Warbird Information Exchange

You can pooh-pooh this all you want. Last time I checked, in over 12 years of flying as a student or private pilot, there wasn't a lot of crime going on around most airports. If they are doing this to "increase our safety" from the terrible, dangerous conditions we have suffered for over 100 years, WE need to pay close attention to how THEY do it. If they aren't "increasing" our safety, complaints will probably go into this vacuous cavern of the government, contractors, and grant holders who say they know what is best for us. But it is our right as citizens to scrutinize how our government is "protecting" us and make our positions known to our elected officials and designated government employees.

Having lived and flown under the ADIZ/SFRA around Washington DC, I can tell you with my background of professional security and military operations that it was a FARCE and would not have prevented another incursion into the airspace if somebody wanted to do so. If you want to delude yourself into believing that is not true, you are welcome to do so. But things like are described in this original posting are modern fallout of government agencies looking for real reasons to exist after things have calmed down in the previous 12 years. They NEED a real reason to exist. And between the contractors, GS employees, and politicians, they are well able to manufacture one. That is what you are seeing here.

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REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

There was a similar incident at Midland a month ago. We were waiting for a pilot to arrive in a very fast small homebuilt. While speaking with Midland tower they put him in a hold pattern several miles away from the airport while they worked commercial inbound traffic. There was a thunderstorm moving toward the airport from the other direction and the pilot finally had to remind the tower he needed to land. Apparently, Homeland Security inquired about the aircraft and its flight path prior to landing with the FBO. Nothing came of it, but the pilot was following MAF Tower instructions and instead of checking with tower, Homeland Security contacted the FBO. You would think the lines of communication would be a little more direct between agencies.

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

Not sure if it was in one of these articles but one that I read said that the probable cause they had to search the airplane was a signal from the dog. And in that article according to the pilot they told him that the hit by the dog was totally subjective by the handler and they always hit on the baggage door.

If that is true it is very disturbing to me.

Also why can't you use your cell phone while you are sitting on the curb.

The reason this is becoming news is the number of recent instances of these cases. I believe the AOPA said there were more then 7 responses of other pilots being detained after the initial story.

Law abiding citizens should not be treated like criminals, be unreasonably detained, threatened, and be subjected to made up hits by the dogs. I would find it hard to believe that a seasoned police officer couldn't have some sort of sense as to the likelihood that the pilot is a bad guy or a good guy.

The biggest issue is that aviation is being treated as the enemy much more so after 9/11. We are very much misunderstood by the general public, who think that we are going to fall out of the sky on top of them. I remember seeing a video of a low flying airplane over NY and the people in the video actually ducked before looking up. I think this was the time Air Force One did the famous photo shoot.

Remember you can not fly over the ball field in St Loius Mo. with an ultralight weighing 300 pounds. But you can drive a 80,000 pound semi trailer within 20 feet of it on the highway.

We have to get lead out of our fuel even though it is an almost immeasurable amount of lead being burnt, yet boats leak like sieves all over our waterways.

There are a lot more examples and a lot of reasons but we must be wary of losing our rights to fly or they will dwindle to nothing.

If flying low with no flight plan is going to be the reason to be searched I will be in deep trouble. And what about ADSB when this is implemented they will know every move we make with our N number right on the screen.

My thought on this is that they don't want you to call your lawyer or the press because they know what they're doing is, at best, on the fringes of legality. They're counting on the idea that most of us really don't know what's legal and what isn't, and that we're going to be so intimidated by the whole encounter that we'll knuckle under and let them do whatever they want, including conducting searches that appear to be illegal (no warrant, and no obvious cause).

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida