Airport Security Rant

When we published this week's cartoon about tighter airport security (26/01/2010 – delays at next shuttle launch), a discussion ensued in our forum. Actually we expected it to be more lively. But maybe people don’t care so much about the subject, or maybe everybody agrees with everybody else? It rather seemed like that to me.

I can’t say I travel very frequently, but it averages at about two international flights a year. And, quite often, that is to visit my brother in the United States. For this and for other reasons, this whole airport security topic is important to me, why I wrote a little rant in our forum. Mike said it would be good to repost it here, so here we go:

The whole body scanner and aiport security discussion really makes you wonder, doesn’t it? I mean we all seem to agree, and everybody with more than two brain cells to rub together can see, that all these security checks have got nothing to do with improving safety.

Now what is the point? Are they really a failure? Please don’t call me a conspiracy nut, but there’s people who say that the real reason behind all this is to condition us to being treated as cattle and slaves, not to protect us. It certainly feels that way to me.

A metal detector, the screening of carry-on luggage and the occasional pat-down… okay. So be it. There’s nuts on this planet and we have to have some kind of protection. Also the method of “looking for suspicious behaviour” that they use to profile passengers in Israel, is probably the safest and cheapest method for real protection.

But then they started with having to take off your shoes, take off your belt, we need to check your ticket another couple of times sir, can we see you laptop please, take off your jacket, we need your thumbprint sir, no liquids allowed, you need to have a biometric passport, we need to take that camera or iPod and see if there’s terroristic material on the chip, now we need all your fingerprints sir… If I want to travel to the US, I even have to fill out an online form three days before departure, where they seriously ask me if I plan any illegal or terrorist activity! I wonder if anybody ever answered “yes” to that question.

And now this BS with the body scanners! It’s one more step in the same direction. And if they continue along this road, and we go along, in five or ten years from now we will have to give a retina scan, a DNA mouth swap, a blood sample and have a proctological examination everytime we want to take a flight, enter a shopping mall or ride the bus.

I mean, seriously guys, we have to draw the line somewhere, don’t we?

Now don’t even get me started on CCTV cameras, internet surveillance, wire tapping, disclosure of bank account information, biometric passports etc. etc…

Quite often I am impressed by how brilliant the founding fathers of the United States were. When you research history, you really start to appreciate the uniqueness of the idea behind that country! And they’re an inexhaustible source of extremely smart observations and quotes. Let me (freely) quote Benjamin Franklin here: “Those who are willing to trade essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, will end up losing both.” Now we’ve traded in quite a lot of our liberties. Did we get any safer? No? So, please can we have our liberties back?

Let's hope this doesn't shut more airports down!

the following is an article written by Matt Zuccaro, a helicopter and airplane rated pilot and president of the HAI:

August in New York,a Sad Summer’s Day

As you know, a terrible tragedy took place in August over New York City. On a sunny summer’s day, a helicopter and small airplane collided over the Hudson River, resulting in nine fatalities; a tragic event and terrible loss indeed. As to exactly what caused the accident, I will leave that to the experts at the NTSB.

Immediately following the event, headlines emerged declaring, “tragedy in Wild West airspace, cowboy pilots out of control.” Next there came the “talking heads,” experts who suddenly appear on television and radio, expressing their wisdom but with such caveats as, “Although I have never flown helicopters or airplanes,” or, “Even though I have not flown in complex airspace, certainly not NYC.” One individual, seeking his 15 minutes of television fame, stopped his statement and asked the news anchor, “By the way, are you showing the link to my consulting company Web page on the screen?” Many unhesitatingly stated the accident cause, and action that should be taken; interesting that such statements were made absent any facts, with rescue personnel still in the water. I think serious consideration should be given to changing the name of these individuals, from “Talking Heads” to a more fitting name which better reflects the part of the anatomy I think they are actually talking from.

Although other industry representatives and I provided comment, it apparently was not what the press, public, and elected officials wanted to hear. Not surprising, a press conference was called by elected officials along the river with rescue workers in the water behind them. They offered a cause of the accident, spoke of their perceived dangers of the airspace, and recommended a stop to all aircraft operations. Special hearings were subsequently convened by the NYC Council Transportation Subcommittee, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives — at which I testified.

My frustration is the lack of facts, history, and logic displayed by the news media, elected officials, the public, and unfortunately our own industry. I think this complete overreaction to aircraft accidents occurs because such events are so rare, and people are surprised when they do occur. Imagine if everyone reacted this way to vehicular accidents. All roads would be shut down, and all vehicle operations prohibited.

