First of all, Chuck Collins produced an excellent piece of work (July 6) on a subject that I’m sure is very bothersome to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and the Federal Aviation Administration.
I have observed, over the decades, that individuals who have a pilot’s ticket seem to feel qualified to take on anyone who finds fault with aviation and the aviation community. This is unfortunate.
Today I find myself at odds with the conduct of the FAA on many issues.
Stafford writes, “The sky itself is pretty darn empty.” Actually, on any average weekday morning there are over 4,000 airliners in the sky. Every single one is flying on a “highway in the sky.” Because of the traffic congestion, every aircraft is under some level of radio/radar surveillance. This does not apply to unscheduled or privately owned aircraft. These aircraft can be anywhere, excepting restricted airspace.
Now a few words about “security.” Homeland Security rates private aircraft, both prop and jet aircraft, as a serious gap in the country’s defenses. Apparently, Stafford is not aware that many of the “beautiful people,” as well as major corporations, use the services of charter jet operations. These individuals and businesses may own a jet, but more often than not they maintain agreements with charter operators who use these privately owned aircraft for their charter business when the owner is not using them.
For example, a phone call (and lots of money) will provide a charter jet with its flight crew aboard, engines idling and a flight attendant at the door, with a well-stocked bar and meals according to your wishes when you are ready to leave. Your crew could be terrorists and you would never know it n until your life comes to a sudden end.
A private jet could cross the Canadian border and reach any place in the nation without raising any alarms. The pilot could refuel at any general aviation airport, like the Ravalli County Airport, without causing any suspicion. A Gulfstream or Falcon Jet can carry a payload of destruction that would be horrendous.
Unfortunately, Stafford missed what I believe is the most important subject of all in Collins’ column. The FAA has spent, and is spending, billions n that’s billions n of tax dollars improving what are called general aviation airports with the designation of “destination airport” so they can service private jets. There is one in the center of the Bitterroot Valley.
The FAA has stated they will push to expand the Ravalli County Airport (which is less than two miles from Rocky Mountain Laboratories) n which by federal definition is a general aviation airport n no matter what the citizens want. The taxpayers will be stuck with 10 percent of the multimillion-dollar cost. There is no chance of recouping the taxpayer expenses because, by federal regulation, the airport cannot be a revenue-bearing operation. It is “the people’s airport,” open to any pilot who wants to land no matter what he is flying. The FAA project manager for the Hamilton expansion once commented that could be a 747.
Lately we have witnessed the FAA stopping the Santa Monica city-owned airport from preventing private jets from landing, even though the airport is unsafe by FAA standards for jet operations. I hope you get the idea.
Private jets are a luxury that has become a status symbol as well as a necessity by a truly infinitesimal segment of the general population who wield a hugely disproportionate influence on our government agencies, which exist by the grace of us taxpayers.
Earl Pollard is a veteran Navy pilot and has held both commercial pilots and aircraft and engine mechanics tickets for 60 years. He writes from Hamilton.
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