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United States Pilots Association |
August 3rd of 2006 saw yet another Predator Drone go down, this time in the state of Nevada. The operator of the drone, which was flying out of Creech AFB in Nevada, thought he was retracting the landing gear, when in fact he shut off the fuel to the engine. This sounds almost identical to the Predator crash in Arizona last year where the operator lost control of the drone on his computer and the backup operator shut off the fuel causing the crash. Be alert out there if flying anywhere in the vicinity of these unmanned aircraft.
An announcement was made last week by Homeland Security that inspections are starting on GA aircraft utilizing airline-served airports. They are not doing full blown security checks, but they are checking IDs and licenses and probably looking through your planes. Currently at Midland International (MAF) when you land coming in from Mexico, not only does Customs meet you, but so does the Midland Police Department, who search your aircraft. It does not take too much imagination to see a long backup of planes waiting to clear Homeland Security after landing at one of these airports.
Speaking of HSA has anyone taken notice of their recent budget expenditures? I have seen $90,000,000 for anti-stinger missile equipment (lasars) installed on large commercial freighters. FEDEX is currently flying one. The estimated cost for the Predator drones and other support aircraft to fly our northern border with Canada is astronomical. The cost to the aviating public (you and me) is still uncalculated.
Do not fear. Our government has the answer. The newly appointed head of the federal DOT (Secretary of Transportation) is back beating the drums for user fees to help fund the new FAA in the future. Personally, this looks and feels like a shell game with us as the losers.
Do we all remember how much money the FAA was going to save by outsourcing the Flight Service Stations? Lockheed Martin was given the contract and appears in most cases to be doing a fine job. Now comes the OOPS! The FAA forgot that the checking of precision landing systems at uncontrolled airports fell under their jurisdiction. This service was not included in the Lockheed Martin contract. Now the FAA wants to discontinue their monitoring of these systems. Imagine this scenario. You depart your home airport on an IFR flight plan with your destination being one of these smaller airports, untowered, with an ILS. During your flight the ILS system goes down and the indications you receive are unreliable. Do you still shoot the approach to minimums? You are in the clouds not understanding what you are seeing on your instruments. You are low on fuel. The FAA is no longer monitoring the equipment on the ground, so no notam is available to you.
The point is we are again being offered the short end of the stick. When I see seven or eight CFIT accidents every month where IFR qualified airplanes are flown into the ground, where the systems were working perfectly, I can only wonder how many more accidents will occur if the FAA ceases to monitor and repair, and most important, notify of any system irregularities.
Just my thoughts. What do you have to say?
Steve Uslan,
President, USPA