CAA: GA News, "Lobbying Battle Looms Over How U.S. Should Let Small Aircrafts Resume Flying"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tuesday, October 2, 2001    

Lobbying Battle Looms Over How U.S. Should Let Small Aircrafts Resume
Flying
By J. LYNN LUNSFORD and STEPHEN POWER 
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL


Three weeks after the attacks on New York and Washington, a major
lobbying battle is looming over how the federal government should allow
about 41,000 small general-aviation aircraft based around large cities
back into the air.

During the weekend, the Federal Aviation Administration posted a notice
allowing flight lessons in major metropolitan areas, including solo
flights by student pilots. But it is still illegal for experienced,
licensed private pilots to fly solo under visual flight rules, which
normally would allow pilots to fly during good weather without following
specific air routes or being in contact with air-traffic controllers.

In an effort to overturn the restrictions, the Aircraft Owners and
Pilots Association, which represents aircraft owners and pilots, is
urging its members to contact lawmakers in Washington for help. Late
Monday, the group's president, Phil Boyer, sent an e-mail to about
200,000 of the organization's 375,200 members, urging them to ask their
elected representatives to set up a meeting with the National Security
Council, which administration officials say is behind the restrictions.

"If we know what [NSC's] thinking is, we can help come up with a
solution," said Mr. Boyer, whose group is based in Frederick, Md. He
described the current restrictions as "lunacy."

The restrictions have resulted in traffic levels at many municipal
airports that are less than 5% of what they were before Sept. 11,
forcing many businesses that depend on general aviation to face the
prospect of going out of business.

"General aviation has been dealt a very severe blow, and it is
continuing," a spokeswoman for the General Aviation Manufacturers
Association said.
 
Scott Joslin, a self-employed aviation mechanic at the municipal airport
in Arlington, Texas, between Dallas and Fort Worth, said that since
Sept. 11, one airplane has rolled into his shop for maintenance,
compared with several drop-ins a day before the attacks. "I'm getting
ready to diversify," he said. "If I have to, I'll open the doors for
automotive work, or I'll even fix lawn mowers."

Despite the economic pain, FAA officials said the agency had no
timetable for lifting the restrictions on general-aviation aircraft. "We
realize there are hardships, but these are security decisions being made
on a daily basis ... by other federal agencies," said Alison Duquette,
an agency spokeswoman. A spokesman for the National Security Council
said he wasn't familiar with the pilots' concerns and couldn't comment.

The pilots' campaign represents the most public attempt by a major
Washington lobbying group to overturn rules enacted in the wake of the
terror attacks. After the FAA initially halted all commercial air
traffic on Sept. 11 and allowed only a gradual resumption of commercial
flights in the days that followed, Mr. Boyer said he had asked his
members not to contact Congress. But the group switched gears after it
became apparent that top officials at the Department of Transportation
and FAA "aren't in the driver's seat" when it comes to deciding how and
when aircraft closest to the big cities are allowed to fly again, Mr.
Boyer said.

The FAA already has permitted unrestricted flight in rural areas, as
well as flight through most metropolitan areas for pilots who file
instrument flight plans. Mr. Boyer's group says many of the 41,000
airplanes still grounded aren't equipped with the instruments necessary
for precision flight in bad weather. Even if they were, Mr. Boyer says,
the air-traffic system "isn't designed for controllers to talk to every
single airplane. It would cause total gridlock," he said.

One of the chief concerns that has hung over the issue is how to provide
security for all airplanes, particularly those that fly from airports
with little or no security in place.

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