Trying Out TSA's Directive SD-8G

Trying Out TSA’s Directive SD-8G

Mark Phelps

Wednesday, June 03, 2009 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

On Day One of a new TSA security directive (SD-8G), the author experienced a surprising lack of security enforcement at Lancaster Airport.
He freely moved multiple times between the airside facility where his plane was and the public terminal, as well as other airside locations, without checks or clear authorization.
A uniformed TSA officer offered only a vague, non-committal response regarding re-entry to the ramp, and the author faced no actual security challenges beyond a protective bird.

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I really hadn’t meant it as a test of the TSA’s latest security directive, but as it worked out, it couldn’t have been planned any better. Weeks ago, I had made a June 1 appointment with Sensenich Propeller Service at Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Airport. My home-airport shop had noticed some shifting on the backing plate of the Hartzell MV-converted prop on my Bonanza, and suggested I let an expert have a look. Since SPS (no longer affiliated with Sensenich the manufacturer) had overhauled the prop in 1999, I took it back there. Ground control directed me to taxi right up to their hangar. So far so good.

The shop’s airside facility is right next to the terminal, so when I needed to use a restroom, that’s where they told me to go. As I walked across 100 yards of tarmac toward the big sign saying “To Terminal,” a Cape Air Cessna twin was unloading on the ramp out front. Hmmm, I thought. What’s the date, again?