I heard on the news the President speaking today. He said the pilot who flies Air Force One told him our air traffic system is a mess. This had something to do with an airplane getting to close to Air Force One. He said he will be revamping this system in the near future. I hope us small guys in aviation don't get stepped on during this process. I am sure those who have our best interests at heart are fighting for us. I hope anyway. Tony
Air Force One Pilot(Pilot): Welcome aboard Mr. President.
President Trump(Trump): Thank you Captain. How long have you been flying Air Force One?
Pilot: 8 years sir.
Trump: Do you enjoy flying this, ah, what is this, ah, this 747, right? See, I know a lot about airplanes, probably more than Boeing, Airbus and McDonnell Douglas put together.
Pilot: Very much sir. This is one fantastic unique airplane, I'm blessed to be sitting in the left seat.
Trump: Where's the left seat? Never mind that, it's not important. Let me ask you somethin', have you ever had any close calls?
Pilot: What do you mean by close calls?
Trump: Ya know, ahhh...like ahh..any other airplanes that have come close to you in the air.
Pilot: When Air Force One is in the air we enjoy a strict 10 mile non-incursion zone that is automatically put in place around us in any airspace in the world.
Trump: Ya but, has anybody ever penetrated this zone?
Pilot: No sir, never to the best of my knowledge and certainly not while I've been flying her. On a very rare occasion another aircraft might be just outside the zone 11, 12, 15 miles away but that's OK, that's a very long way away.
Trump: I see, so there's been some close calls?
Pilot: NO Mr. President, there have NOT been any close calls. I just told you that Sir.
Trump: C'mon kid, you can tell me, I'm the President, I won't tell on you.
Pilot: Sir, we're about to depart, go sit down. And you don't have to do up your seatbelt.
24 hours later, Trump Tweets:
The pilot of Air Force One told me another airplane came really close to my new airplane. The air traffic control system is outta whack. It's a complete disasta. The whole world is a complete disasta. Everybody except me is a complete disasta. Bad. Very bad.
This is what you must really hope for Tony: God Save America.
No, Trump did his usual pandering to those who can advance his personal interests.Understand he was pandering to the airlines, a group that is uncharacteristically anti-GA as they wish to subsidize their commercial activities by inequitably throwing the burden of the infrastructure on anybody other than themselves. If you think that his statements have any positive effect on GA, you're smoking something.
See my post on privatization. And it will not be a non profit privatization deal if Trump follows normal MO. User fees will follow your ADS-B track like a heat seeking missile. Best of luck.
One thing for sure. You can not separate aviation and politics. Some will say no politics on this or any aviation forum. Then you can not talk aviation for the politicians have made aviation political. But I do like our New President and he is showing every other President how the white house should be ran. He is a man of action and he has the good will of the American citizen at heart. IMHO. But when we speak of aviation or GA aviation and smaller. Who knows what will happen if we did not have those like the EAA and AOPA standing with us. This thread really is not about this but again maybe it is. Make sure you support EAA and or the AOPA. We need someone speaking for the little guy. If not the big guys will walk over us. But I doubt Pres. Trump is worried about a 70 hp airplane flying 100 mph. It may be the bigger guys that this will effect more then us small guys and gals. But the EAA or Experimental does cover a wide range of airplanes. Everything from 30 mph- 500 mph airplanes or aircrafts. So dependent on what you fly you may be effected by this, but maybe not. I guess we will see. But our New President does not believe in more regulations. If someone wants a new regulation three regulations must be removed. I guess time will tell. But I feel positive about our future. Tony
It is the golden rule. Them with the gold, rules.Originally Posted by 1600vw
Most of the people I know want less government. Isn't that one of the planks that Trump ran and won on?
Wouldn't privatization of ATC by definition result in less government?
All seem to be for the equal sharing of costs. What if the costs could really be known and shared equally? Would we be in favor of higher costs of owning and operating an airplane if it was determined we were not paying our "fair" share?
Fair being in the eye of the beholder apparently. It would appear to me that 100% of the populace all believe they are paying more than their fair share of the costs. Just as all of the children are above average.
Should or should not a privately run ATC system (run under government regulations I presume) be profitable?
By all means, let it be profitable. I however will seek to minimize my purchase of the product by not enlisting in most of the current ATC benefits now offered if it means additional cost at and above what we now pay in taxes. I don't need big daddy to follow me all over the sky having flown nearly five decades now with minimum aid from the Feds. Those years I spent moving people around, the costs associated with Air Commerce were passed on via ticket costs and those may increase accordingly. This afternoon I just received the plea from another organization to help fund the PAC to fight privatization. And the race is on!!
Last edited by saber25; 02-10-2017 at 04:25 PM.
Privatization and user fees are separate issues. Can have privatized ATC without user fees, can have user fees without privatizing ATC.
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