Originally Posted by SDF_Traveler
I have read the FBO at DCA is wanting GA to return and there certainly is a demand; but if the govt starts to require aircraft first land at a nearby airport for security reasons before they can continue on to DCA, that pretty much eliminates the purpose of DCA.
I strongly believe limited GA traffic should be allowed into DCA without having to "stop" at a nearby airport before proceeding. DCA is an important airport for the nation's capital and especially convienient for business travelers who use GA because of its location.
Yes, it is close to 'sensitive' buildings, but I believe a solution can be found to allow GA without requiring all aircraft to land at a nearby airport for security checks. Perhaps some pilots who intend to use DCA on a regular basis could go through a process to obatin approval, while others could be subject to a security check at a nearby airport who need to use DCA on rare occassion -- this way DCA remains open to the GA community as it was prior to 9/11.
While on another topic, anyone remember Meig's Field in Chicago and what happened to it after 9/11? IIRC, Mayor Daily ordered the runway demolished at night without any approval in the name of "safety". No one saw it coming and there were many aircraft stationed at the field when this happened which had to be flown out on a taxi-way. This seems to be a sore spot among GA pilots in the Chicago Area plus Meigs was important to the already strained CHI ATC system, as well as medical flights which used the airport.
Anyone feel safer yet? Boo!
SDF_Traveler
Daley is a megalomaniacal tin hitler who feels that Chicago is his own little fiefdom. His government slowly rolls from scandal to scandal, search warrat to search warrant, indictment to indictment, yet these morons keep electing him. He cannot answer a straight question from a reporter and the Chicago Press Corps is so afraid of him that they haven't the cahonies to stand up and say "Mayor Daley, that wasn't an answer, here's the question again. When his minions get indicted or arrested, he always claims he knew nothing.
I remember hearing there was a story here, supposedly in the Sun-Times, that he and his wife bought a condo on the near south side that was right under the Miegs Field approach path, and that was that. I can also tell you that Daley whined like a 9 year old about how small airplanes were going to kill Chicagoans by the thousands if he didn't get a TFR over the entire city. The FAA gavie him a couple over immediate downtown Chicago after he literally slammed his hand into the podium demanding to know why Disneyland got a TFR and Chicago didn't, but when they could not justify it with any general or specific threat, and took them away the third or fourth time, that's when emperor Daley ordered the airport demolished under cover of night, proving that he knew EXACTLY how wrong what he awas doing was. Great public servent, huh?? Word I heard (unconfirmed) is that a reporter from Channel 5, the local NBC station, saw something going on out a window of the NBC tower, drover over with a cameraman, and was threatened with arrest by a Chicago cop if they even tried to start taking video or did anything but turn the hell around.
I have long felt that Daley washed out of a private pilot training program eons ago and that's why he has such a loathing for GA. But even if you ignore all this, ask yourself this question: Why in the hell would this thug spend MILLIONS of city taxpayer dollars to lure BOEING to move their corporate headquarters to downtown, and then destroy the closest AIRPORT to downtown? Boeing should have stayed in Seattle...better airport, better coffee, less unions.
Yes, Virginia, Miegs Field is a VERY sore spot with Chicagoland pilots.