Roost Air Lounge => Current Strip => Topic started by: cotejy on November 30, 2010, 03:05:13 PM
Title: TSA what's next?
Post by: cotejy on November 30, 2010, 03:05:13 PM
Good one. What will they come up with next.
I love the face of the agent in center who do the hand search. ::rofl::
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: vldflight on November 30, 2010, 03:24:58 PM
Hats off to you buddy, you have hit a homerun with this one. ::bow:: ::bow::
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Oddball on November 30, 2010, 04:41:15 PM
Got checked twice by security in St Petersburg in May on my way home. once to get into the check out area then again to get onto the plane almost left my passport behind getting all my gear sorted out.
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Rooster Cruiser on November 30, 2010, 06:44:33 PM
I am on a Pro Pilot forum, and this particular subject is the topic of TWO threads that now run over 6 pages in length each! I went ahead and posted your cartoon on one of them. Very well done guys! |:)\
Your rant is very correct Stef. Steve Forbes beat you to it when he wrote, "We do not have airport security... we have airport security THEATER (my italics)."
Its all a show, and Bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki are both laughing their heads off over our knee-jerk reactions to a single underwear bomber. Man what a friggin' waste of time, effort, money, and resources.
If they really want airport security, they should fire TSA and hire El Al. Forty years of security operations in the Middle East where everyone wants to literally kill them and there hasn't been a single successful hijacking of that airline.
Rant Over
RC
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: ZAIZAI on November 30, 2010, 07:14:09 PM
I am sure the guys who designed the mm-wave scaner are laughing all the way to the bank...
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Dillo on November 30, 2010, 08:01:34 PM
Not only a waste of time, effort, money, and resources, but also an invasion of privacy and a violation of our civil rights. Until I can afford my own plane (at least as part-owner), I'll be taking the train or driving. Which sucks because it means not visiting my family, who live 2000 miles away. But I'm not willing to submit to virtual strip searches or molestation to climb on an airliner.
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: chuckar101 on November 30, 2010, 09:01:05 PM
What gets me is as their invading your privacy and violating you, they don't have the simple courtesy of responding to a "Hi, how are you?" I mean seriously can't show a little positive customer service to your supposed customers. Maybe its just the uniform, they must strap something around their balls to piss them off like they do at the rodeos. That has to be it.
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Rooster Cruiser on November 30, 2010, 09:10:42 PM
I hear you, chuckar. Worse than that, they've done enough fondling of children it has become a joke now. I will not allow my 2 young kids to travel by airline until this groping stops. The reason for that is because if ANYONE tries to touch my kids in that way the very least thing that will happen to the agent will be a kick to the groin! More likely they'll end up in the hospital or the morgue and I'd be in jail.
No one touches my children! ::rambo::
RC
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Rooster Cruiser on November 30, 2010, 09:21:11 PM
Quote
A friend of mine sent me this about his TSA experience. He, unlike most of us, was coming back into the country from Afghanistan on a military charter.
——–
As the Chalk Leader for my flight home from Afghanistan, I witnessed the following:
When we were on our way back from Afghanistan, we flew out of Baghram Air Field. We went through customs at BAF, full body scanners (no groping), had all of our bags searched, the whole nine yards.
Our first stop was Shannon, Ireland to refuel. After that, we had to stop at Indianapolis, Indiana to drop off about 100 folks from the Indiana National Guard. That’s where the stupid started.
First, everyone was forced to get off the plane–even though the plane wasn’t refueling again. All 330 people got off that plane, rather than let the 100 people from the ING get off. We were filed from the plane to a holding area. No vending machines, no means of escape. Only a male/female latrine.
It’s probably important to mention that we were ALL carrying weapons. Everyone was carrying an M4 Carbine (rifle) and some, like me, were also carrying an M9 pistol. Oh, and our gunners had M-240B machine guns. Of course, the weapons weren’t loaded. And we had been cleared of all ammo well before we even got to customs at Baghram, then AGAIN at customs.
The TSA personnel at the airport seriously considered making us unload all of the baggage from the SECURE cargo hold to have it reinspected. Keep in mind, this cargo had been unpacked, inspected piece by piece by U.S. Customs officials, resealed and had bomb-sniffing dogs give it a one-hour run through. After two hours of sitting in this holding area, the TSA decided not to reinspect our Cargo–just to inspect us again: Soldiers on the way home from war, who had already been inspected, reinspected and kept in a SECURE holding area for 2 hours. Ok, whatever. So we lined up to go through security AGAIN.
This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.
So we’re in line, going through one at a time. One of our Soldiers had his Gerber multi-tool. TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous, but it gets better. A few minutes later, a guy empties his pockets and has a pair of nail clippers. Nail clippers. TSA informs the Soldier that they’re going to confiscate his nail clippers. The conversation went something like this:
TSA Guy: You can’t take those on the plane.
Soldier: What? I’ve had them since we left country.
TSA Guy: You’re not suppose to have them.
Soldier: Why?
TSA Guy: They can be used as a weapon.
Soldier: [touches butt stock of the rifle] But this actually is a weapon. And I’m allowed to take it on.
TSA Guy: Yeah but you can’t use it to take over the plane. You don’t have bullets.
Soldier: And I can take over the plane with nail clippers?
TSA Guy: [awkward silence]
Me: Dude, just give him your damn nail clippers so we can get the f**k out of here. I’ll buy you a new set.
Soldier: [hands nail clippers to TSA guy, makes it through security]
This might be a good time to remind everyone that approximately 233 people re-boarded that plane with assault rifles, pistols, and machine guns–but nothing that could have been used as a weapon.
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: G-man on November 30, 2010, 10:39:38 PM
Just to throw this out there--I flew on the airlines last week for the first time in well over a year...and yes it was from a major international airport--St. Louis. I also passed through Phoenix and arrived in Sacramento.
I was NOT strip searched.
I was NOT molested.
SO....personally, I am having a hard time understanding everyones frustration. I will be flying back to St. Louis next week on the airlines and will let you know if it has changed by then.
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Mike on December 01, 2010, 12:31:52 AM
Just to throw this out there--I flew on the airlines last week for the first time in well over a year...and yes it was from a major international airport--St. Louis. I also passed through Phoenix and arrived in Sacramento.
I was NOT strip searched.
I was NOT molested.
SO....personally, I am having a hard time understanding everyones frustration. I will be flying back to St. Louis next week on the airlines and will let you know if it has changed by then.
but you still had to take your shoes off, and keep your fluids in a littls plastic bag, right?!
In Japan they have a scanner for the fluids, so you can actually take your waterbottle with you which I really like.
And my main frustration is the fact that the whole procedure is unnecessary, the fact that it feels like the terrorists have already won, not so much the fondeling. At my last strip search I looked the guy square in his eyes the whole time and made him feel way more uncomfortable than I was. ;)
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Rooster Cruiser on December 01, 2010, 01:02:10 AM
Here's one taken from this link: http://www.infowars.com/tsa-desktop-image-makes-joke-of-cavity-searching-children/
I don't know if its for real or photoshopped, but the link shows this cartoon as a desktop screensaver on a TSA computer! ::unbelieveable:: ::banghead:: ::rambo::
If true, we have some real perverts working in TSA.
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Champagnemikey on December 01, 2010, 12:42:08 PM
Here's a real life example of their bullying techniques! ::banghead::
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: 4X-NTY on December 01, 2010, 01:51:29 PM
Adam Savage from Mythbusters tells a story about TSA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3yaqq9Jjb4&feature=player_embedded#!
And BTW, RC, the security guys on El-Al's airplanes and in Israeli airports are mostly soldiers serving the IDF and Shabak people (general security service), not by civillian organizations, and this is what makes the difference.
