Airplanes have been flying again for awhile now, but I’ve noticed that small general aviation aircraft are conspicuously absent. Is general aviation still grounded?
(If it is, then it doesn’t make sense to me, but this is GQ so I won’t go into that.)
From The FAA page:
[qoute]Are general aviation aircraft permitted to fly? For general aviation operators and pilots, the U.S. Department of Transportation has approved resumption of general aviation Instrument Flight Rules, or IFR, flights as of Sept. 14 at 4 p.m.
Eastern time. However, those flights may not fly within 25 nautical miles of New York City and Washington, DC. Those restrictions will be kept in place until furthernotice as officials continue to assess the recovery situation in those cities over the near term.
Pilots operating under Part 91 of the Federal Aviation Regulations, must be instrument-rated, must file IFR flight plans, and must receive a clearance before departure. Flights under visual flight rules have not been authorized.
As of Sept. 25, agricultural aviation flights have resumed.
[/quote]
Frankly, I’m surprised GA is flying again with so few changes. I was anticipating that we would at least have to file VFR flight plans for trips over 25-50 miles.
I do know however, that inquiries are being made by the feds at the local airports. The flight instructors are being queried about all their students, and stuff like that.
The big problem right now is that near major airports they have restricted VFR flights. Before the accident, there were regions around major airports called “Class B Airspace”. Flying in the airspace is restricted, but you could fly under Class B in any old airplane.
Now, Class B goes right down to the ground, so many simple airplanes (i.e. those airplanes or their pilots not meeting those restrictions) are grounded if they happen to be based at a small airport near a big airport. At last count there were around 41,000 airplanes grounded by this action.
So, much of GA is back in the air, but some of it is still grounded.
See the AOPA website Dewey linked to for more details.
I know that the local news crews are getting pissed because they aren’t allowed to put up their news choppers. The reason they have been given is ‘National Security’, and the fact that they don’t file flight plans (kind of hard to know where those traffic tie-ups are going to be in advance).
You have to wonder (usually at 3 am) if that’s just the government’s way to reign in the pesky media and it isn’t so much national security as bureaucrat security.
Well, I’m back flying again, although the skies are very empty compared to pre-Sept 11. And now that the military has the authority to shoot down civilian planes if they feel the need you can be sure I’m on my best behavior.