Posted on 09/13/2002 5:36:53 PM PDT by SBeck
We wouldn't have believed it if we hadn't gotten it first-hand from the embattled manager of the College Park Airport himself.
Lee Schiek, manager of the nation's oldest continuously-operating airport (in College Park, MD), received a call, Tuesday, from an FAA Flight Service Station ordering him to close his airport, "immediately." The order was to apply to both College Park (CGS) and Potomac Airport (VKS), as well as Hyde field... which has already been closed for an extraordinary period of time--a move which has nearly decimated those associated with that airfield.
Schiek's story is amazing: "At 8:20 (PM/Tuesday), I was called by FAA and told to close immediately... period." The original order was to have closed the airport until 1600 Thursday... but another call extended the order until 1600 Friday... and yet another call from FSS extended that another two hours until 1800 Friday (EDT). The order specifies absolutely NO FLIGHT OPERATIONS... which obviously means that if someone flies out of, or into, these airports, they're toast and they get to tango with the TSA or the Secret Service, depending on whose turn it is to violate someone's civil rights (one wonders: do they draw straws... flip a coin?).
Pretty Bad, Eh? No Wait, It Gets MUCH Scarier
The FSS, when called back and questioned (to confirm the validity of the grounding order), told Schiek that the directive comes from the TSA and that there was to be no NOTAM announcing the situation... meaning that pilots can apparently be violated for a situation that they could not possibly have knowledge of.
Schiek was quite emphatic about this directive. "FSS replied, 'No Notams will be issued,'" he said. Schiek was also told that the TSA "declined" the suggestion to publish the NOTAM.
Obviously, this is a bizarre, probably illegal, and certainly unconstitutional situation. Worse, a renegade bureaucracy, under no one's control, is targeting an entity that has NO history of being a threat to our nation's security, and, as a matter of fact, it is an industry with an extensive history of service to the nation in times of war and peril. Go figure.
Potomac Confirms...
Not that we didn't believe Schiek... but we called Potomac Airfield's "Big Cheese," David Wartofsky, who not only confirmed that his field was also closed but noted that he received the same treatment as College Park... three last minute calls, little warning, lots of excuses, and NO NOTAM to be issued. Wartofsky is keeping his sense of humor about it all, regardless, his website decribes Potomac as both "The preferred airport for the intelligence professional" as well as "Airbase Potomac." Ya gotta admire a guy who can still make a joke while his livelihood is endangered...
Worst of All...
A quick call to our local FSS was a shocker... as the young lady who answered my inquiry stated that according to her records, that both College Park and Potomac were still open to "restricted use."
When you read this, folks, call your Congressman, call both your Senators, and call any elected official you can get a hold of. Our government is doing this because we're letting them... and we have to change that.
Its bad enough that airports are being closed for no good reason and that patriotic hard-working "Aero-Americans" (this nation's new minority group/target of discrimination) are being deprived of their livelihoods, liberty and the ever-popular pursuit of happiness... but it seems to be done illegally and arbitrarily... and in a way that tarnishes the very image and foundation of this nation, at home and abroad.
As Lee Schiek wrote ANN, late Thursday evening, "'Close airports and airspace, but let's not inform the flying public through established procedures'...... What an absolute outrage!! It should not go unchallenged - Please help!"
Everyone should re-read the Niemoller poem about now.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the borders remain wide open. I guess only CITIZENS need be inconvenienced.
I've become quite the aviation geek.
Voiclady: The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only, there is no stopping in the red zone.
Voiceman: The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only, there is no stopping in the red zone.
Voiclady: The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only, there is no stopping in the red zone.
Voiceman: The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only, there is no stopping in the white zone.
Voiclady: NO! The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading and there is no stopping in the red zone. Voiceman: The red zone has always been for loading and unloading
there is never stopping in a white zone. Voiclady: Don't tell me which zone is for stopping and which zone is for loading.
Voiceman: Listen Betty, don't start up with your white zone shit again!
No, it can be worse. Let's say "......up to and including loss of one's aircraft and possibly one's life."
Damn, son, how'd you do that???? I assume you're ok, since you're sitting here posting, etc..........????
Seriously, though.........damned glad you're ok.......and your pax made it. For what it's worth to you, I'm a BIG believer that the Good Lord looks after those who do good.........and you were doing what you did for good. You'll, somehow / somewhere, be compensated for the loss of your aircraft. God bless.
Totally
Stupid
A$$holes
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