CAA: GA News, "Passing security -- the only way to fly"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Saturday, February 9, 2002

Passing security -- the only way to fly
Procedure: In order to have access to small airports in the Washington
area, pilots must be fingerprinted and clear background checks. 
By Rona Kobell
The Baltimore (MD) Sun


COLLEGE PARK -- They call it the Cradle of Aviation. But this week,
College Park Airport looks more like Central Booking.

On the grounds where Wilbur and Orville Wright taught Army officers to
fly, pilots pack into a room and wait for humorless men in suits to call
their numbers. They then place their hands on a counter along a white
wall while a woman with the U.S. Secret Service takes their
fingerprints. Then they sit for an interview with a different set of men
in suits.

And so it goes for the pilots seeking to again enjoy the privilege of
flying from the oldest continuously operating airport in the country,
which cleaves to that distinction, though -- as of Sept. 11, it barely
operates at all.

Along with Potomac Airfield in Fort Washington and Washington
Executive/Hyde Field in Clinton, College Park Airport -- opened in 1909
-- has been closed since the terrorist attacks. The Secret Service has
resisted opening the airports -- the only general aviation fields in the
country still closed after the terrorist attacks -- because they are
within 15 miles of Washington's restricted airspace.

The Federal Aviation Administration is working with the airports and the
security agencies to outline a plan that would enable the airports to
reopen with the Secret Service's approval. The FAA and the security
officials came up with a solution: conduct background checks on all 300
or so pilots using the three airports.

The fingerprinting began Thursday and ends today. Next week, the FBI
will begin conducting background checks to make sure the pilots have
committed no felonies and haven't turned up on any watch lists.

If all goes according to plan, the airports could reopen by the end of
the month.

"We want to see people flying again," said Secret Service Agent George
Luczko, who was at College Park this week overseeing the fingerprinting.
"But we want to know who's up there."

A quick survey of the graying crowd in the waiting room gives an idea.
There are a few doctors, a retired NASA engineer and an octogenarian
couple (both flight instructors). There's a U.S. Army National Guard
major who endured a 5-year background check for his security clearance.
And a retired Air Force pilot who once transported government
dignitaries.

Many of the pilots say the fingerprinting seems silly -- especially for
those in defense-related jobs who have top-secret clearances. But if it
opens the airports, they'll do it.

"There's a certain amount of grabbing at a procedure so they can say,
'OK, we've done something.' If they could do haircuts, they'd probably
be asking everyone to get a haircut," said David Wartofsky, who manages
Potomac Airfield. "Most people are laughing about having to do it.
They're willing to put up with all types of weird stuff."

Reacting to scrutiny 

Take the Bielstein family. Gary, 40, is an aviation mechanic at Hyde and
a former commercial pilot. His brother, Lee, a Continental Airlines
pilot, landed one of the first planes at Ronald Reagan Washington
National Airport when it re-opened.

Their father, John, taught them both to fly. He's a retired major in the
U.S. Air Force who once flew for the Special Missions Wing at Andrews
Air Force Base. John Bielstein's resume lists his 19 years in the U.S.
Air Force, 11 years flying commercial planes and six years operating a
county airport in South Carolina.

As an FAA official studied those credentials, Gary said, "I find it
highly ironic and slightly infuriating that the government doesn't trust
its own people."

He added: "We know each other, but the Secret Service doesn't know
general aviation. The Secret Service is the problem."

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, which has been lobbying to
open the airports, isn't wild about the fingerprinting. But like the
anxious pilots, it won't object too fiercely if the procedure will
hasten reopening.

"Overall, it's not something we're happy about, and we don't want it to
become precedent but we're dealing with reality here," association
spokesman Warren Morningstar said. "Frankly, the Secret Service would be
just as happy to see the three airports shut down."

Some in the aviation community have feared that's exactly what would
happen.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the FAA closed the airspace around
Washington, Boston and New York to general aviation. But gradually, most
restrictions were lifted, and most airports could operate as they did
prior to the attacks. By December, only the three airports remained
closed.

The airport managers still spend their days wearing out their telephones
with calls to the FAA. And the pilots still wait, amusing themselves
with work and hobbies.

David Haykin, the retired NASA engineer, focuses on carpentry and
playing the organ.

Valentines adjust 

Edna Dragoo, the 83-year-old flight instructor, volunteers with Meals on
Wheels and at the College Park Aviation Museum. She and her husband,
Don, also 83, planned to fly out of the airport for Valentine's Day.
They are giving up on that now.

"I've gotten excited too many times with this," Don Dragoo said.

The Hyattsville couple's interview with the FAA took longer than most of
the others because Edna's medical certificate had expired and the FAA
has yet to grant her a waiver.

"The FAA is so slow," she whispered, rubbing her hands with an
alcohol-dripped towel to clean off the ink from the fingerprinting.

The process took so long that Maj. Herman Valentine had to forgo lunch.
Valentine, 37, who wore his fatigues, works in the aviation safety
division of the National Guard Bureau in Arlington, Va. He has a
security clearance, not to mention a deputy sheriff's badge.

Like most, he considered the inconvenience a small price if it meant
flying again.

"I just wish," he said, "that it hadn't taken from Sept. 11 until now to
come up with this procedure."


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