CAA: GA News, "General Aviation Hard Hit in U.S. After Attacks"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sunday, September 23, 2001

General Aviation Hard Hit in U.S. After Attacks


DENVER (Reuters) - Nobody's trying on aviator jackets at the Pilot Shop at
Centennial Airport as general aviation -- the backbone of much U.S. air
traffic -- struggles to return to normal after last week's attacks.

``Business is almost at a standstill,'' said Paulette Huertas, an owner of
the shop.

Restrictions on general aviation since three hijacked commercial planes
slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon last week has brought
the industry to its knees.

General aviation pilots fly banners over sports arenas, inspect power lines,
gather news, report on traffic and even spot fish for commercial operations.
They train pilots, including future pilots who have just graduated from the
Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Flying clubs have been hit hard.

``Nowhere in the country is any pilot receiving training. These are the
people who will be flying years from now,'' Larry Ramsdell, president and
owner of the Aspen Flying Club in Colorado, where takeoffs and landings are
averaging two a day, down from 2,500 on normal days.

NO BAILOUT

``We don't have a big voice. We can't go to the Congress and get a
bailout,'' Ramsdell, who has had to lay off 10 employees, said. About 30
flight instructors who are independent contractors are getting no business,
he said.

``Small airports have seen their revenue streams shut off,'' ''I see some
very tough times ahead. Last week was a body blow financially,'' aviation
consultant Michael Boyd said.

About 65 percent of all general aviation flights are for business or public
service, comprising anything from crop dusting to private airplanes carrying
business people around the country.

While stock prices have fallen sharply and many aspects of the U.S. economy
are feeling the effects of the attack tourism and aviation have particularly
hard hit as tourist and business people avoid travel.

Air traffic at Van Nuys airport in California, the busiest general aviation
airport, is down to 25-30 percent of its normal traffic, according to
spokesman Richard French.

The second-busiest, Centennial near Denver, has been seeing 150 to 200
operations a day, compared with 1,200 in normal times, according to Lori
Hinton, manager of operations at the airport.

General aviation aircraft represent about 92 percent of all airplanes in the
United States and about three-quarters of them have fewer than six seats.

FLIGHT SCHOOLS HARD HIT

Among the hardest hit are flight training schools, the ones that have come
under the microscope since it was learned that the hijackers had taken
training courses at U.S. aviation schools.

The 375,000-member Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) in
Frederick, Maryland, estimates the flight schools have been losing $10
million a day since the day of the attacks.

``As far as our base flight schools are concerned it's absolutely
devastating. I don't know how they're going to survive,'' Bob Bogan, deputy
director of the Morristown Municipal Airport in New Jersey, said.

A total ban on visual flight rule flying -- in which the pilot uses the
ground to navigate rather than instruments -- was only partially lifted on
Wednesday by the Federal Aviation Administration. About 90 percent of all
general aviation is conducted by visual flight rules.

``This was a great first step,'' Keith Mordoff, spokesman for the AOPA,
said.

The ban on flight training continues, leaving thousands of future pilots
unable to study and flight instructors losing money every day, a big blow
since 18.5 percent of all general aviation flights are for instruction
purposes.

But at least some private flight schools in Colorado got a bit of good news
Thursday evening when restrictions were lifted so 90 recent graduates of the
Air Force Academy could resume their lessons, according to Lt. Col. Kathy
Doby, commander of the 557th Flying Training Squadron at the academy.

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