CAA: GA News, "Bay area aviation businesses trying to survive"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tuesday, October 16, 2001

Aviation businesses trying to survive
U.S. limits flying around S.F. airport
BY FRANK SWEENEY 
The San Jose (CA) Mercury News


The flight schools and other aviation businesses at small airfields near
San Francisco International Airport would like to do what President Bush
urges -- get back to business as usual. But so far, the federal
government won't let them.

More than a month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that grounded all
civilian aircraft in the nation, the airlines are back in the air and
most light planes are flying. But at small airports within what
essentially is a no-fly zone around San Francisco Airport, businesses
are economically starving with no relief in sight.

Though restrictions are being eased at 15 metropolitan areas over the
next three days, airspace in the Bay Area will remain under heightened
control.

``We're slowly getting back to normal as we deal with specific security
concerns for each metropolitan area,'' Federal Aviation Administration
spokesman Jerry Snyder said Monday. ``When those concerns are addressed,
then restrictions are being lifted.''

Snyder would not elaborate what those concerns are, but he said agencies
are working with the FAA to resolve security issues.

That announcement hits hard at small aviation businesses. 

Joel Avila's aerial photography business has few clients because he
can't fly where they want pictures taken. U.J. Emetarom's flight school
and aircraft rental operation at San Carlos Airport is struggling to
keep going as long as possible.

Scores of flight instructors -- who are paid only when they fly -- have
lost much of their income.

``This came out of the blue and caught everybody by surprise,'' said
Avila, who has operated Hawkeye Aerial Photography for a dozen years.
``To have your income slashed 85 percent can be devastating.''

The problem is that the FAA, on orders from the National Security
Council, is continuing to prohibit light planes operating under ``visual
flight rules'' in restricted airspace around some of the biggest
airports.

More than 90 percent of all light plane operations are normally
conducted under visual flight rules, which permit pilots to choose their
own courses and altitudes, within limits.

The restriction has created a virtual no-fly zone at many smaller
airfields in the shadows of big airports such as San Francisco's. Only
operations under instrument rules, in which the aircraft follow precise
directions from controllers on the ground, and pilot training flights
under supervision of an instructor are allowed.

In the Bay Area, Palo Alto, San Carlos, Hayward, Half Moon Bay, Oakland
and San Jose International airports are closed to traffic under visual
flight rules because they are within San Francisco's special airspace.

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http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID2

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