The MSM Do Not Like General Aviation
General Aviation (GA) has been under attack for the last few years, but especially since New York Yankee’s pitcher Cory Lidle and his Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) Tyler Stranger died when his plane crashed into a New York skyscraper. Calls have gone out demanding flights be restricted because of the danger to non-flying Americans. This fear is born out of ignorance.
We don’t consider restricting cars from the highways just because of a deadly accident. We don’t consider restricting motorcycles or bicycles because of accidents where someone is hurt. What is restricted are things most Americans either do not know much about or they see as the preview of the rich such as airplanes, 4-wheelers, guns, and so on. I have been flying for years and yet I am not rich. In fact I only know one person who has his pilot’s license who could be considered rich. But further restrictions on flying will relegate GA only to the rich.
The crash of Cory Lible is indeed tragic. He leaves behind a wife and a six year old son. The media has already shown they are against GA. In this tragedy, Time announces that it is another case of too much airplane for this inexperienced pilot.
The investigation into the crash of the small airplane owned by New York Yankees’ pitcher Cory Lidle is just beginning, but already aviation experts and pilots are quietly speculating that it may be yet another case of “too much plane.” Much like the crash that claimed the life of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife and a friend in 1999, there are signs that this may be a case of a relatively inexperienced pilot who ran into trouble in a high-performance plane that he had not yet mastered fully. (snip)
One report said the visibility at the time of the crash was not good, since the heavy cloud layer sat at about 2,000 feet. That meant Lidle’s plane had to stay within a relatively narrow range of movement — within the width of the East River, not too high and certainly not too low. All while Lidle and his instructor were apparently trying to peer through the clouds to see the sights of New York before they headed on their cross-country trip to California. If not exactly a recipe for trouble, there wasn’t much of a safety cushion.
Lidle’s plane was under “visual flight rules,” meaning the pilots — not air traffic controllers — are responsible for keeping an eye out for other aircraft or obstacles.
This is another case of someone on the ground talking about something they do not understand. As a CFI Tyler Stranger would have known a great deal about flying in low visibility. All pilots are instructed on how to fly by their instruments and must demonstrate that capability to earn their private pilot’s license.
USA Today lambasted GA in their editorial.
For all the differences, however, the incident raises security concerns about the 220,000 small planes in the USA and the 5,500 airports that serve them. While 9/11 prompted a crackdown on commercial flying, many of the vulnerabilities of small planes have never been addressed.
In most areas, flight plans are not required from pilots flying small aircraft in clear weather, so air traffic controllers have a limited ability to monitor them or determine in a timely way whether they’re headed somewhere potentially dangerous.
And though Congress mandated that pilots’ licenses have photo identification, regulations haven’t caught up with the law. Terrorists could easily use a stolen license.
Using this argument, I would say that we need to force all trucks to file driving plans and have a GPS onboard so they may be tracked. Who knows if a terrorist may have gotten a hold of a fake drivers license to drive to some building and blow it up. The author is against general aviation pure and simple.
Philip Boyer, the president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilot’s Association (AOPA) has this eloquent response to USA Today’s biased editorial.
Wednesday’s accident was tragic and highly regrettable. And it certainly stung the nerves of post-9/11 New Yorkers. But the fact is: It was an accident. For USA TODAY to pose a series of unsubstantiated “what-if” questions and concerns regarding small aircraft, their safety and security is uninformed and ill-conceived. It’s also highly irresponsible because it needlessly stokes already-heightened public concerns.
Since I don’t know what exactly happened, anything I say about the matter will be pure speculation mixed with pilot experience. What I do know is that Cory lost ‘situational awareness’ which means that he lost sight of where he was and what he was doing. In an airplane this usually occurs when the pilot is under duress. If Lidle ran out of fuel, he forgot the most important rule in flying when confronted by an emergency—fly the plane first and then fix the problem.
There is also some thought that Lidle tried to make a u-turn to avoid entering the class-B airspace. If so, he was most likely trying to make a turn away from the 14 knot crosswind. This would have slowed the plane down considerably. Turning away from the crosswind would have made the plane turn slower. In response the pilot would have pulled back even harder on the yoke. With the slow airspeed and sharp turn, this could have led to a stall on the inboard wing. The fix to this problem is simple—point the nose of the airplane down. Unfortunately this would have given Cory not enough time to turn away from the building. The CFI on board in this type of emergency should have shouted, “my airplane’ and taken over the controls to fly out of trouble. Whether this was done is something we may never know.
Sometimes even the best pilots lose their situational awareness. While in the USAF, I had a pilot come in who had thousands of hours of flying experience and complained of a problem with his attitude indicator on the F-15 Eagle. He had just come in from a joint exercise going up against a group of F-111 at night. During the dog-fight, the pilot became disoriented decided to climb towards a ‘star’ and then fly back into the foray. Soon he realized the star he was climbing towards was in actuality a fishing boat in the Gulf of Mexico with a bright light on to attract fish. The attitude indicator checked out okay. In the dog-fight, the pilot lost his situational awareness and did not know he was flying upside down. This can happen to anyone if they do not maintain their situational awareness.
The MSM do not like GA for one simple reason. Flying an airplane is done by an individual. The pilot has a lot of independence and loves the freedom flying offers. These are things the msm do not understand or support. As CFI Tyler Stranger said, ‘the most dangerous part of flying is driving to the airport.’
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