On Friday, January 18, 2013 9:01:22 AM UTC-6, John Cochrane wrote:
On Jan 18, 8:17*am, Jp Stewart wrote:

http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/article...s-learned-from....



JP



There is a bit of a worry in all this. Like the sheriff here, it's

likely that 99% of the public believes that airspace above nuclear

plants is restricted. My non-aviation friends are always very

surprised to know that 100% of airspace is not directly controlled,

that there are no control towers at the vast majority of small

airports where I fly. They're even more surprised to learn that the

typical airliner approach into Midway airport blasts through about 30

miles of class E (about 4 miles north of my glider club) and the only

thing standing between them and a flaming wreck is the pilot's keen

eyes looking out the window. OK, TCAS, and the fact that most planes

are carrying transponders around here helps a lot, but you know what I

mean. Most airline passengers think they're in something approaching

class A or B all the time.



We know all this works fine. The public does not. And we live in a

democracy much more sensitive to John Q Public's perceptions of safety

issues than to reality.



So, long story short, one could rightly worry that too much attention

to all this leads to, "why isn't airspace above nuclear plants off

limits?" (to anyone except real terrorists!) and more rather than less

restrictions on what we do.



We're about at the optimal level of publicity now, where it has the

attention of local law enforcement, and they are learning that it's ok

for light planes to overfly nuclear plants. I'm not sure writing

congressmen and women is such a great idea. They might come to the

opposite conclusion!



John Cochrane

I agree with John also .. we may suffer unintended consequences from the attention.