AviationBanter - View Single Post - Ban privately-owned PLANES

**B1ackwater**

On 12 Oct 2006 16:07:00 GMT, (Blanche Cohen)
wrote:

B1ackwater wrote:
(RadicalModerate) wrote:

In misc.survivalism wrote:
He hit an apartment building for the rich - where apartments start
at over $1 million. Maybe because of that, longtime antigun nut Rep.
Carolyn Maloney demanded that flights over densely-populated areas be
banned.

Maloney being a Gun Grabber doesn't invalidate the debate about
general aviation usage over big cities.
I think it would be common sense to disallow inexperienced pilots or
even amateur pilots to overfly major cities.

Perhaps a special license endorsement for "Class B" (big city) airspace
which would require an instrument rating and minimum cume time-in-type
plus minimum time-per-month ( to assure proficiency ) is in order.

Not a terrible idea ...

A plane - even a small one - can do proportionally
more damage if it crashes into a dense urban area.
Requiring some special training - what do do if the
engine quits plus stuff about the weird air currents
around tall buildings - also makes sense. Requiring
at least 1000 hours of experience before getting
said "Class B" certificate would weed out the
seriously inexperienced too.

There are 27 Class B areas, not all of them anywhere close to
major city or dense population areas. There are lots of Class C,D,E
areas that are nestled right in the middle of dense population
areas.

Next question -- define "amateur pilot".

I think the original poster meant "private pilot" ...
non-commercial / non-governmental. In short he wants
to deny everybody but 'official' people access rights
to 'urban areas'. If he means the FAAs def of a
'congested area' then that blocks off everything but
the cow country.

In short, he's one of those people willing to trade
a LOT of freedom (someone elses freedoms probably
instead of his own) for the illusion of "security".
Franklin had something to say about that ...

As for "class B" ... it was a made-up class - 'B' for
"Big City".

I can see requiring some extra training, maybe some
minor security check, before letting Joe Pilot fly
his Piper through the middle of NYC. While emergency
landings are part of the standard program, what do
you do when everything beneath you is concrete filled
with people ? What about the funky air currents that
tall buildings cause ? What about the thermals from
all that concrete and asphalt ? Flying over a big
city is SPECIAL - and requires a little special
training.

As for the 'security' aspect ... not much, just prove
they are who they say they are and aren't on anyones
lists. US citizens get the easy track, foreigners get
a slightly deeper probing. Of course bona-fide terrorists
aren't gonna wait for PERMISSION to fly into a city ...