Gump

I watched about half of it before I got bored and stopped it. He's got some legitimate complaints, but I don't think he articulates them very well. It's understandable that he comes across as half-crazed, as one would think he'd be completely bonkers after dealing with this crap for over a decade.

The over-simplified explanation for those who aren't aware of what he's rambling about: There's a Special Flight Rules Area around D.C. which includes this guy's airport. Instead of following usual FAA rules, you get to dance to the TSA song.

Here's a more detailed overview of most of the crap:

The SFRA is a 30 mile radius ring around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (KDCA)
Flight operations under parts 91, 101, 103, 105, 125, 133, and 137 are prohibited in the FRZ without a waiver, unless utilizing one of three Maryland airports (CGS, VKX, W32)
It is mandatory to complete a special course to legally fly in the SFRA
You can't even fly VFR within 60 miles of KDCA without completing the special course
You have to get a background check then be approved (vetted) and are issued a special PIN.
In addition to a regular flight plan, you must also file a special DC FRZ flight plan, and must submit your PIN.
The following operations are prohibited: FLIGHT TRAINING, AEROBATIC FLIGHT, PRACTICE INSTRUMENT APPROACHES, GLIDER OPERATIONS, PARACHUTE OPERATIONS, ULTRA LIGHT, HANG GLIDING, BALLOON OPERATIONS, TETHERED BALLOONS, AGRICULTURE/CROP DUSTING, ANIMAL POPULATION CONTROL FLIGHT OPERATIONS, BANNER TOWING OPERATIONS, MAINTENANCE TEST FLIGHTS, MODEL AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS, MODEL ROCKETRY, FLOAT PLANE OPERATIONS, UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS (UAS) AND AIRCRAFT/HELICOPTERS OPERATING FROM A SHIP OR PRIVATE/CORPORATE YACHT.
And, naturally, the NOTAM (FDC 0/8326) notes the authorization of the use of deadly force against aircraft.

Needless to say, it's been an economic disaster for the three GA airports inside of the SFRA. However, it's only an issue for law-abiding citizens. It won't stop those with a criminal or terrorist intent, as was demonstrated when Frank Corder stole a Cessna 150 and crashed it into the White House.

Good find Gump
From Wikipedia on Corder
He stole the Cessna on the night of September 11 and departed from Aldino Airport in Maryland severely intoxicated, which is presumed to have led to his later miscalculation. The plane was noticed by radar technicians at National Airport several minutes before he tried to steer it into the wall of the White House. At 1:49 a.m., he hit the South Lawn and died on impact.

The guys dead how do they know maybe he was aiming for the south lawn And it looks like there were some copy cats out there (9-11)

Regarding the White House incident: A short time before this incident there was a news article about a flyer that landed on the square at the Kremlin in Russia. This dominated the news for a couple of days. IMHO the White house incident was a copy cat of that incident for personal attention. If you have seen the pictures of the plane at the White House you will notice that the flaps were full down (not what you would think for crashing on purpose). The wheel tracks,damage and location was that of a landing mishap. The fool landed to fast and long to get the type of fame he wanted.. But, he did get his 15 minutes the other way. IMHO the news (who never distort happenings) made it more newsworthy by being an attack on the White House rather than a foolish stunt that failed.

kevbert wrote:However, it's only an issue for law-abiding citizens. It won't stop those with a criminal or terrorist intent, as was demonstrated when Frank Corder stole a Cessna 150 and crashed it into the White House.

I think that the SFRZ is a completely different world than it was in 1994. I don't think non-law-abiding-ness will save anyone from the business end of a sidewinder equivalent. I'm pretty sure you won't get close to the white house with a 150. The smoke from your explosion may blow over it if the wind is right.

I disagree. Any small plane would be ideal for penetrating that airspace, the plane just needs to stay at treetop level with its transponder off. A supercub would be ideal so the pilot could fly slowly enough to see and avoid any wires.

Of course, the point is moot, since any criminal or terrorist intent would be defeated by a small plane's lack of capacity to do any real damage to anyone other than its pilot or passengers.

You might be right - I don't want to argue. But I happen to sell devices to the military industrial complex that are used in ground and light air and rotorcraft radar, thermal, and video imaging. The transponder being off will only serve to escalate your "foe" status even faster - and get you blown up sooner. I think we are far more trigger happy with someone invading that airspace than we would have been 12 years ago. A maule flying 40 knots over and barely under the tree-tops will not likely evade detection in DC. With a useful load of 1000 lbs they could carry enough fertilizer to make a decent crater and drop flower bombs of anthrax.

Back in the early eighties a nice Saturday excursion involved flying VFR into National then walking to the new METRO and riding downtown to check out the Air & Space Museum.