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Stef on December 01, 2010, 02:53:03 PM
I'm happy to see all the positive reactions to our strip. Well, it was Well, we kinda expected people to identify with this strip! :)
Well, that woman was clearly Al Qaeda! Breastmilk in a bottle? That looks like something only those goshdarn terrorist moozlims would do! Those brave Sturmführers did well in their valiant act of defending the homeland! ::banghead::
Well, here's one more private opinion of mine: It's kinda easy to bash the TSA, because it's just so obviously ridiculous, but the problem is actually much more deeply rooted. Our governments worldwide have been co-opted, bought and degraded to being the enforcement arm of giant corporations (banking, pharma, defense etc.) and the people who own them. Every four or five years the people vote to throw the current administration out, which is then replaced by the next one that seamlessly continues along the same agenda! Usually it's "conservative" vs. "socialist" in Europe or Republicans vs. Democrats in the States, but in reality it doesn't matter, they're just two sides of the same coin. All over Europe (and I am sure it's the same in the States) everybody gets told to "tighten their belts", that "we have lived beyond our means". Every million for education, welfare or whatever has to be fought for with demonstrations and months of negotiations. But when the banks are in trouble, WHOOPS, the parliament passes a law to give them hundred billion Euros (as so happened here in Austria) quicker than you can say "fascism".
We're being lied to and defrauded on such a massive scale that most good-natured people are not even capable of getting it. And tjhat's the main problem.
Wake up and smell the tyranny! Don't trust governments! Any! Ever! True, we need governments, but people have to be and stay aware that government power is like any other instruments of force and can be abused. (The founding fathers of the US were very wise in that respect. Limiting the power of government is practically all the constitution is about). Using incompetence to explain away the things we see is convenient, but although it is true that the lower lever minions we have to deal with every day, (such as the TSA) might be incompetent, the ones who designed the structure are not. I know I might be called a conspiracy nut, but I don't care. I tell you, it's planned! The merging of corporate power with governmental power is called fascism. And that's what we're dealing with.
[getting off the soap box...]
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Rooster Cruiser on December 01, 2010, 03:50:40 PM
Ah, c'mon Stef! Tell us how you really feel! ;D ;D ;D
Unfortunately, I am in 100% agreement with you.
RC
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: YawningMan on December 01, 2010, 04:05:37 PM
I haven't been on an airline flight since 2002. That was before the TSA stepped up their game in this kind of thing.
I think if I really had to fly versus drive, I would consider chartering a flight or something. I don't know, there's got to be some kind of alternative.
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Rooster Cruiser on December 01, 2010, 05:45:25 PM
I don't know if this is for real or not, but I gotta share it with you all just for the humor of the incident!
http://www.deadseriousnews.com/?p=573
RC
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Stef on December 01, 2010, 06:28:51 PM
I don't know if this is for real or not, but I gotta share it with you all just for the humor of the incident!
http://www.deadseriousnews.com/?p=573
RC
Haha! Well, if it's not invented, and the guy's name really is "Cummings" ... ::rofl::
Edit: Just noted at the bottom of the website: "All Rights Reserved Powered by Bovine Excrement" ;D
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Rooster Cruiser on December 01, 2010, 06:33:40 PM
Dang, I missed that Stef. Good eye! ::bow::
RC
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Mike on December 01, 2010, 09:48:14 PM
Ok so, I just flew from BUR to LAS with Southwest, and if you remember Burbank just had that incident with the full magazine found in the seat pocket:
I got padded down, had some sort of a "Random Shoe Check" done to my shoes (I thought it was a joke at first), AND had my toothpaste taken away AGAIN!! ::complaining: ::complaining:
What makes it more interesting is that I flew in the day before with a helicopter and in that aircraft the toothpaste didn't seem to cause much of a stir or make much of a difference. Oh well.....
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Stef on December 02, 2010, 03:12:03 PM
This here's for all who say "well, then I just won't fly anymore":
TSA at bus stops: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VGz7VJs3u0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VGz7VJs3u0)
And it's all made to sound oh so reasonable... Well, then we'll soon have checkpoints at subway stations, scanners at courthouses, and they even have huge x-ray machines where they want to make you drive through with your car. Starting out at border checkpoints, soon to be seen on a road near you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn8XmyUVenU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn8XmyUVenU)
EDIT: Oh, and I forgot to mention what's one of the most annoying points about all this: We all PAY for this with our taxes!!!
