further in order
to appear to be "doing something" (or to increase the value of the
homes they bought at a discount next to the airport) with less
political fallout.

Michael

I think that "Michael" has it right.

Also a point of order:

According to the news report cited in the original link, the intercepted
plane in the Shuttle incident was 50 miles from the Cape. The Prohibited
Zone was 30 miles radius and the "squawk required" zone was 40 miles
radius from the Cape. If, indeed, the plane was intercepted at 50 miles,
the whole incident is bogus.

If, indeed, the plane was intercepted at 50 miles,
the whole incident is bogus.

No. If, indeed, the plane was intercepted at 50 miles, the whole
incident serves to show how abusive the airspace grab is.

Can't fly =there=.
Can't fly =this close= to there.
Can't fly =near= "this close" to there.
Can't fly =towards= "near this close to there.
Can't fly.

Jose
--
Nothing takes longer than a shortcut.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

"Jose" wrote in message
. ..
If, indeed, the plane was intercepted at 50 miles,
the whole incident is bogus.

No. If, indeed, the plane was intercepted at 50 miles, the whole
incident serves to show how abusive the airspace grab is.


According to CNN the plane was within 20 miles of the shuttle 3 minutes
before lift-off, and the pilot disappeared after being forced to land.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/0...ane/index.html

Earl Grieda wrote:

According to CNN the plane was within 20 miles of the shuttle 3 minutes
before lift-off, and the pilot disappeared after being forced to land.

Since no one was waiting for him when he landed, perhaps he went home.

--
Peter


















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I (an anti-GA activist) think Michael has it right too.