CAA: GA News, "Aftershock: Aerial photographer finally cleared for takeoff"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tuesday, October 23, 2001

Aftershock: Aerial photographer finally cleared for takeoff 
By Bob Batz Jr.
Pittsburgh (PA) Post Gazette


Wanting to demonstrate the legendary quick takeoff of his Piper Super
Cub, Brad Barnes taxied to the end of the airstrip grass, turned his
craft around and hit the gas.

But at the point where he'd normally lift off -- "Right about here," he
said -- nothing happened. 

That's because he was piloting his van, not his airplane.

After the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, the federal government grounded
just about every non-military pilot and plane in the country. That
included Barnes, a 39-year-old flier from Canonsburg, and his
37-year-old but immaculately restored bush plane. 

While the feds soon allowed commercial airliners and, gradually, many
other planes back into the air, Barnes won't be able to get back in the
air until today.

It's been much more than an inconvenience. He makes his living as an
aerial photographer. 

"It's going to hurt a lot. You can't lose a whole month's income and not
miss it," said the husband and the father of three, while sitting where
he's been sitting way too much lately -- in his hangar at the tiny
Finleyville Airport in Washington County. 

Barnes and Finleyville have been trapped in one of the expanded
restricted areas around the nation's biggest cities, as have thousands
of private pilots at hundreds of small airports.

Even if Barnes does get into the Pittsburgh sky today -- he needs decent
weather -- it's going to be hard to get back to normal. 

"I can't make up all that time," he said on another day he was stuck
inside Hangar Six, taking increasingly impatient calls from clients
around the country. 

The hangar is the new home of aerialsanywhere.com the business Barnes
started in 1986. This was just after he and his wife moved back here
from Florida. They were running Hallmark shops there when he was bitten
hard by the flying bug and decided to try shooting photos from the air.

Barnes broke ground on these new digs last year and was finishing the
work this fall. He has been working full-time for clients ranging from
developers to mortgage lenders who require aerial images of buildings
and properties. Business was so good that he was set to hire someone to
work in his office. 

That all was before Sept. 11. 

Barnes came in early to check charts and weather for a flight to
Washington, D.C., to photograph a commercial site about nine miles from
the Pentagon.

He was ready to leave when he heard on the radio that a jetliner had hit
the World Trade Center. He raced to the hangar next door to watch TV,
the pilot in him sure that no way was the crash an accident. By the time
he learned about the planes crashing into the Pentagon and in Somerset
County, he was thinking, "My God, I was going to be right there."

He never imagined he'd be entangled in a national security issue for
weeks to come. 

He's lost thousands of dollars worth of work. And he's just one tiny
piece of "general aviation," which includes all aircraft except for the
airlines and the military -- the generally smaller planes that, before
Sept. 11, accounted for 132,000 flights a day.

Barnes had expected "GA" to get back in the air by Sept. 14, the day
after the airlines did. But the FAA loosened rules only for private
pilots operating under instrument flight rules, or IFR -- that is, under
direction from air traffic controllers based on specific flight plans.

Barnes, like most pilots, doesn't have or need IFR certification. He
flies under less strict visual flight rules or VFR.

Yet even after limited VFR flight resumed Sept. 19, it was not allowed
in expanded "Class B" air spaces around 30 major airports. With
Finleyville Airport inside the expanded space around Pittsburgh
International Airport, Barnes and most other VFR pilots could not fly in
or out of their home fields. 

"It's dead," Barnes said about the airport, of which he is a part owner.
While most pilots here fly just for fun, he isn't the only one to feel
the pain in his wallet. His neighbor is Cubs Unlimited, a business that
refurbishes planes and provides maintenance and inspections. With the
sole runway so quiet, Cubs Unlimited owner John Waltrowski said, "my
cash flow is cut in half." 

Their frustration spiked Oct. 15, when the FAA announced gradual
resumption of limited VFR flying in 15 other metro areas. As announced
Sunday, Pittsburgh was one of a dozen areas to be opened up this week,
leaving only New York, Washington and Boston still off limits. 

The advocacy group Barnes belongs to, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots
Association, continues to lobby to open those areas and restore
activities still banned in Class B zones, such as news flights and
banner towing.

Aerial photography is a small niche, but Barnes hasn't been quiet about
helping in the lobbying efforts, using his phone and computer to "keep
the pressure on" various agencies and officials. 

"I was so emotional. I was in tears talking to Greater Pitt."

Upon getting a cool response from someone at the office of U.S. Sen.
Rick Santorum, R-Pa., Barnes said, he asked the man whether he got paid
every week or every two weeks, then blasted him: "You know how often I'm
getting paid? NEVER!" 

He wishes someone would have listened to him earlier and simply had
verified him and his business, but said he understands the security
issues. "I don't want to sound like I'm whining." 

Still, what has been held up isn't just his 15 to 20 contracts; he
estimates that those photos figure into $1 billion worth of loans.
"People don't realize how GA is woven into our economy." 

On a personal level, he had been counting on September's earnings to pay
for the furnace he needs at his hangar. 

"I'm certainly going to survive, it just messes up my time frame," he
said yesterday, as he eagerly anticipated shooting jobs such as Friday's
opening of the Mall at Robinson Town Centre.

As frustrating as being grounded has been, Barnes has been able to do a
lot of office work, and he can see other positives. 

"I've always felt privileged to fly. I've always taken it as a big
responsibility. I think that maybe this enhanced that a little more."

Attached Photo:

Aerial photographer Brad Barnes has been working the phones, trying to
get anyone to listen and help him and his Super Cub, parked at the
Finleyville Airport on Friday, get back in the sky.

Aftershock.jpg