Forum: Civil and General Aviation

I created this topic and moved the first post from another thread as it did not fit the topic.

F-16.net Sponsor

I moved this post over from the Private Pilots Physical thread as it was off topic.

Guysmiley wrote:

Ever read "A Modest Proposal"? Along those same lines I present:

When Terrorists Can Fly
In the current world of international terrorism, only military and commerical pilots should be allowed to fly or possess any knowledge of flying. The ability to operate an aircraft is just too dangerous to have in any other hands.

Just think, 9/11 would have been prevented if only this country would have implemented such measures earlier. If only we could have known. Of course for the time being we will have to round up anyone with a pilot's license and keep them in a holding area for safe keeping. Not to mention instructors, talk about a ticking time bomb. But it is a small price to pay to protect our country from the terrorists.

You may think I'm paranoid, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong.

Guysmiley,

While I respect your right to have any opionion you wish (ain't the U.S. great Cool

), I wish to express my deepest disagreement with this opinion.

First off, denying civilians the knowledge of how to fly a plane would never pass the First Amendment test and is completely impractical.

Second, we've been flying in the U.S. for over a century and so far the only real trouble I can recall is from a group of people hijacking airliners. Yes, one person managed to crash his Cessna into the White House lawn, but he could not have caused much damage. 99.99999999999% of all air traffic is benign and denying the rest of the population the opportunity to enjoy private air travel due to the actions of so few is patently unethical and UnAmerican.

If a Cessna 150 can be brought down by a kite string wrapping around the prop shaft, should we be that afraid of them? I'm more afraid of moving vans and big rigs!

2!

So if we don't allow "civilians" access to knowledge of how to fly, then how to we replace the pilots we already have, both commercial and military? They don't live forever, ya know. And every one of them were a "civilian" at one time or another. Forgive my French but the argument is patently ludicrous on it's very merits.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that fully automatic and silenced firearms are legal for civilians to own and use in the U.S. If that's the case, then aircraft should definitely be allowed as they can only be used as a weapon in the same way as any other means of transportation.

In that train of thought... Since Tim McVeigh used a Ryder van on the Oklahoma City Federal Building, should we outlaw civilian use of large trucks Confused

?

BTW - thanks for the support, Link Very Happy

!

Elite 1K Joined: May 26, 2005 - 08:39 PM Posts: 1496

I guess I should have been more clear, sorry. That was my sad attempt at satire. (As in, what do you get if you take the fear mongering to an absurd extreme) I'll have to keep my day job, my writing sucks...

Please check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal if you aren't sure what my first sentence is referencing.

Guysmiley wrote:

I guess I should have been more clear, sorry. That was my sad attempt at satire. (As in, what do you get if you take the fear mongering to an absurd extreme) I'll have to keep my day job, my writing sucks...

Please check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal if you aren't sure what my first sentence is referencing.

Don't worry about it, satire and sarcasm sometimes have a way of getting lost in print, no matter who's writing it Wink

. Thanks for the clarification Smile

!

Does that mean I can still go to school?

LOL

late but
Imagine having what we would need to do to keep people from learning how to build bombs.
We'd have to stop teaching chemistry, physics and a whole lot of things that have to do with science.

Ugh.

I say bring up the NPR proposal to stop hijackers.
Fly naked airlines. Very Happy

Just a thought,
How about if we dont make the cockpit accessible to the passenger compartment. The aircrew would have to access the cockpit from outside the aircraft, forward of the passenger compartment.
Any thoughts on this? (and yes, I know about the cost of having to refit an entire fleet of aircraft, but how important is your families safety to you?)

Thats actually a pretty good idea tim!even if the fleets arn't retrofitted, laws should be brought in to ensure future planes have the pilot door only!

Then how would pilots get their coffee or dinner or go to the bathroom?

Quote:

Then how would pilots get their coffee or dinner or go to the bathroom?

Well as far as lunch and coffee goes, they could simply bring it with them. And the bathroom, well newer aircraft could be built with facilities in the cockpit
Any other suggestions?

Obviously if there gonna go so far as to put an external door in the cockpit they will have to redesign the entire area,im sure they'll be able to squeeze a small toilet in there somewhere! were pretty close to unmaned flights anyway so why not wait a few years and get rid of the human factor and end all plane hijackings altogether.

Quote:

were pretty close to unmaned flights anyway so why not wait a few years and get rid of the human factor and end all plane hijackings altogether.

That would be the quickest way to revive rail travel and increase road use. I know I'm not the only one who'd refuse to get on a pilotless plane!

I would much rather see a hijack emergency system which would put the plane into a failsafe mode, deactivate all flight controls in the cockpit, and send the aircraft towards the nearest available airport. A pilot on the ground could take control the aircraft via satellite link and land it safely. I think the public would be much more likely to accept that.

Forum: Civil and General Aviation

Should civilian pilots be allowed?