gravid
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posted on October 5, 2001 12:21:29 PM
Looks like if you have a company jet and think that will get you around instead of the airlines you are dreaming. Unless you intent to fly from small town to small towm.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/05/rec.flight.restrictions/index.html
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spazmodeus
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posted on October 5, 2001 12:43:15 PM
I've always thought private planes should be outlawed anyway, even before the terrorist attack.
How many times each year do we see on the news or read in the newspaper that some yahoo flying his private plane has crashed into a house or tried to land on a highway or created some other brand of havoc?
I have lots of private planes flying over my area every day -- I've even spotted experimental "kit" planes up there. It rankles the hell out of me that my safety and my property are potentially in jeopardy due to the "hobby" of a small group of people.
And what really kills me is that when they get in trouble up there, many of them place their own concerns about landing the plane above the safety of people on the ground, otherwise they wouldn't be trying stunts like landing on the highway or in school parking lots or whereever they feel can put the plane down.
There's no good reason why anyone should have a Cessna or other small plane crash into their house or in their field or forest just because some Icarus-wannabe scraped enough money together for flight lessons and a plane rental. Or because some retired executive (retired executives seem to crash a lot) gets a kick out of flying his family from New Jersey to their vacation home in Maine. Ground them all, I say.
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saabsister
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posted on October 5, 2001 12:59:33 PM
Spaz, we've had more than the usual number of private planes land at the local airport since National has been closed. I have a love-hate relationship with private planes. It's been noisy recently because of the increased traffic but they're fun to watch sometimes. A former neighbor of ours worked at Dulles and one of his friends had a small plane. Once my husband and I were painting our second story roof when this renegade pilot came flying over about thirty feet above our heads and maybe ten feet over the treetops. I headed for the ladder. On the other hand, I've worked with the Extension Service when they sprayed for gypsy moths. We used to mark out the spray blocks before dawn and then wait for the spray planes to buzz past.
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gravid
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posted on October 5, 2001 01:25:08 PM
Spaz - I suggest you look further into what this "hobby" costs. Although some of the experimental planes you mention are a hobby the planes that companies use are several hundred thousand to a couple million dollars and are often better equiped than the airliners.
After WWII a lot of people were saying that everyone would have a plane and they would build subdivisions around a runway so you could live out in the country and commute to the city. It never happened because it is TOO HARD to get a license. You have to progressivly train for each type of aircraft as you advance to more power or more engines.
If people had to take the lessons and be tested to drive a car the same way they do for a plane there would be a small fraction of the people crowding the highway that there are today. I really wish that would happen to some degreee. It would be a lot safer out there on the road.
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Hjw
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posted on October 5, 2001 01:35:08 PM
There is a neighborhood on the eastern shore of Maryland with landing fields in the backyards so that small plane owners can commute to work.
Helen
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saabsister
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posted on October 5, 2001 01:39:30 PM
Helen, back in the fifties, a State Department official built a house in our neighborhood. Before zoning put a halt to his plans, he intended to commute by helicopter. The neighbors didn't want the noise. Surprise! Surprise!
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Hjw
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posted on October 5, 2001 01:55:31 PM
saabsister
LoL
Kent Island, in Maryland... Landing fields in the backyards...a different kind of community 
Helen
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saabsister
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posted on October 5, 2001 01:57:56 PM
Drive, fly, or sail in.
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toke
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posted on October 5, 2001 02:04:55 PM
My father (a man with every pilot's license available) always maintained that private licenses didn't require enough instrument training, or knowledge of weather systems to be safe in the air.
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gravid
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posted on October 5, 2001 02:17:27 PM
toke - I have to agree that there should be no such thing as a VFR rating for anything other than a single seat with a ballistically deployed parachute system. You either learn to fly with instruments or buy a ticket.
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jt-2007
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posted on October 5, 2001 10:53:57 PM
I worked to pay for my hubby to take flying lessons as a gift. I flew with him. My daughter flew with him.
He flew with a lot of other people, even acrobatics. In one instance when he flew with a friend, the prop broke. The thing about small planes is if there is an accident, you have a huge amount of control over the plane. About every pilot (at least that I have met) would ditch in a second in a dangerous place to avoid harm to another person.
There is a community here built around an air strip called Slobovia, near Pocahontas. There are about 10 houses and the backyards are a shared grass air strip. They have an annual "show". It's a huge event for such a small place and very family oriented. Most of the people who fly fly with kids nearly every day.
I don't care for it (I get queezy.) but if someone likes it, follows the rules, I think it's fine.
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