What happened to your right to fly? Or what other particular right have you lost?
WHY ARE THERE STILL RYDER RENTAL TRUCKS ON THE ROAD?
Here’s a link to a strange little piece, which appeared in yesterday’s Washington Post. It was written by someone named Joseph Kinney who claims to be a security consultant.. in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Kinney is calling for a “clamp down” on general aviation. So, does he really know what he’s talking about? It really doesn’t seem so. In his piece he writes “General aviation, which serves business and recreational fliers, encompasses 7,120 jets and about 25,000 multi-engine aircraft flown by about 200,000 pilots who have instrument ratings.” How could any person who claims to know something of which he write get the facts so wrong?
Actually, General aviation encompasses about 206,503 airplanes of which 6,400 are jets. Of the piston power general aviation airplanes 145,250 are single engine. Only 18,750 (not 25,000) are multi-engine. So far Kinney isn’t doing too well, is he?
Taking it further, these general aviation airplanes are actually flown by 635,000 pilots, not just the 309,000 (not 200,000 as Kinney says) with instrument ratings.
OK … why am I making such a big deal here? Because this clown is writing in an influential newspaper about clamping down on general aviation when it is absolutely clear that he hasn’t bothered to research his subject! All of the numbers are readily available on the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association website [ www.aopa.org ] for anyone to peruse.
As you read on in Kinney’s article you see more and more errors. His bit on flight plans, for instance.
Now --- here’s a task for you. Try to find one instance where any general aviation aircraft has been used as a weapon in the hands of terrorists anywhere in the world. Can you? I can’t. Now – see if you can think of an instance where a car or a truck has been used as a weapon in the hands of terrorists? The list is endless, isn’t it? How about that Ryder truck parked in front of that federal office building in Oklahoma City? Did we take Ryder rental trucks off the road? Is it any harder to rent a Ryder truck now than it was before Oklahoma City? No, on both questions. It’s one helluva lot easier to load explosives into a car or truck and drive them into a city than it is to load a light aircraft and fly it into a building and do any real damage.
Yeah – this is a narrow interest. General aviation is my hobby and passion. You? You probably don’t really give that big a damn, and that’s understandable.
Right now I have an airplane (a Super Decathlon) sitting at an airport near Atlanta that I can’t fly. The FAA won’t let me. Security concerns, you know. I can only fly my other airplane (Mooney Ovation2) if I file an IFR flight plan. Yeah, big deal. Who cares? It doesn’t affect you, does it? Well – if that was the approach we all took to freedom (hey, that’s his freedom, not mine. Doesn’t affect me.) then freedom would be in grave shape indeed.
If so-called security consultants like Joseph Kinney are going to write their little screeds they need to do some research and get some real facts.
--------------------------------------- He does have some valid points. If they outlawed all boats because they were worried about poisoning water supplies a lot more people would understand hus point and want to fight it.
It just recently was revoked. I used to be able to take off from TIX [Titusville, FL, on the East Coast by the Kennedy Space Center] and fly over to Orlando, or Lakeland, for breakfast. Or to show the passengers Disney World and Epcot Center. Or just to go out to the "practice area" between TIX and ORL and hone my flying skills.
All that is now forbidden - not by law, but by bureaucratic fiat. It's the same all over the country. VFR Pilots within thirty miles of large cities have been totally grounded - probably forever. And for what reason? Because we could "harm" someone? If that line of logic is allowed to stand, guns will certainly be the next item to be forbidden. Folks should re-read Pastor Niemoller [sp?] if they think the New Gestapo will stop with pilots.
In summary, I have spent a whole bunch of money and fifteen years of my life building an airplane that I am now forbidden to use. I want my money back!
Or what other particular right have you lost?
We FReepers laughed at Paul Begala when he said "stroke of the pen, law of the land - pretty cool!", but cheer, beat the drum, and wave the flag when Bush creates the New American Gestapo [Homeland Defense] the same way.
Bush doesn't have the constitutional authority to create a cabinet post by himself - let alone one with unspecified and probably unlimited powers. Under Article II, section 2, only congress can do that. But apparently nobody here is concerned with little technicalities like that. We're at war with evil, you see, so anything goes.
The U.S. Constitution - the document that our forefathers pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to protect - has just been used for toilet paper by G.W. Bush. But apparently that's OK because he's on "our side".