Case in point; about the same time as this aviation accident, a mother driving under the influence of alcohol just north of Manhattan, in the wrong direction, caused a head on collision resulting in the death of five children and four adults. I did not notice any elected official holding press conferences on the roadway; no hearings were held, nor were there demands to install available technology to prevent vehicles from being started by drunk drivers — even though drunk driving kills thousands each year. However, when a midair collision in airspace that has accommodated millions of safe operations for over 25 years occurs, those with a predisposition against general aviation seem to ignore facts and logic to advance their real agenda, whatever that may be.

I sincerely believe that one accident is one too many. I also believe that the response should be appropriate, measured, and predicated on historical data and investigative results that will actually enhance safety. Not on feel good, politically correct, non-effective initiatives with unintended consequences that could actually reduce safety.

There is good in this story as well. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), under the direction of Administrator Babbitt, immediately convened a NY Airspace Task Force, which I was privileged to serve on. The sole intent of the group was to examine the airspace and operations within, seeking to enhance safety. The effort was fast tracked with all resources available. The resulting reasoned and logical recommendations, supported by industry (and the NTSB in most aspects) are scheduled to go into effect a little over three months after the accident occurred. This is how the system should work, and it did.

Having spent much of my adult life flying helicopters and airplanes within the NYC airspace, I can say that this airspace has been a safe environment for many years. I, and thousands of other pilots, would not have flown there if we did not believe this. The new changes will enhance safety, and I await the final NTSB report to see if we can make it even safer. After all, pilots have the most at risk; we are the ones in the aircraft all the time.

For a reality check; let us not forget Paul Smith, former HAI Safety Committee Chairman. Paul spent almost 25 years safely flying helicopters in this airspace. Tragically he was killed by a runaway taxi on a midtown Manhattan street.

That is my story, and I am sticking to it. What are your thoughts — I sincerely want to know. Whether you agree or disagree, email me at TAILROTOR@AOL.COM, and let me know what is going on in your world. As always have a Safe Flight and Fly Neighborly.

Best regards
MATT
Matt Zuccaro is President of HAI.

We need the small airports!

I want to post this article in here because it's dear to my heart. Anything you guys can do to help out the smaller airports, please do it!! It will help all of us. Don't let the big airlines and business Walmartify the aviation industry!!

9-28-09

Business aviation fuels growth

USA TODAY's article "Little-used airports cost taxpayers big money" has done an injustice to general-aviation businesses that continue to provide hope for the economic well-being of this nation (Cover story, News, Sept. 17).

Why not look at the positive impact business aviation has in the United States?

•Business aviation contributes $150 billion to U.S. economic output and employs more than 1.2 million people.

•The flights made by business airplanes require support. Schedulers, dispatchers, maintenance technicians, pilots, training professionals and airport employees are just a few of the many support professions involved in business aviation.

•Although some 500 airports have limited commercial airline service, almost all airline flights go from only 70 major hubs. For the myriad communities not serviced by these hubs, there is no way to get there without business aviation.

A 2006 study conducted by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association stated, "General aviation is an important element of economic growth in part because it fulfills transportation needs which can not otherwise be met. Only about 350 U.S. communities have scheduled air service; for the remainder, GA is the only option for the movement of persons or cargo by air. Moreover, GA provides specialized air services, such as air ambulance and traffic patrol, to communities that do have scheduled air service."

Without proper and well-maintained airports, these services would be limited at best.

Whether it is fixed-based operators, charter services, fuel suppliers, aircraft maintenance, emergency services, recreational flying or flight training providers, general aviation contributes to the economic development of communities throughout America. Their tax dollars (property tax, sales tax, employment tax) are sustainable revenue sources.

Your one-sided view, from the vantage point of government spending, does not tell the whole story. General aviation has an immeasurable impact on the lives of people, communities and the nation.

Andy Priester,president

Illinois Aviation Trades Association
Springfield, Ill.

Find out more at USA-Today

More Chicken Wings Trivia

Hey folks, continuing our trivia section, here is some more extremely important background information for you...

The strip “fly like the wind” (24/06/2008) was inspired by Mike’s friend John’s little 2 year-old daughter as he watched her run around like a little tornado between everybody’s feet working off her sugar rush. She fell on her face right when her daddy yelled “Run girl, run like the wind!”

A good example of how Mike and Stef come up with their ideas is the strip “accident waiting to happen” (29/04/2008). Stef had the idea for the punchline and the set-up, and Mike filled in the technical stuff in panel #2, since he worked on many Cessnas during his time as full-time aircraft mechanic. That was also the case in strip “the old Cessna Skymaster” (15/05/2008) where Stef came up with the strip and asked his brother which plane he enjoyed working on the least.

