What the TSA is trying to say is that since Immigration has done such a
shoddy job of keeping out the bad element that wish to do the country
harm that they are going to take over and re-invent the wheel. I can
only imagine the hassles some folk are going to be subjected to. I
don't think the $130 per candidate is going to cover much of the huge
bureacracy they are going to create. Yet another unfunded mandate that
the taxpayer will end up footing the bill for. You have to admire the
TSA though, they have managed to amass a uniformed staff of the same
people that let the 9/11 people get on board with their weapons and
claim that the flying public is safer. I don't believe flying
commercially is any safer than it was thanks to the TSA. I do however
think that any subsequent hijacking attempt is going to be met with a
lot more resistance from the passengers and unusual attitides from the
folks in the cockpit. People are not going to sit back and wait to be
crashed.

This is just my opinion, if presented with the scenario I'd tend to
think that a handful of hijackers would pose no challenge to a cabinload
of people lobbing full soda cans and caraffes of scalding hot coffee at
them.

Robert


David Brooks wrote:

"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...

In a previous article, "David Brooks"

said:

"David Brooks" wrote in message
...

I've lived in this country for many years, paid my taxes, been a
schoolteacher and a Scout leader, and now this:


http://dms.dot.gov/search/searchResu...=19147&searchT

ype=docket.

Amazing. I've briefly scanned it to see if there was an exemption for us
permanent residents, but everywhere I look I see "aliens", not
"non-resident aliens". Hey, I thought I passed my security checks when I
got fingerprinted and had to provide proof that I had no outstanding
warrants back in Canada.

This sucks.


There's a beautiful paragraph in the analysis.

"TSA does not expect a significant impact on the overall demand for U.S.
flight training...the IFR only impacts alien candidates for U.S. flight
training..."

False.

"...and the population of alien candidates is small relative to the number
of U.S. flight students..."

18% is small? OK, it's less than one fifth, but it is significant, and
higher than I would have expected. Where did I get that 18% number? From a
previous page of the IFR, and it comes from the FAA.

"...the impact on demand will not be significant because U.S. flight
training is considered to be the global standard, and it is comparatively
less expensive to obtain a pilot's certificate in the U.S...."

This seems to assume that all noncitizen pilots are traveling here for
training; the argument is irrelevant to people like Paul and me. I'd like to
know how many of that 18% (an FAA number) are residents versus visitors.

-- David Brooks