the DC-3

Not the plane, the airports.

The Washington DC area airports KCGS, KVKX and W32 operate with
additional security requirements as specified under SFAR 94. I was going
through those requirements to understand what I have to do to land at
CGS. I'm not really asking about that, I'll go through that journey and
report back. It looks to be a real pain and seems to be another
manifestation of pointless bureaucracy from the Department of Homemade
Security.

The real point of this post is how silly the additional security
procedures are and how they are left in place to provide the appearance
of additional security without actually delivering on that promise. I
just drove my daughter down to school. She starts college in DC next
week, a sure sign of my aging. Beyond the emotional trauma of that life
milestone, I had to wonder what that flight would be like. So I did my
flight planning only to come across this SFAR 94 restriction. I'd much
rather fly the 320 or so miles than transit the NJ Turnpike ever again.

But this time I had to drive. After going through the area on route 95
just past College Park you really get an appreciation for how pointless
it is to single out light aircraft in these restrictions. Nothing big is
getting in or out of CGS, it is only 2600' of runway. So this SFAR is
really directed at the small, light aircraft flown by the GA community.
As I was driving along on the bottom of the ADIZ I couldn't help to
think how silly it is, as giant semis hauling heaven knows what whizzed
along without restriction hurtling within miles of downtown DC. It is
all so silly.

KC