If the AOPA does not come to this mans aid I am dropping my membership for just what good is it?......
http://abc7news.com/news/one-taken-i...landing/54145/
Tony
If the AOPA does not come to this mans aid I am dropping my membership for just what good is it?......
http://abc7news.com/news/one-taken-i...landing/54145/
Tony
I watched the news story and I'm sorry but I fail to see the outrage. He landed (innocently enough) in a heavily guarded, high security area. He was detained briefly while security determined that he was not a threat, then released and allowed to return to the plane to get personal belongings. The story doesn't say but I'm sure they then started working out a plan to recover the airplane. What would you have them do differently?
Jeff Point
RV-6 and RLU-1 built & flying
Tech Counselor, Flight Advisor & President, EAA Chapter 18
Milwaukee, WI
"It All Started Here!"
To 1600vw,
The AOPA folks are the good guys, they are on our side and do a lot of lobbying for gen aviation. Cutting off their support, even the very few $ that a membership costs you, only helps whatever govt agency that is trying to hit gen av flying.
It would be a boring world if, like some other countries, "flying" only meant riding on an airliner.
Sorry Tony, Jeff Point has precisely encapsulated the facts of the event in a rational, dispassionate manner. I can't add any more except, in the words of the Bard, "much ado about nothing."
Oh I see guilty until proven innocent.
Tony
This is not Guilt or Innocence, it is Threat or Non-Threat. And after the Washington Navy Yard, and Norfolk Naval Base shootings, the Feds are rightly being very cautious.
This is nothing new. There was a movie in the 50s about the SAC and USAF that showed the same sort of thing.
This isn't a case of storm troopers charging you at the GA Airport, this is landing in a place you don't belong where you could pose a threat.
lighten up. The gent was quickly back at his aircraft sans cuffs.
Absolutely right, Ted. Threat or non-threat? That is the REAL question. I have worked in many high-security areas and that would be the number one concern if a "strange" aircraft decided to land on your property. Thankfully everyone is ok and their lives will get back to normal.
Ron Barker
Manitowoc, WI
EAA# 784308
Webmaster - EAA Chapter 383
Posted on another thread...I could not have said this any better.....
He was outside the secure area. Look at the fences. He's between the low perimeter fence and the barbed wire, right by a road. I've never been there, but Google Earth shows fields all around the outside of the secure area and none inside. What security should have done is approach cautiously and see if he needed assistance, then escort him off the property. Yes, there was a non-zero chance that he was some sort of nut, and maybe even of the subset of dangerous nuts. But that had to be way down the list of probabilities.
Treating every blip like a terrorist invasion is not a good security practice and doesn't make anyone safer. This is right up there with sending the sheriff after the glider pilot who circled over a cooling tower at the nuke plant. Sure, he could have been a terrorist, but so could my sister. The problem is that when you're trained as a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And we've got too many hammers nowadays, and not enough Andy Taylors.