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Mike on December 05, 2010, 10:57:58 PM
Have you ever heard of the quote by Douglas Manuel, aerospace executive regards airport security, reported in USA Today, 13 March 2003: "Every time I fly and am forced to remove my shoes, I'm grateful Richard Reid is not known as the Underwear Bomber." Not so funny now after we HAD an underwear bomber and they're peeking into our underwear, huh?!
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Stef on December 06, 2010, 10:05:21 AM
Yeah, looking forward to the first anus bomber! ::sick:: ::loony::
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: madpilot44 on December 06, 2010, 03:12:02 PM
Stef, you know how sometimes you click the "look at the new post" button, and it takes a while to remember what the conversation was about?... yeah, I don't think i'm gonna do that again for a while, thanks to you. That woke me the heck up real quick. Thankfully, I wasn't drinking coffee at that exact instant, otherwise, I'd be cleaning my keyboard ::rofl:: ::rofl::
Title: Re: TSA ... it's not all bad!
Post by: Mike on December 23, 2010, 06:20:46 PM
Check this out, some accounts read like a love novel! ::rofl::
Without warning, he reached down and I felt his strong, calloused hands start at my ankles, gently probing and moving upward along my calves, slowly, but steadily. My breath caught in my throat.
I knew I should be afraid, but somehow I didn't care. His touch was so experienced, so sure.
When his hands moved up onto my thighs, I gave a slight shudder, and I partly closed my eyes. My pulse was pounding. I felt his knowing fingers caress my abdomen, my ribcage. And then, as he cupped my firm, full
breasts in his hands, I inhaled sharply.
Probing, searching, knowing what he wanted, he brought his hands to my shoulders, slid them down my tingling spine and into my panties.
Although I knew nothing about this man, I felt oddly trusting and expectant. This is a man, I thought. A man used to taking charge. A man not used to taking "no" for an answer A man who would tell me what he wanted. A man who would look into my soul and say . . . . .
"Okay, ma'am," said a voice "All done."
My eyes snapped open and he was standing in front of me, smiling, holding out my purse. "You can board your flight now."
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Stef on December 27, 2010, 10:34:59 AM
Here's an interesting video related to the subject:
Not sure how to feel about that video.... ::thinking:: I like what the newscaster says right at the end. He's pointing out flaws and he's pointing out flaws everybody knows about already. It's not like a terrorist is going to see the video and go "Oh! There you go! Here is a gate we can use, thanks for bringing this to our attention!". I don't know what the TSA's deal is, really. Are they related to the IRS? Can they just arbitrarily arrest people and take their guns away? Just for pointing out they have one on them? Everybody knows a lot of pilots carry guns now.....
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Rooster Cruiser on December 28, 2010, 05:34:12 PM
This is precisely my point: We do not have airport security in the USA, we have airport security THEATER! Billions spent blockading the front door yet the side door of the house is left open. The end result is 67,000 government employees which us taxpayers have to pay for PLUS the equipment manufacturers that are fleecing the federal gov't for their useless machines, etc. ad naseum ::sick:: Meantime, Al Qaeda is devising other new ways to find the endless chinks in the armor. They call this "killing by a thousand paper cuts." Very effective against a knee-jerk reactionary bureaucracy.
RC
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Rooster Cruiser on January 25, 2011, 03:05:06 AM
I just read this blog on Forbes.com questioning the need for Dept of Homeland Security or TSA. He makes a solid case that these government departments actually make us LESS safe.
The new Republican House of Representatives took office amidst much fanfare about the US Constitution and respecting Constitutional limits on government. I have suggested that if they are really serious about it, they will start by abolishing the Transportation Security Administration. Not much has changed in the last few weeks. Indeed, we can do without the whole “Homeland Security” charade.
Defenders of the Department of Homeland Security and TSA ask whether we are willing to sacrifice safety and security to avoid being inconvenienced. There is no evidence that this works. I have said it before and I will say it again: the data suggest that if anything, the TSA actually costs lives.
