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Left Seat *By J. Mac McClellan (Flying Magazine Editor) * *Business Aviation Be Damned* It is clear that the present administration in Washington, in the midst of the greatest economic crisis in 70 years, doesn't care one wit about the future of business aviation. Over the past several weeks it has lumped all private airplanes used for business into a category of spending that is so wasteful it cannot be tolerated. And now it continues to press ahead with its Large Airplane Security Program (LASP) that piles more cost onto business flying and robs those airplanes of a huge chunk of their usefulness.
The LASP would impose most of the "security" requirements of scheduled airline flying onto any airplane that is certified for more than 12,500 pounds at takeoff. That is the FAA definition of a "large" airplane, and the TSA has seized on it to define a threat. If the LASP proposal is adopted all operators will need to screen all passengers against a terrorist watch list; have a security audit from some private firm; have pilots approved by TSA; and obtain government approval of a "security" program for their airplanes both at home base and at any airport they use. Plus, owners won't be able to carry items that are banned on scheduled airlines in their own airplanes. The government refuses to understand that the huge majority of so-called "large" business jets in the United States could hide under the horizontal tail of a truly large airplane. The big majority of business jets weigh less than 30,000 pounds. And all business jets that are not converted airliners weigh less than 100,000 pounds. Rules that may make some sense for public transportation using aircraft that weigh hundreds of thousands of pounds are absurd for the typical business airplane that its owners use to visit the thousands of airports around the country that are not served by any airline. The only hope is that the hundreds of comments the TSA and Congress are receiving about the proposal will defeat it, or at least modify it to some logical form. The TSA is holding public hearings over the next several weeks and accepting written comments. But the most effective reaction by airplane owners is probably to contact your congressman and senator directly to describe how this proposal will add nothing to national safety, but will help to drive business aviation, and your own company, even further into a recession. The National Business Aviation Association has an excellent system for contacting your representative and senator on its website at nbaa.org . The site can show you sample letters and direct your communication to your congressman and senator. The government says it's going full speed ahead to turn the economy around, so let's encourage them to at least stop driving an important segment—business aviation—further into recession. |
