Sharing the Airspace

Great letter to the editor on AvWeb
concerning personal jets by
George Davis, USAF (Ret):

"We should remember that airline pilots are still the new kids on the
block.
I can remember the day when the Boeing 707 invaded my airspace for the
first time.
My F-86 and I -- until that point -- had been the only users of that
rarified air.
I learned to tolerate their invasion; they will just have to get used to
the
invasion of private jets."

Amen! Although I fly as a passenger on airliners frequently,
it doesn't seem fair that the corporations who own the airlines are
able to influence the radius of class bravo regions. As the population
increases, eventually more class bravo regions will be carved out
around the country, and GA planes will be dodging each other
in narrow little alleyways between all these restricted areas.
The airlines will say that the common man should not be
allowed to fly jets in "their" airspace. Don't the people own
the airspace? The airlines will insist on special background
checks on the pilots of these personal jets as well as rigorous
training, maintenance standards, and Class I medical fitness.

Bigger is not always better with aircraft; even though the
Canadair regional jet is much smaller than the 757, it feels much less
claustrophobic. And 9/11 proved that jetliners have a lot of momentum.
Furthermore, while small planes routinely make safe off-airport
landings,
most off-airport landings in jetliners result in fatalities.
The rest of aviation shouldn't necessarily
have to kowtow to the needs of the "heavy" jetliners.
At the same time however, it would not be viable for every passenger
to travel in small aircraft because the current ATC system
would be overloaded. Perhaps there is a more scalable way of
coordinating air traffic. Maybe we need a more imaginative
approach to dealing with the problem.

The Nova program this week about recreating the Wright flyer
demonstrated what an amazing achievement that Orville and Wilbur
accomplished. It is impressive that they were able to overcome
all of the technical obstacles with what they had available.
It is remarkable that these first pilots did not get killed by their
invention.
Their ability to make a profit building aircraft, which remains a
problem
to this day, is commendable. It is highly appropriate
that the FAA is honoring them. The vertical dimension adds
a lot of complexity and is a very hard problem!
Even 747 captains find it a little tricky, like the one who
turned onto the wrong taxiway in Taipei in 2000.
All those statistics about flying being safer than driving
don't take into account that the average driver is a
complete schmo -- just take a field trip to the DMV.

The people tinkering around with rocket engines in order to
win the X-prize share the spirit of the Wright Brothers.
The inventors of these space planes are inspiring.
I wish I possessed one tenth of their imagination.
Buzz Aldrin said that we would never have made
it to the moon with today's risk-averse zero-tolerance
attitude. It is refreshing to know that there are still
visionary people who are willing to take risks.

Ted

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