No doubt, there are plenty of people who heartily endorse increasingly-invasive measures employed by the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration because it makes them feel safe. That feeling of safety is an illusion. As Bruce Schneier and others have pointed out, the entire operation is “security theater” that costs us time and money while leaving us no safer. As Wikileaks is showing us, an opaque government saying “just trust us” is not to be trusted.
In spite of the evidence, the national security state gets larger and more invasive. In a truly creepy turn of events, the DHS is trying to deputize all of us into a nationwide spy network and enlisting the power of Walmart to do it. As someone whose research interests include the effects of Walmart and the political economy of institutions, I can’t help but wonder which combination of carrots and sticks motivated such “patriotism.”
Future generations will look back on the early twenty-first century security state as an interesting exercise in the triumph of politics over everything, including peace, prosperity, and safety. In a recent Foreign Policy essay, Anne Applebaum adds to the cloud of witnesses testifying that Homeland Security is an expensive sham. Most specifically, she points out how homeland security spending is a gigantic pork barrel with political considerations exercising undue influence over how the money is spent.
Applebaum offers as one example the million dollars of Homeland Security money that funded an “emergency operations center” in tiny Poynette, Wisconsin. I have nothing against the people of Poynette, but it is almost certainly a less inviting target than a major metropolitan area like New York or Boston. Applebaum points out–correctly–that a dollar spent on a Poynette emergency operations center probably delivers a lot less Homeland Security than a dollar spent in New York or Boston. The million dollars spent in Poynette is a million dollars that can’t be spent elsewhere. All else equal, we should spend our homeland security dollars addressing the greatest risks.
Critics of President Obama’s health care proposal have questioned it on Constitutional grounds. Others have decried the practice of voting on legislation before it is read. Commentators on the right made sport of Democrats’ claim that legislation had to be passed so that we can find out what is in it, and yet if there is an example of “pass it to find out what is in it” legislation, it is the PATRIOT Act, which was passed by near-unanimous votes in a Republican-controlled House of Representatives and a Senate in which the Democrats only held a one-seat majority. It was signed by a Republican President.
The Department of Homeland Security and the TSA are clear examples of trading something to get–not nothing, but actually less than nothing because they actual imperil our safety. If we are serious about the Constitution and serious about security, we will get rid of them.
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Mike on January 25, 2011, 10:20:15 PM
This is scary (again) and almost ironic that you posted this (and revived the thread) only a few hours before many more people died at an airport in Russia. The same could have happened in the States and there would be nothing the TSA could have done about it other than reacting....
What also bugs me is that these people are pretty crafty in choosing the names for their ventures. The "PATRIOT" act has as much to do with being patriotic as the "Federal Reserve" is a Federal bank. It's crazy that they get away with it!!
Also, having just flown with the airlines again and having spent numerous more hours at airports I was wondering if all the good that get sold there (including the very expensive "Dasani" water which Coke seems to have a monopoly on) also gets screened before it gets moved to the stores in the terminals and gates. Does anybody know? My guess is "probably not"......
::silly::
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Rooster Cruiser on January 25, 2011, 10:22:34 PM
CLASSIFIED INFORMATION =====================
Year to date statistics on Airport screening from the Department of Homeland Security
Yeah, looking forward to the first anus bomber! ::sick:: ::loony::
Sorry, Stef. I couldn't resist eating at Taco Bell before that flight, and I love me some refried beans and guacamole! ::cowboy::
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Mike on January 30, 2011, 05:10:08 PM
Have you guys seen the Homeland Security guy talk on the news today? They are revamping the alert system which now will let us know what the specific threat is. Also, they will make the "If you see something suspicious, report it" system better and grant immunity to people who report others to keep the reported party from sueing the reporting party. (to get more reports, I guess?)
THAT SCARES THE CRAP OUT OF ME ! ! ! ::eek:: ::eek:: ::eek::
If you see something suspicious, report it ???
For a kid that grew up not far from the iron curtain in a time where the GeStaPo and Eastern Germany still existed this is very very concerning. If people don't wake up soon this will exactly be the way we're headed. We already have phone tapping, fingerprinting, background checks, and more... This is not what I had envisioned "the land of the free" would be when I learned about this country.....