Unfortunately for Mike at the time, the strip “don’t drop the…“ (25/03/2008) was not invented. It’s a real pain to get bolts out from underneath the rudder pedals…

The strip “don’t push that button” (18/03/2008) was inspired by a helicopter Mike flew for years that had on old disabled button in it. Nobody knew what it used to do and nobody ever had the courage to push it and find out if it still did anything.

The soda machine in the strip “life or death decision” (26/02/2008) has a Japanese symbol under the “Soda” font which stands for “ne”. “Soda-ne” is a common Japanese phrase that means something like “it is, isn’t it?”.

The “Scarf” series was conceived while Mike and Stef were racing down the ski slopes of Salzburg with their scarfs flying. Mike fell on his face once and Stef on his behind that day.

The strips “the old Cessna Skymaster” and “no ice on the wings” (05/02/2008) where both rejected by Trade-a-Plane magazine. Since Cessna is one of their biggest customers, they were worried somebody might get offended by poking fun at their product.

The strip introducing “The Wrongh brothers” (22/01/2008) is based on a story Mike and Stef’s dad told them about their mother. It happened on a flight from South Africa to Austria when they had a bunch of soccer hooligans who were drinking beer and getting loud behind them. So the lady in panel #2 is Mike and Stef's mom (only Mike's mom at that point) and the little “chicken” is Mike.

The strip “Christmas revolution” (01/01/2008) was based on a true story told by one of Mikes friends. We don’t know if the girl who said it was blonde.

In the strip “the new snow blower” (25/12/2008), the airplane is all snowed in but strangely doesn’t have any snow on it’s wings.

Chicken Wings Trivia

Since we keep getting mail from our die –hard fans asking us about more facts, we thought it might be kind of cool to list a few little known facts and some funny trivia about our feathered crew, as well as some mistakes we made (and spotted) for your enjoyment:

The doctors eye chart in the strip “eyedoctor” from 12/23/2004 spells out “I am one heck of a lousy pilot who couldn’t fly his way out of a paper bag.”

The picture in the background of the strip posted on 01/31/05 is a picture of Hans’ Uncle “Heinrich the Rooster”, the founder of Roost-Air.

The plane “China Doll” drawn in our strip on 08/16/05 is a real plane based in Camarillo. Check out this website http://www.ci.camarillo.ca.us/main.aspx?q=6067&p=9954

The strip “The Son of the AOPA” (01/10/06) was solely designed to spark the interest of the AOPA who to this day has completely ignored us.

Carl in our strip “here to help” (02/28/06) is a real name from a real FAA inspector with a good sense of humor. Mike enlarged and framed the strip in his old office for Carl to find when he came over for Mikes checkride.

In the strip “trouble with the contacts” (04/11/06), Stefan accidentally drew the Cessna Skyhawk with 6 cylinders.

The chick in “nice approach” (06/13/06) suddenly has no eyelashes in the last panel.

The strip “not it!” (07/11/06) was inspired by the incident of the Jet Blue flight 292 which made an emergency landing in LAX on Sept 21st 2005. Somebody asked Mike if the Captain always flies the emergency procedure.

The strip “concentrate and focus” (09/26/06) was inspired by our fans in the forum and their inability to stay on topic in almost every thread. (this is NOT a complaint! It’s actually quite funny)

Nobus last name “Yakitori” in strip “Nobu…what?” (10/24/06) actually means “grilled bird” in Japanese and is a Japanese type of skewered chicken.

“Hyaku En” in strip “gifted pilot” (12/05/06) is not really a famous pottery artist. It’s the Japanese equivalent to the “99 cent stores” we have in the US and means “100 Yen Store”.

Our strip posted on 02/13/07 is a reference to Bon Jovi’s 80’s hit song “Living on a Prayer”.

We often get links from sites such as „World Culinary Institute“ http://www.worldculinaryinstitute.com/
In general we get quite some search engine traffic from poultry fans who were obviosly looking for recipies.

We „translate“ our strips into British English for Pilot Magazine in the UK.

The strip “FAA guy looking for Chuck” (06/12/2007) exactly happened like this word for word when Mike was playing this joke on his buddy Chris from the San Diego Fire Department while he was doing his preflight on their Bell 212. And of course Chris didn’t run far since he was merely playing along.

