cjensen(at)dts9000.com
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 Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 11:06 am Post subject: fun last Saturday |
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A badge on the chest and a gun on the hip makes ordinary people go insane....at least without a lot of education and training. Bureaucrats are equipped with both badge and gun, at least symbolically, even if they are not physically present, thus sane behavior is not to be expected in all cases.
In this immediate instance, I can say with certainty that nuclear plants do not have a "bird watcher" job. Certainly, if there is a plane that does loiter at low elevation in the vicinity of the plant, they'll take notice as they apparently did in this case. (Speculation begins here) They probably picked up their HS hotline and reported that a plane was loitering in the area of the plant at a low altitude. When asked to identify the plane, they responded that it had an engine, tail and two wings. Since you were next to land and you EXACTLY met the description, you became a participant to a meeting with Officialdom without a prior appointment. Know this; you will make some gumshoe's daily report as proof that they are busy averting "terrorism by small aircraft" and that the world is safer because of their unstinting vigilance (or is that vigilantism).
Of course, if you were smuggling a monkey under your hat, they would have let you pass without questioning. Sweeeet, isn't it?
Chuck Jensen
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-rocket-list-server(at)matronics.com [mailto:owner-rocket-list-server(at)matronics.com] On Behalf Of Frazier, Vincent A
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 2:14 PM
To: william hilling
Subject: fun last Saturday
Check this out. These are 100% real events from my life. If this stuff ticks you off, please do something about it. I suggest writing your elected officials, protesting in front of their offices, etc.
This is every bit as dangerous to aviation as user fees. And if you don't agree, just look how long there has been a TFR around Washington D.C. now. Do you think we'll ever be allowed to fly there again?
Now it appears that even legal flights are becoming illegal.
Vince
*******************************
August 28, 2007
The Honorable Evan Bayh
United States Senate
131 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1404
Dear Senator Bayh:
I am contacting you regarding a totally unacceptable event which occurred to me and a friend on Saturday, August 25, 2007.
I own a plane which I use for traveling throughout the Midwest. On Saturday I flew from Evansville, IN to Benton Harbor, MI and then on to Houghton Lake , MI. I was accompanied by a friend, who was flying his own plane. Both planes also carried one passenger.
After assisting our passengers, who were in Houghton Lake to purchase an aircraft, my friend and I departed and flew back to Benton Harbor, MI. Within minutes of landing at Benton Harbor, we were detained by 2 well armed police officers who were acting under the direction of Homeland Security.
Homeland Security had received a report of aircraft flying near the Palisades nuclear power plant, apparently from an observer at the plant whose job is to watch for aircraft. The police officers asked for our identification and recorded the registration numbers on our aircraft. The police officers had no real indication if they were looking for our aircraft or some other aircraft(s) who may have been the real target. They relayed this information to Homeland Security, who gave the officers physical descriptions of me and my friend to confirm our identities. The officers departed after confirming our identities.
We were given no explanations as to why we were detained other than that we had flown past the power plant, a flight that is perfectly legal to do as I will explain below. Detainment of law abiding citizens is completely unacceptable to me and should be to you also.
First, I realize that many areas were off limits to aircraft after 9/11 and that nuclear power plants were previously under TFRs (temporary flight restrictions, issued by the FAA, often at the advise of Homeland Security). These TFRs were rescinded long ago. In their place is FAA advisory 4/0811 (reprinted below my letter for your convenience) that admonished pilots avoid these areas anyway.
An FAA advisory has no enforcement teeth. However, FARs (federal aviation regulations) do have teeth. The FARs (also reprinted at the end of this letter) state that "aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure." This is the primary rule regarding flight in uncontrolled airspace. The airspace around the Palisades nuclear power plant is uncontrolled. In fact, the plant isn't even shown on the FAA approved sectional map used for navigation. And we were never within 500 feet of any part of the plant.
Because of the now rescinded TFRs and the current 4/0811 advisory I knew EXACTLY how close I flew to the Palisades nuclear plant. As we descended to land at Benton Harbor, traveling in a straight line with no turns, our planes passed the plant at over 2500' AGL (above ground level) and over 1 mile away. We were traveling at 175 mph, it could hardly be claimed that we were loitering. This situation beats the standard and intent of the FARs and the advisory by anyone's interpretation!
While a 500,000 pound airliner going 500 mph might be able to burn down a skyscraper, general aviation aircraft like mine that rarely weigh more than 2000 pounds and rarely go faster than 200 mph are hardly a threat to anything or anyone except the pilot and passengers! Certainly our aircraft were NO threat to a nuclear power plant!
Considering that the United States of America is now home to 12,000,000 illegal immigrants who include a large percentage of criminals, terrorists, uneducated individuals, and other undesirables I demand to know why Homeland Security is wasting time by detaining law abiding citizens!?
In closing I'd really like to see the following actions from your office:
1) Tell me what you are doing, or will do in the very near future to keep law abiding pilots like myself from having our name added to some data base kept in the bowels of some Homeland Security office.
2) Restructure Homeland Security immediately to deal with the HUGE problem of illegal immigration. Otherwise Homeland Security needs to be abolished since they seem to have no other real function aside from harassing law abiding citizens.
3) Contact the NRC and Homeland Security and find out why they require power plants to have employees who are apparently paid to "bird watch" all day long. While you're asking them why they have these positions, find out what type of training these "birdwatchers" have. Can they really tell what a threat looks like? Obviously not!
The United States of America was built on freedom, not on detaining law abiding citizens. Furthermore, it was built by legal immigrants, not by undesirables infiltrating at will. Do something about it!
Sincerely,
Vince Frazier
3965 Caborn Road
Mount Vernon, IN 47620
812-464-1839 daytime
FDC 4/0811 FDC ...SPECIAL NOTICE... THIS IS A RESTATEMENT OF A PREVIOUSLY ISSUED ADVISORY NOTICE. IN THE INTEREST OF NATIONAL SECURITY AND TO THE EXTENT PRACTICABLE, PILOTS ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO AVOID THE AIRSPACE ABOVE, OR IN PROXIMITY TO SUCH SITES AS POWER PLANTS (NUCLEAR, HYDRO-ELECTRIC, OR COAL), DAMS, REFINERIES, INDUSTRIAL COMPLEXES, MILITARY FACILITIES AND OTHER SIMILAR FACILITIES. PILOTS SHOULD NOT CIRCLE AS TO LOITER IN THE VICINITY OVER THESE TYPES OF FACILITIES.
FAR Sec. 91.119
Minimum safe altitudes: General.
Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes:
(a) Anywhere. An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.
(b) Over congested areas. Over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons, an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.
(c) Over other than congested areas. An altitude of 500 feet above the surface, except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In those cases, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.
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