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: 4X-NTY on January 31, 2011, 11:00:37 AM
This is a bit TSA related, I guess.
About a month ago I had kind of a rough weekend, I had to go to a personal interview in Tel Aviv to see if I fit for a pre-army year of community service in Kibbutz Samar, and the day after I had to go to jerusalem for two days of seminar and assortments to the Jerusalemic pre-military leadership program. I live a three hours drive by bus from tel Aviv and four from Jerusalem,and my father lives two hours drive from Tel Aviv and two hours from Jerusalem, given that, I decided to return to my father from Tel Aviv and the day after go to Jerusalem. I had to carry a really big bag with clothes and what not and a sleeping bag.
Now, there's one thing you should know about Israel, you get a security check every time you enter a public building, that means that you need to open your bags and get checked by a handheld metal detector, but it's seems completely normal to us, there's even a joke that says that the best way to find an Israeli is to look for people in the entrance of a mall looking desperately for someone to check their bags. So, seeing that in Tel Aviv I had to go to three public building, one of them is the central bus station in tel aviv, handling thousands of people a day, that big bag I carried was a pain in the ass, it took me about a two minutes to open all the pockets and untying the sleeping bag, a big hold-up for the people after me, in one place I had to leave my Leatherman in the entrance after it triggered the metal detector .
I came to realize that since Jerusalem is more threatened by terror attacks than Tel Aviv, so the security check is going to be awful. When I got to the central bus station in Jerusalem I was expecting a really long inspection of my bags, but no, to my amazement there was an X-ray machine for the bags and a metal detector, just before I put my bags in the X-ray machine I remembered that I had a Leatherman burried deep down in my bag, I asked the security guy if that would be a problem, he said that it probably won't, That made me realize that when there's a real threat, everything will be efficient and effective rather than theatrical and just bothering. So, in a way, there's a good side that TSA can allow itself doing all those theatrical things.
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Oddball on January 31, 2011, 11:00:52 AM
will they have the "Bikini Special" board at the front of the terminal to tell you what the threat level is?
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Mike on January 31, 2011, 10:12:06 PM
Here is a good article on how they are planning on clamping down on GA as well. It's a little long but well worth the read:
Of Airplanes, Fences, and National Security Jan 27 2011, 6:05 PM ET By James Fallows By Lane Wallace
Although I've written about aviation for over 20 years now, I rarely write about it on The Atlantic's site because Jim Fallows already does such an excellent job of covering the topic here. But I do want to add a few words to what Jim's already said (all of which I wholeheartedly agree with) in response to Jeffrey Goldberg's "Private Plane, Public Menace" dispatch piece that ran in this month's Atlantic.
After getting a ride in a friend's corporate jet, Goldberg concludes that privileged "general aviation" airplanes threaten national security because their passengers aren't subject to the same TSA security that airline passengers are, and he argues that we need to impose that kind of security at general aviation facilities and airports.
I disagree with Goldberg's position on a couple of different levels. First, his description of what constitutes "general aviation" is skewed. And second, attempts to impose TSA-type security at small airports are not only, as Jim said, "wrongheaded" -- akin to attacking a fly with a clumsy and ineffective sledgehammer -- but they are also destroying one of the most valuable resources that airports offer America.
To understand why I agree with Jim that TSA-style security measures are neither required in the world of general aviation, nor the best approach to what security risk does exist in that world, it helps to understand, first, what "general aviation" really is. From there, it's easier to understand why the risk is not what many people imagine, as well as what's wrong with taking a TSA approach to security for every airplane and every airport across America.
So, what is "general aviation"? The way Goldberg describes the world of non-airline flying: "'general' being a euphemism for 'private,'" and private, in Goldberg's eyes, being a euphemism for "toys of the spoiled rich" -- is not uncommon among non-pilots. It describes a segment of aviation that is very visible, and which surely does exist. But that segment is also a very small piece of the picture.
