Says ADIZ Incursion Set Back GA Cause In A Number Of Ways

Like many general aviation pilots, AOPA President Phil Boyer was frustrated on Thursday, the day after a Cessna 150K with two Pennsylvania pilots on board busted the Washington ADIZ and came within three miles of the White House before being turned away by military and DHS aircraft.

"I am frustrated as hell," Boyer told ANN Thursday morning. "How, with four million emails last year about TFRs, with two education campaigns that still exist on our website, with partnering with TSA for things, with editorials, with constant pressure -- how can pilots within a shadow of the DC area ignore all that and fly into the heart of the ADIZ?"

As ANN reported in real time on Wednesday, the ADIZ incursion by pilots Troy Martin and Jim Schaeffer -- flying a Cessna 150K from Smoketown, PA, to an air show in Lumberton, NC -- forced the evacuation of the White House, Capitol and US Supreme Court.

Now comes word from the nation's capitol that efforts to reopen Reagan National Airport to non-commercial air traffic may have been thwarted by the incursion. Until last week, members of the House Aviation Subcommittee had been confident that DCA would be reopened to business aviation within a couple of months. But Wednesday's ADIZ foray by the two Pennsylvania pilots has apparently changed that. There is now no timetable for allowing business and charter flight operations to resume at DCA.

Boyer said he's also concerned that the incursion will have a negative effect on AOPA attempts to reduce the ADIZ in size and to reopen the general aviation airports -- the "DC-3" that were closed when the airspace was restricted.

"To be working Capitol Hill and [with] regulators and then have to have something like this... it's really disheartening to myself and my staff," he said. "This is becoming a monthly, costly and time-consuming exercise to put out the fires that get created by pilots not paying attention to the rules."

Boyer was unreservedly critical of pilots Martin and Schaeffer in his candid remarks to ANN. Both men are AOPA members. "They really screwed up. But they didn't screw up for themselves. They're going to be embarrassed and they're going to lose their certificates for awhile. But they really screwed things up for all the other pilots in this country who obey the rules, who are aware of airspace security restrictions. And that's extremely frustrating."

FMI: www.aopa.org