SPEAK UP!!! 

General Aviation, the ‘whipping boy’ for our national leaders, is being attacked again…  The plan now is to make the ADIZ over our nation’s capital permanent.  Once that is done, Mayor Daley will want one over Chicago… and then…. Well you get the picture...  Please read page two of this issue carefully and get out your pen and paper to let congress, the FAA, and AOPA know your thoughts.  If we don’t, a bit of our free sky will be taken FOREVER.  This is the time to “speak for us.” 

Although General Aviation aircraft have never been used as a weapon by terrorist, we are the ‘whipping boy’ for all the governments’ problems.  Never in the one-hundred years of aviation has the pressure been so tight on all of us to maintain our freedom.  There is no threat to Washington or Chicago, especially from a small aircraft.  The fact that all pilots and planes are governed by the FAA means that we are easier to control and it looks good for the TSA, Homeland Security, the FAA, or any congressman to push the button and apply more control to the General Aviation fleet.  Our strong voice is in AOPA.  However, we must be the one to stand and talk.  AOPA is but one organization, we are 600,000 strong.  When we shout… the roar will be heard. 

Make this our “Alamo”… stand up and be counted for aviation.  Otherwise, the domino’s will begin to fall… there are those out there like Chicago’s Daley who would stop private pilots from flying within 200 miles of Chicago.  I can still recall his comments after the September 11, 2001.  “You mean that any pilot can fly from California to Chicago and do so with out anyone knowing about it?”  Daaaaaaa…  And my comment was “Yes, . in this free world they can rent a large truck and drive it from California to Chicago with dynamite on board.” 

This is the mentality that we are fighting…  It ain’t going away, my friend…  The monster must be forced back into the sepulcher from which it came.  There is no Superman to call.  This monster must be attacked by mere humans… and done so quickly.  Sharpen the pen and remember the “pen is mightier that the sword!!!” 

During Lindbergh’s day, things must have been so simple.  The depression was around the corner… the FAA didn’t exist in its present form… government employees were at an all time low number… yet life continued very well.  People didn’t sue other people over coffee spilled on one’s body.  Life was simple.  Flying, today, is complicated and expensive.  Most youth can’t even think of running out and buying a new airplane.  They might be able to purchase a 50 year old plane.  My first airplane was 24 years old when I purchased it.  In this complex age of lawyer assisted negotiations, aviation has taken a back seat to the fun and inexpensive sport it was back in 1927.  That’s too bad. 

In many ways I would not return to 1927… in aviation I would go back to the days of Earhart, Lindbergh, Post, Rogers, and Curtiss.   This is not possible and we must take a stand to protect those rights given us by the Wrights and Lindbergh’s.