Sheriff Responds to AOPA

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