President's Perspective

It's An Important Time To Follow The Rules.

At no time in recent memory has general aviation (GA) been under such intense-and unfair-public scrutiny. In the past year, unreasoning public paranoia about GA has reached the screaming frenzy stage, and a few careless or ignorant pilots are only adding fuel to the fire.

I'll get right to the point: Before you fly anywhere, even on a trip around the traffic pattern, check notices to airmen (notams) thoroughly for any temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) or other security-related issues. If you're a student pilot who has always relied on your CFI to perform this task, learn to do it yourself. The future of our privilege to fly may depend on our paying very close attention to the current airspace restrictions.

In the past year, other AOPA staff members and I have spent hundreds of hours in meetings with FAA, transportation, and security officials, arguing that Draconian restrictions on general aviation aren't warranted. Since the terrorist attacks a year ago, we've repeatedly pointed out that pilots are characteristically sober, responsible individuals who had to work hard to earn their privilege of flight and wouldn't want to risk losing it.

Often right after we've made these points, some careless pilot makes headlines by busting a TFR or doing something else foolish. In the near-hysterical climate of these times, you can bet that the news media will play up such stupid pilot tricks. As the comic-strip character Pogo said in the 1950s, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

A few examples of what we're up against:

• In mid-June, just as Washington, D.C., officials were ramping up security for the July 4 holiday, a GA pilot mistakenly wandered far into the TFR around the nation's capital. Military F-16s eventually forced the pilot to land in Richmond, Virginia, and the next day, media outlets all over the country trumpeted some variation of the terrifying headline, "F-16s Scramble Too Late to Protect White House From Little Airplane."
• A few days after that, police intercepted a small airplane in upstate New York after nervous residents reported seeing it flying low over reservoirs that supply water to New York City. It was the second such alarm in two days in the area, despite a longstanding post-9/11 notam asking pilots not to "loiter" near dams, nuclear or conventional power plants, refineries, industrial complexes, military installations, and similar facilities.
• The last weekend in June, President Bush and his family were at Camp David in Maryland. In the short time they were there, not one but two GA pilots busted the prohibited airspace surrounding the longtime presidential retreat. Both were corralled by F-16s and forced to land.

Of course, none of these flights was a threat to national security. But given the current paranoia, can you blame homeland security officials for their reluctance to believe us when we tell them that GA pilots are well-trained, responsible, and trustworthy? It doesn't take very many rotten apples to spoil an entire barrel.

It's clearly a pilot responsibility to know and avoid TFRs, but particularly since the attacks, the FAA's existing notice to airmen system hasn't made it easy. Lists of notams seem to go on and on, and individual notams are often largely incomprehensible without detailed study. That's why AOPA teamed up with world-class navigation information supplier Jeppesen to add graphical depictions of the November 2001 nuclear power plant TFRs to our Web site ( www.aopa.org ). You have told us how valuable those graphics were in avoiding the restrictions.

But AOPA's graphics, while very helpful, aren't official information. For months, we've been asking the FAA to make official graphics available, but to little avail. Finally, I personally appealed to FAA Administrator Jane Garvey, and in mid-July I finally got word that the FAA has stepped up its efforts to make such graphics available directly to pilots.

By the way, public paranoia isn't limited to Washington, D.C. Since May 1, a new Michigan law has required potential pilots to undergo a criminal background check, including fingerprinting. Since then, AOPA members in the Wolverine state have reported long waits in police stations, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with convicted felons, to be fingerprinted. As I pointed out at the time, men and women whose only crime is a desire to learn to fly shouldn't be treated like felons. The association is in the process of filing a lawsuit in Michigan challenging the state's attempt to control access to national airspace.

Similar proposals have been introduced in at least six other states, and AOPA is arguing against every one. In New York and New Jersey, where the proposals are furthest along, AOPA has asked members to contact their state legislators to oppose the measures. It worked earlier this year in Maryland, where such a proposal was dumped after a firestorm of protest from AOPA members.

Never before in the history of general aviation has it been so important to play by the rules. Let's not meet the enemy, and find that he is us.