Corporate or individually-owned jets constitute only 4 percent of privately owned aircraft. (Another 3 percent are jet engine-powered propeller planes, akin to the smallest of commuter planes.) The overwhelming majority of private aircraft are less-expensive and less-powerful piston-engine airplanes, and a whopping 68 percent of all private airplanes are single-engine piston aircraft.
In addition, most of those piston-powered, single-engine airplanes are not the shiny new models pictured in the magazines. Almost 90 percent of general aviation aircraft are more than 20 years old. Every airplane has to go through a thorough mechanical inspection every year, and essential parts (like engines) are replaced at set times. So the age of most planes isn't a safety issue. But it is reflected in their cost and value.
A brand-new Cirrus might carry a price tag of a half a million dollars, but my first airplane -- a 1946 two-seat Cessna that I bought in 1986 for only $5,000, could still be bought today for under $15,000. And my current airplane, 1977 Grumman Cheetah, which has a larger piston engine and four seats, has a current market value of around $30,000. Or about the price of a new Saab sedan.
What's more, many of those piston-powered single engines aren't the performance machines people imagine them to be. To fly coast to coast in my own single-engine airplane, for example, takes -- west to east, when the winds are predominantly at my back -- 30 flight hours. Which generally equates to six days, given that I don't fly in bad weather and limit my "pilot-in-command" time to about six hours a day, because I don't have an autopilot. In other words, you could drive the distance in less time.
There are also pilots like Jim, who have faster airplanes and "instrument" pilot ratings that permit them to fly in bad weather, allowing them to get a lot more utility out of their airplanes. But only 15 percent of licensed pilots have a current instrument rating. For the rest of us, flying isn't something we do for utility's sake.
So why do pilots sacrifice and scrape together the money to fly, if not for a useful purpose? The reasons vary, of course. But for many, many pilots, it has to do with remembering something we all used to know, back when we were still young enough to believe that anything was possible and dreams could come true. "Three year olds," I once wrote in an essay on the subject, "may not know much about physics, investment banking, literature, or even the meaning of life, but they understand something very important about living.... [They understand] that life is in the ever-changing moment of the present, that joy is more important than possessions, and that dreams are the lifeblood of a heart and soul."
Unfortunately, as we grow older many of us find, or are told so many times that we start to believe it, that anything is not possible and dreams are for dreamers; irresponsible luxuries not related to putting food on the table. We live long enough to know the demons of disappointment and the restrictions of life's boundaries. Little by little, we lose that three-year-old belief in magic, dreams, and possibilities. And little by little, an important piece of our hearts dies.
And that is why many pilots fly. The exact incidents that draw future pilots to airports differ widely. But for many of them, the reason they stay is that in some way they can't even quite articulate, airplanes and flight bring that piece of their heart back to life. After all, flight itself a metaphor for freedom and possibility. A couple thousand feet up in the air, all the limits and disappointments of daily life fade away beneath an endless horizon and the thought, remembered again, of how unbelievably beautiful and vast the world is; how full of possibilities and roads still untraveled.
It's why airports are -- or can be -- such magical places. On a practical level, they're all a valuable part of our national transportation system. But they are also community resources; places where anyone can go, watch, sense, and perhaps recapture a little of that childhood belief in dreams, freedom, and possibilities.
Why does that matter in a discussion of national security? Because when we fence small airports off behind 14-foot barbed-wire barriers and rigid TSA procedures, we separate them from the communities they were built to serve, and separate communities from a resource that might offer them something even more valuable than transportation. We also kill the magic itself. It's hard to imagine someone wandering out to the airport pictured below and seeing it as a place full of dreams and possibilities. And yet, post-9/11 Homeland Security funding is leading to far more fences like this one:
Now maybe, if those fences and measures were really necessary, and actually worked, and worked better than other approaches, their collateral cost might be acceptable, even if unfortunate. But they are none of those things, for several reasons:
1. It's a rare airport fence that can't be gotten around, if you know your way around. The high fences and intimidating signs make airports seem unapproachable by community people, but they tend to fall more into the realm of "security theater" (which Jim has talked about many times) than a real deterrent for someone intent on getting access to an airport or airplane for nefarious reasons.
