fighting the last war

General Aviation around Washington D.C. is different than anywhere else. In a bad way. After 9-11 some temporary rules were set up up to restrict flight around the D.C. area. The rules were hasty, reactionary, useless, and a huge waste of everyone's time. And they still are. Oddly, the New York City area has had no changes to it's airspace in the post 9-11 era. I guess the folks in Washington are more important than the folks in New York. I once asked the AOPA about this New York thing. They said that they had fought to keep it from happening in New York. I should thank them. If we use the New York example as we protest, their answer will be to set up an ADIZ in New York. If there is some sort of attack made on Washington with a light plane, I don't think it would do much. But 9-11 happened with airplanes. So it's airplanes we're worried about. Let's defend against airplanes. This is a kind of "Maginot Line" mentality. Let's insist that the terrorists attack again with an airplane, if they must attack. Perhaps we can get them to obey the speed limits and use transponder codes. Unfortunately, the next attack will be something we don't expect. Will it be something as simple as a half dozen suicidal terrorists cutting loose in a city with automatic weapons? Kill as many as they can before they can be killed. That will do more damage than crashing a general aviation plane into a building. And it's a hell of a lot easier. The ports are a big concern also. We're putting a lot of resources into this policing of private pilots around D.C. While we're all jumping through hoops to keep the good guys out of the kill zone, are we missing the new real kill zone? By dealing with the good guys 24-7 are the bad guys glad that we're busy with that? Just a day or two ago the Washington ADIZ became a permenant part of the regulations. No longer temporary, it's here to stay. That's sad because a lot of us hoped it would go away, and be slowly replaced by other more effective security measures. It's now called the ADIZ/SFRA. And there's a new ruling that comes with it. I just love this. Any pilot who flies within 60 miles of the area must have completed a test and have a certificate showing he has been trained about the ADIZ/SFRA. 60 miles! So if a guy never wants to go near the stinking SFRA and just wants to fly around it, he must take this test. The test includes proceedures that are specific to Leesburg, Va. and the trainee must know about it even if he's never gonna go there! I love this. This is not only locking the barn door after the horse has been stolen. This is making the neighbors take a course about the horses that used to be in the barn! How will they enforce this? What does it accomplish? I wonder if they considered forcing everyone who flies within the SFRA to take the test, and just not worry about the neighbors who are outside the SFRA and have nothing to do with it. Make sense? I understand the FAA is violating three or four hundred guys a year for ADIZ infractions. About one a day. If they all now have this course under their belt, maybe there will be less violations. Maybe. Now if we could just get the terrorists to take the exam.

hearts and flowers

Today was a great Valentines Day. My wife went to Salisbury with a girlfriend to go look at horsey stuff. So I just dinked around all day. I took care of her five dogs. Letting them in and out. My dog just stays with me all the time. I told him it was Valentines Day. He was not impressed. Then I said, "Jake, what time is it"? He barked out the answer. "Now! now! now!" We walked around looking at our new pseudo pavement. Don't ever listen to a smooth talking country Eastern Shore Delaware guy who says he's been asphalting at the neighbors and boy can he "give you a deal" while he and his crew and equipment are here. I spent a lot of money I didn't have. And during a depression. It's called pseudo pavement because it's not a complete blacktop job. It's recycled asphalt. Called "cold mix" or "cold pour". It's basically like putting down gravel. But after it's rolled it looks pretty good. He quoted me a price on doing my runway. 2500 ft. 50 ft. wide. "Fifty Thousand". But the cold pour is soft and crumbly and it wouldn't work for landings. You need the full blacktop which would cost 4 or 5 times that. Don't worry my friends. I would never pave my runway even if I had the money. So we paved the driveway. It's been a two-track since the wagons made it around 1910. The smooth talking guy with the cowboy hat told me I didn't need a permit. So Jake and I walked on the new driveway. Wife came home. They had eaten at "Outback". I figured she wouldn't want to go out again for a Valentine date with her husband. But she eats like a bird and we went out to Seaford. All the restaurants were crowded. We did get seated at a very elegant place called Ihop. We spent 24 bucks. But the big night wasn't over. Oh no. We went to this store named "Roses". "Roses" is a few steps below the dollar stores. "Roses" makes Wal-Mart look like Neiman Marcus. But I love "Roses". Since I hadn't gotten wife a Valentine, and we had to drive right past..... I begged her to let us go to Roses. She said OK, but with conditions. First, she would not go in. She would wait in the car. Second, I was not to get her a card, or candy. I ran into Roses. They were closing. I bought a little white stuffed puppy dog, an LED flashlight, and a box of cookies. She claims that all three gifts suit her very much, especially the puppy. We rode home and onto the newly pseudo- paved driveway. We agreed this had been a fine date. I was making some tea and she took a call from her sister. She spoke and spun her office chair around to face me as I looked in on her. "Oh yes, Lloyd got me a Valentine gift. It was "Roses".