GA headed for regulatory trouble

Extremely weak.

But I am not surprised that a woman had the good sense to rid herself of
the smirking fool.

wrote:
The recent spate of private pilots violating restricted airspace over
Washington raises the thought that some lawmaker is going to decide
that general aviation is a threat to national security. It's only a
matter of time.

I've taken some comfort in the fact that this latest incident dropped
off the news almost as quickly as it arrived.

My feeling is that we underestimate the difficulty of regulating GA and
overestimate the public's desire to do so. Here we've just had a really
bad month with drunk kids stealing planes, the usual summer uptick in
crashes, etc. and a slow news cycle and still one senses no urgency on
anyone's part.

While people will get fired up about local issues like noise abatement,
there really is no constituency for DC-style restriction across the
land. Daley has charged the barricades on this a few times since 9/11
and been dismissed with prejudice every time. History shows that when a
small but very dedicated lobby goes up against a largely disinterested
public, the lobby usually wins, for better or worse.

Also, it's worth pointing out that GA happens to have a pretty
bipartisan constituency, and an unusually well-monied one. While many
of us fly old 150s etc etc, the class of people that are buying new
SR-22s, Lancairs, and Eclipses are part of the "monied interests" that
have back-channel connections in high places. Put together I feel
pretty confident that serious top-down restrictions will not happen in
the absence of a major incident, and even in the case of 9/11, nearly
all turned out to be temporary.

The real risk to us is at the local level, namely the disappearance of
airports and the gradual shrinking of the GA base of services, driving
up costs. The recent Kelo decision scares me a lot. I've heard legal
experts take both sides, but my gut instinct is that this will
encourage municipalities to stage a lot more eminent domain raids on
unpopular properties like small airports, whose local supporters are
too easily overrun by real estate developers and neighbors happy to be
rid of the noise.

My hope is that the Sport Pilot/LSA segment will stimulate a lot of new
demand which will increase the constituency for GA on all levels.
Numbers are the ultimate defense, as the gun lobby, which has far more
dedicated enemies, has repeatedly proven.

-cwk.

wrote in message
ups.com...

wrote:
The recent spate of private pilots violating restricted airspace over
Washington raises the thought that some lawmaker is going to decide
that general aviation is a threat to national security. It's only a
matter of time.

I've taken some comfort in the fact that this latest incident dropped
off the news almost as quickly as it arrived.



After the incursion in May, posters were predicting all sorts of dire
consequences for the next one.... and I predicted:

"Icebound" wrote in message
... (on May 17, 2005 )

wrote in message
ups.com...
With all the reports now coming out about how close that Cessna came to
getting smoked over Washington, it got me thinking. When the governor
of Kentucky flew into D.C. in his King Air with a dead transponder, it
caused all kinds of panic. Then the Cessna incident happened. If
something like that occurred again, what are the chances that the next
aircraft would be fired upon?

The more often these occur without anybody seriously hurt, the less likely
there will be a shoot-down because the previous experiences will suggest
"low danger probability". ... and also the more likely that the media
will
go away because they want to be chasing real blood, not another ho-hum
ADIZ
penetration.



--
*** A great civilization is not conquered from without until it
has destroyed itself from within. ***
- Ariel Durant 1898-1981

Icebound wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...

I've taken some comfort in the fact that this latest incident dropped
off the news almost as quickly as it arrived.

After the incursion in May, posters were predicting all sorts of dire
consequences for the next one.... and I predicted:

The more often these occur without anybody seriously hurt, the less likely
there will be a shoot-down because the previous experiences will suggest
"low danger probability". ... and also the more likely that the media

Indeed. The more these happen, the more people in DC will think, "Oh
great, another damn cessna scare," the less photogenic mayhem will
ensue, the less the media will cover it, the less anyone will likely
give a damn.

Personally, I think this might be a great opportunity for a bit of
hard-core pork-barreling to get the gummint to subsidize ADS-B rigs for
everyone. Double it in with a new ATC system and who cares about ten
billion here or there? Might as well make lemons from lemonade...

-cwk.

(removing tongue from cheek)

Excellent post. I generally agree that monied lobbies (such as the AOPA)
generally win out over loosely (or non-) organized citizens.

However, the internet is enabling groups that are seeking to change the
FAA culture and limit GA to come together.

You are absolutely right to fear the Kelo decision. This will be another
quiver in the anti-GA arsenal, especially for publicly owned GA airports
that pay no taxes. The strings on the FAA grants will make it a
difficult, but interesting battle. I expect local groups to begin eminent
domain proceedings against private and public GA airports.

On 30 Jun 2005 10:36:36 -0700, wrote in
. com::

The recent Kelo decision scares me a lot. I've heard legal
experts take both sides, but my gut instinct is that this will
encourage municipalities to stage a lot more eminent domain raids on
unpopular properties like small airports

If the municipalities are willing to pay back the AIP money they
received, I suppose there may be some danger of eminent domain raids
on airports. What needs to be driven home to the leaders in those
municipalities, is the reliance on outlying municipal airports of the
coming SATS technological revolution in air transportation. Once the
little airport is converted into a strip mall, the municipality will
have to use eminent domain to reestablish it, or get left out of the
future change in aviation.

wrote in message
ups.com...

....

The real risk to us is at the local level, namely the disappearance of
airports and the gradual shrinking of the GA base of services, driving
up costs. The recent Kelo decision scares me a lot. I've heard legal
experts take both sides, but my gut instinct is that this will
encourage municipalities to stage a lot more eminent domain raids on
unpopular properties like small airports,


http://www.ij.org/private_property/c...6_29_05pr.html

--
*** A great civilization is not conquered from without until it
has destroyed itself from within. ***
- Ariel Durant 1898-1981


--
*** A great civilization is not conquered from without until it
has destroyed itself from within. ***
- Ariel Durant 1898-1981

On Fri, 1 Jul 2005 00:48:53 -0400, "Icebound"
wrote in
::

http://www.ij.org/private_property/c...6_29_05pr.html

Thousands of properties nationwide are facing the threat of
eminent domain for private development, and many more projects are
in the planning stages. In its first-ever nationwide study Public
Power, Private Gain, the Institute for Justice documented more
than 10,000 instances of threatened or actual condemnation for
private development nationwide ...

If our government continues to permit public takings for private use,
get ready for more Kansas City style protests.

"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 1 Jul 2005 00:48:53 -0400, "Icebound"
wrote in
::

http://www.ij.org/private_property/c...6_29_05pr.html

Thousands of properties nationwide are facing the threat of
eminent domain for private development, and many more projects are
in the planning stages. In its first-ever nationwide study Public
Power, Private Gain, the Institute for Justice documented more
than 10,000 instances of threatened or actual condemnation for
private development nationwide ...

If our government continues to permit public takings for private use,
get ready for more Kansas City style protests.



I like this New Hampshire protest:
http://nhindymedia.org/newswire/display/2507/index.php

Icebound:
Holy cow! I agree with you that SCOTUS eminent domain decision was
horrendous. A direct contradiction to the Fifth Amendment. The idea of
targeting Souter's house is a delicious irony, and I'm happy that this is
happening in my home state of New Hampshire ("Live Free or Die").

Here's a link to a site where you can lodge an electronic protest.

http://www.petitiononline.com/lp001/petition.html

Of course, we anti-GA folks plan to use this horrible court decision to
our advantage....