On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 17:57:13 -0500, Emily wrote:

It's truly saddening that everyone seems to be resorting to anti-GA-speak.
Why would a plane NOT be able to fly over New York?

I was surprised to learn of the exclusion zones too, once upon a time.
I'd always assumed that the entire area was tightly controlled (what I'd
think of, now that I'm a pilot, as class B) simply because of the
proximity and number major airports: TEB, EWR, and JFK. I think LGA gets
some use too, still.

But that's not the same thing as believing that a plane couldn't fly over
NY. I just thought that it would be under positive "control".

What irks me is that people so quickly decide that small and large
airplanes should be treated differently, to the disfavor of small
airplanes. Those cowards on the news claim shock that a small airplane
can fly overhead when those small airplanes had nothing to do with the
2001/09 attack.

Yet mention the idea that large aircraft should be kept 30 miles away, and
nobody seems to like that idea...despite that idea being consistent with
their claimed fears.

It's irrational.

Although I was on the Jersey side on 2001/09/11, I'd a lot of friends on
the wrong side that day. Quite a few passed through my office leaving
Manhattan for temporary space elsewhere. At least one of the firemen I
know was on the scene, and I'd be surprised if none of the others were.

None whine as much as the people I see on the news. Admittedly, there's
some sample bias. But I wonder if the newsies look to pick out the
cowards.

We know that the politicians stoop for craven vote.

Does New York have a way of traffic reporting that
doesn't involved aircraft?

There are quite a few traffic cameras at fixed mount points, in fact. But
helicopters are still used too.

[I believe that two "hurtled out of the sky", "smashing into the ground"
with a "astonishing" absence of "flaming wreckage" over the past year or
so.]

Do they not allow helicopters into downtown hospitals?

I know that at least one hospital on the east side of Manhattan has a pad
on the roof. I kept a close watch during a visit to Federal Court one day
recently, but nobody broke the boredom by appearing. There are also a few
commercial helipads at the periphery of Manhattan, whose helicopters make
the exclusion zone flying *far* more exciting {8^).

- Andrew