The Glass Is Half Full

J. Mac McClellan

Sunday, June 01, 2003 at 08:00 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

The author, initially critical of post-9/11 aviation regulations, realized their minimal impact on most general aviation pilots, particularly those outside the New York and Washington D.C. areas.
New ADIZ restrictions around New York and Washington D.C. primarily inconvenience VFR pilots operating from a very small number of local general aviation airports.
For the majority of the U.S. general aviation system, operations remain largely unaffected and normal, especially for IFR pilots.
The perceived widespread disruption is attributed to a localized perspective from media and aviation groups centered in the highly affected New York and Washington regions.

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I have done my share of carping about the many new airspace and operational regulations imposed by the FAA and TSA since the terrorist attacks on September 11th. But now that I have taken my head out of the overheated atmosphere of New York and Washington, I realize that we pilots who fly for personal and business reasons have actually been affected very little.

I came to this startling realization-at least startling for somebody who lives and flies in the New York City orbit-while basking in the sun at Hope Town, on Elbow Cay in the Bahamas in March. Through the mixed blessing of satellite television reaching this slender island of coral and sand I had learned that a war was starting in Iraq and that unspecified airspace restrictions had been imposed over New York City.