If your plane is parked at the hangar area next to the fire station in LAX, the ground clearance Chuck got in our strip “left or right” posted on 11/16/2004 will actually get you to runway 25L. But you will pass taxiway “Golf” on the way to “Foxtrot” and you won’t be able to hold short of “Golf” once you turn right on “Foxtrot”. When we thought of the strip we envisioned Chuck sitting on taxiway “Q1” facing east.
But we don’t know if the clearance will sound like this in real life since we never sat on Q1 with a Skyhawk trying to take off out of LAX.
The Cessna also misses its fin on the last picture.

Many of our characters are based on real people to some extend.
The duck called “James” in the strip “the best pilot on the field” (05/01/2007) was intended to resemble Turbomallard from our forum, with his name and his huge photo camera as a give-away. We don’t think he noticed!

That’s it for now!
More soon . . .

The airport must go!

“Why do they have to keep flying circles right over the airport?” I have been asked more times than I can count. Let’s look at this from the perspective of a helicopter pilot, shall we? Being pretty low to the ground and slower, we can cause a lot more noise than our fixed wing counter parts and therefore get targeted a lot more often by enraged airport opposition.

What people seem to forget is what the helicopter mainly is used for, to go when no other machine can or will. Of course there are applications such as tours and news and the occasional VIP aircraft but in general these things are so expensive that they only get utilized when nothing else will work. They fight fires, rescue mountain climbers, pick up people from the scene of a bad car crash, pull them out of floods (remember how many of them were used after Katrina). They transport organs, burn victims, trauma victims and kids from hospital to hospital, and supplies and medicine out to remote places. The list goes on.

And how do all these pilots start their careers?

That’s right, by “flying circles” right over the airport!

Anywhooo….

I could really get into this in depth if you guys are interested but we are also here for fun and I don’t need to convince the enthusiasts here on our website but feel free to write me an email or talk about it in our forum if you want to see me ramble on longer or if you have constructive criticism and/or input.

Here’s an extra comic for you guys!

Pilot Humor anybody?

I want to utilize this section here for now for a quick book review:

One of our friends, Patricia Lorenz, a highly accomplished author for her work on the “Chicken Soup for the soul” books, has put together a book about pilot stories and pilot jokes.
It’s called “True Pilot Stories” which I believe is an oxymoron in itself (like military intelligence, government organization, Microsoft Works, Peace Force, or “happily married”... the list is long...) so it makes the perfect title for a book about pilots.

It’s not a pilot comic (that’s our job) and there isn’t only pilot humor in it, but also tales about exciting adventures and things you can learn from. Our good friend Captain Ed Owen (author of “Your Captain Speaking”) also wrote some stories in there and as you might know, we enjoy his stories very much.
You will see stories from fixed wing pilots, private pilots, airline captains, and even blimp guys as well as one chopper jockey (guess who?). It’s also a great gift for the guy or gal you already gave a “Chicken Wings” comic book!

I found, after reading the whole thing myself, that the book is perfect for the aviation enthusiast, hobby pilot, flight student, and guy or girl who enjoys fun and exciting short stories about this very interesting job field.
I personally prefer short stories where I don’t have to memorize a huge plot to know what’s going on because in my job I have to jump up and go fight a fire at short notice and might not be able to pick the book up for days. And in the off-season I am so busy with Chicken Wings and helicopter training (where I have to read HUGE books with no plot at all, POH, FAR’s, and so) that I usually don’t pick up a book in the evening after reading for a living all day.
Needless to say, I never read “The Hobbit” or “Lord of the Rings” because I can’t see my way through all the little creatures and the way they relate to each other. My girlfriend was even thinking about wearing a name-tag before so I’d at least don’t forget her name. (just kidding Heidi, in case you read this...)
If you work in aviation as an airline pilot or any other professional commercial pilot, you might have heard one or the other story or pilot joke already because this book is, like I said, a collection. And there might be a couple of stories in there about a private pilot flying his Cessna 152 into what is an adventure for him but not for a 12,000hr Boeing 737. That's why I mentioned this book is more for the enthusiast not the professional. I might not have to mention this anyways because chances are that the guy who flies all day for a living will not go home and then read a book about more flying on his days off.

But it’s very well written because Patricia added her very own professional touch to correct some of the mistakes pilots make (especially the practically illiterate helicopter pilots) who are not used to writing books for a living. And this makes it really easy and fun to read.

I will post a section of the book in our forum just because I think it’s absolutely hilarious but for the whole thing you just might have to order the book.

You can get it in well assorted bookstore, but of course also in our own online shop. Especially if you're ordering from Europe, you will probably get the best deal with us!
Check it out!