Posted on 12/22/2009 12:36:33 PM PST by pabianice
Some Businesses Say They Will Be Grounded By Restrictions
HONOLULU -- President Barack Obama is expected to be in the islands for the holidays. The nearly two-week-long vacation may prove costly to some island businesses.
For many local flight schools and air tour operators it has been a difficult economic year. Now, their companies will encounter even more financial turbulence with the president's visit.
Mark Jones prepares planes to take off at George's Aviation. The business heavily relies on flight training for a big part of its income. Those training flights will be largely grounded as part of the safety measures in place during Obama's stay in Windward Oahu as temporary flight restrictions, or TFRs, will be in place.
"Within a 10-mile radius around Kaneohe Bay, only airlines, air am will be able to fly. That excludes the area around Honolulu Airport. There is another restricted area between 10 to 30 miles from Kaneohe Bay," Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.
"Flight training is not approved of 30 miles of the president. So, effectively that will shut down the flight schools from training," Jones said.
Some helicopter tours and charter flights may be allowed to fly. However, Pat Magie's seaplane tours will be sunk by the restrictions.
"We can't fly tourists. We can't train. We've got an enforced two-week vacation without pay," Magie said.
(Excerpt) Read more at kitv.com ...
Sounds like a little workers' paradise.
Hell of a way to help small business there Obongo...
Why does it seems as if this knob has been in office for 40 years now?
I was in Honolulu (stayed one night, headed for the Not Sho’) two Christmases ago and Zero was staying down the beach...the power went out (as usual) in a storm, we were locked down and it really scraed the crap out of a lot of people...and it really just plain sucked...not that anyone would want to harm the a$$hole...but anyway, I think this idiot should go AWAY from major population centers on vacation, so as to not wipe out everyone if something goes wrong or suck all the air out of the place with motorcades and all that other crap...except when Sarah Palin is President, in which case she could go anywhere and any amount of inconvenience woud be charming.
Have to break out the outrigger canoes to travel between islands.
This is strange, I never knew that the Secret Service imposed flight training restrictions around the president’s location.
I wonder how long that has been going on?
Please, PLEASE, volcano gods.
Take the loon.
Take him now.
We do NOT want him back on the mainland.
EVER>
LOL! So true.
As for Obama...all he cares about is himself. The Reps should interview the owners of some of these businesses that are hurt by his presence and make a commercial for the 2010 election.
The same thing happened around Bush’s Crawford ranch. It’s been going on since shortly after 9/11.
“Why does it seems as if this knob has been in office for 40 years now?”
This “knob”??? I’ve not heard that term used in years...ROFLMHO
Thanks for the laugh, FRiend...Merry Christmas.
And not only that, she would probably have an army of volunteer Patriots ready to man a perimeter on her behalf.
I don’t really understand why he goes to HI for trips anyway. Does he still have family there? Why not Camp David or Chicago (which seems to have been his home)?
Anything to destroy the economy. Large or small 0bummer never misses an opportunity.
And just how many businesses are there out on the Texas plains? How many square miles of air space is left to fly in after restricting a ten mile radius? Texas isn't a flyspeck island crowded with tourist related business.
This is worse than Michelle going to market. Streets shut down, people evacuated, secret service etc.
Personally, I was only affected once. I had a jet full of passengers on a business trip. We had stopped in Waco and were about to depart again. After we started our engines and requested clearance, Mr. Bush was enroute via helicopter from the ranch to the airport. We had to wait until he landed, boarded Air Force One, and departed the area. It wasn't too bad, about a twenty minute delay.
But when a president parks himself in an area of the country, there is going to be a no fly zone around him that will shut down air commerce and cause uninformed pilots to get FAA violations and visits with the Secret Service.
What are uninformed pilots doing in the air?
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