I also got bored before watching more than a couple minutes. Fact: Life isn't always fair. But we all have to put up with various regs, and that includes how we fly all over the country. I prepared this little "explanation" of the alphabet airspace for a friend in Pocatello who wanted to show a ground school class just how confusing the current regs can be. I may have printed it here before--getting older allows me to forget what I've done :


It is good to know how far away from clouds a pilot must fly, so for clarity, the FAA has divided the country into 6 classes of airspace, A, B, C, D, E, and G. Some of the classes overlap each other, so that for instance, there will be Class A airspace above all of it—where the FAA doesn’t care if you’re clear of clouds, in the clouds, or in and out of the clouds, as long as you’re upright and taking nourishment (and have a clearance to be there), because the FAA won’t allow VFR pilots in Class A airspace—but below that may be Class B airspace—where the FAA doesn’t care how close to the clouds you get as long as you stay clear of them by as little as an inch or so and can see 3 miles but you still have to stay upright and have clearance to be there VFR or IFR—but under that might be Class E airspace—where the FAA wants you to stay a mile away from the clouds at your altitude but 500’ below or 1000’ above any other clouds, and there you can fly upside down or sideways. But sometimes there will be Class C or Class D airspace below the Class B (recalling that you can be within less than an inch of the clouds no matter where they are, beside, below, above), but in Class C and D, you have to be 2000’ away from any clouds at your altitude, 500’ below or 1000’ above other clouds, and then you have to be upright again, but you don’t need a clearance from ATC, just be “in contact with” ATC before entering. Then there’s Class G, which might be under all of that, and there you still have to be 500’ below or 1000’ above and a mile from clouds at your level, except if you’re below 1200’ AGL, when now you have to stay clear of clouds and be able to see for a mile during the day and at night, you have to be 2000’ away from the clouds at your level and be able to see 3 miles, but you can be upside down or sideways if you want without talking to anyone. None of these rules apply to an instrument rated pilot who is legally current on instruments and in an airplane that is legally current for instrument flight as long as the pilot is on an instrument flight plan and flies according the instrument clearance that the Air Traffic Controllers have given him, except that in an emergency, which doesn’t have to be declared, the pilot can deviate from the instrument clearance as he sees fit to address the emergency, and that may put him into a VFR situation in which he has to follow all of the VFR cloud clearance rules again. Consequently, it’s good to be wearing aviator grade sun glasses during the day, but not at night, so that all of this will be as clear as possible.

F space is part of the F word, which we use when we screw up and don't follow the very clear explanation of A, B, C, D, E, and G air space previously provided. It is considered not good aviation form to use the F space word over the radio and can result in a big fine by yet another of the F space agencies of the federal government. Actually, that F space agency, which was formed in 1934, has been in existence long before the F space agency which governs aviation, because before the F space agency which governs aviation was formed in 1958, there was a C space agency formed in 1924--but that agency was formed before the FAA created the A, B, C, D, E, and G air space designations, so that there's no confusion between the C space agency and the A, B, C, D, E, and G space designations. The C space agency that preceded the F space agency didn't designate any areas of the country as having any kind of space, which was an oversight, because clearly there is space all over the country. Instead, they called all the areas which have space as being areas, like terminal areas, and airport areas, and so forth. But as a means of saving paper, the F space agency published a Notice of Proposed Rule Making, usually called a NPRM, which is the F space equivalent of the N word, in order to create the A, B, C, D, E, and G space designations. That took some 50 pages of paper, which was then duplicated 485 times so that all of the Senators and Congressmen could have a copy of something that they would not read and could not understand if they did read it, and another 6000 times to send to all of the libraries in the country, including the Library of Congress, which none of the members of Congress or any of the Senators use, because they are too busy arguing with one another and otherwise acting like politicians, who largely fill spaces known as the Senate Office Building and the House Office Building. Then after the usual 90 days of public comment, the F space agency which governs aviation published the final rule of A, B, C, D, E, and G space designations, so that we could all understand why they were all hired to fill the F space agency with F space people.

And that explains why there is no F space designation in the national airspace system, because the F space is already fully used.


Cary

Get used to it. Most of the rest of the world has always had a lockdown on GA, and in a lot of countries All airspace is under military control and reserved only for military plus some acceptance of the necessary evil of large passenger commercial aviation.

Low and slow to avoid detection has been a concern for long enough that as soyAnticristo points out it is all more than covered now. I recall Northrup owning an AN-2 back in the eighties that they were using to test low altitude low speed detection. Eastern block had thousands of them in those days. We're all going to be mandated Mode S soon, just like Europe. Airport GA is on its way out, that's why I'm Backcountry.