2. Despite the public's fears of a rogue pilot with terrorist intentions, most general aviation airplanes are extremely limited in the damage they can inflict. There's a reason the 9/11 attackers chose 767 airliners filled to the brim with fuel for transcontinental flights for their weapons. Something smaller wouldn't have been effective. Recall that in the same week as a van driven by an elderly man went out of control in Herald Square, New York, killing half a dozen people, a small airplane flown by a suicidal teenager crashed into an office building in Tampa, Florida, doing serious damage to a desk.
3. The power of human connections. Aviation is a small community, and individual airports are like very small towns. Strangers stand out. And pilots look after each other. A private plane is also a different environment than an airliner. Airliners carry a large number of people who don't know each other. So the risk of a lone terrorist making their way on board is real. That's not the case on a private plane. You know your fellow passengers. What's more, if you blow up an airliner, you kill a lot of innocent people who are on board with you. That's not the case with a private plane--which is another reason they're less attractive as a target.
But what about Goldberg's fear that a group of terrorists could charter an aircraft large enough to do some amount of damage on the ground, if they incapacitated the pilots? It could happen, of course -- with or without TSA procedures. But here I think Jim Fallows is correct in arguing for the power of internal HUMINT (HUMan INTelligence) over TSA robo-screeners. Charter operators I've talked to say they take a number of measures to make sure their customers aren't going to turn out to be nightmares: they don't take cash, they do background credit checks, and they also pay a lot of attention to their gut when it comes to accepting potential customers. After all, the operators have a multi-million dollar asset to protect. If something about a potential customer, or their behavior, doesn't smell right, they don't take the job.
The bottom line is that there's some level of risk in a lot of places (see my earlier post on this subject). But by overreacting with a sledgehammer to the relatively small risk that general aviation airplanes pose, we lose something that is perhaps even more important to preserve, in this post-9/11 world: a connection and access to places that have the ability to remind us that fears and limits can be overcome, and dreams and possibilities are still worth believing in.
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: spacer on February 01, 2011, 02:31:17 AM
Have you guys seen the Homeland Security guy talk on the news today? They are revamping the alert system which now will let us know what the specific threat is. Also, they will make the "If you see something suspicious, report it" system better and grant immunity to people who report others to keep the reported party from sueing the reporting party. (to get more reports, I guess?)
THAT SCARES THE CRAP OUT OF ME ! ! ! ::eek:: ::eek:: ::eek::
If you see something suspicious, report it ???
For a kid that grew up not far from the iron curtain in a time where the GeStaPo and Eastern Germany still existed this is very very concerning. If people don't wake up soon this will exactly be the way we're headed. We already have phone tapping, fingerprinting, background checks, and more... This is not what I had envisioned "the land of the free" would be when I learned about this country.....
"I don't like that guy in the next hangar. Dude's a real jerk sometimes... I'll show him! I'll just make a little phone call."
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Mike on February 01, 2011, 04:36:06 PM
"I don't like that guy in the next hangar. Dude's a real jerk sometimes... I'll show him! I'll just make a little phone call."
Exactly my point!
Isn't that scary ? ? ? ?
::sick::
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: vldflight on February 02, 2011, 11:54:00 PM
Its extremely scary. I want to say thank you guys for giving me another perspective on this. You lived near the Iron Curtain, and to have you compare what is happening here in the States to that is a real eye opener that I wish more people could see. We are rapidly losing the very freedoms that we are founded upon. I'm sorry, but I would rather risk losing some lives, mine included, than give up the very freedoms that make our country such a wonderful place to live and prosper. It has gotten to the point that no matter what we do anymore, the government is up our @#$ in some way. I really wish more people would wake up and see these changes for what they really are, and your outside view hit the nail on the head...again thank you.
Title: Re: TSA what's next?
Post by: Fabo on February 03, 2011, 11:18:27 PM
Hell, even on this side of the curtain, if you shut up and went along, they left you alone... but this? ::loony::
