From Flying Magazine

It was only a matter of time before the Transportation Security Administration pounced upon General Aviation. The TSA now intends to inflict its airline policy on privately and corporately owned aircraft of 12,500 lbs or more.

TSA's proposal is to regulate these aircraft to the same standards which airliners are regulated. So if your company operates a King Air with a max takeoff weight of over 12,500 lbs - guess what? your liquids and gels, toe nail clippers, nail files and the 80 some odd banned items are now off limits on an airplane which is most likley owned and operated by the very passengers who will now be subjected to these senseless rules.

The plan of the TSA to regulate aircraft over 12,500 lbs is highly flawed.

first... they are classifying any aircraft over 12,500 lbs as a security threat. this means that if your company (or you) operate a King Air 350 with a takeoff weight of  15,000 lbs you will fall under the security ruling.

but what if you buy a Citation II? is it not still a failry large aircraft? could one not be used as a weapon? according to the TSA ruling... NO as its max gross takeoff weight is capped RIGHT AT 12,500 lbs and thus does not fall into the security risk category.

Secondly, General aviation of the business transportation type usually involves pilots flying individuals with whom they know well, they fly these individuals all the time, perhaps they have done so for several years.  Whats the security threat?

Finally, what happens when the business classed aircraft are not enough for the TSA's enormous appetite for power?

Am i to be required to regulate the contents of my wife's baggage? or my best friends baggage? as we take a camping trip?

Am i also going to eventually be required to gather fingerprints and perform criminal background checks of my passengers? even for those individuals i have known for my entire life?

"Sorry Joe... you are on the TSA no fly list... so we cant go up and do touch and goes today... or ever."

give me a break.

We all know that business and private aviation are not a risk to national security. and massive regulations and requirements are not the answer!

If you agree... and think the TSA should stay at the X-ray screening check points at airline terminals and STAY OUT  of private aviation

go here

http://www.nbaa.org/ops/security/programs/lasp/

There should be a link to submit comments

While there is some logic in the LASP, in the end it seems to be just another government feeding trough, and another brick in the wall that would cut the average American off from GA completely. And as long as they are not applying similar rules to ships, trains, buses and trucks (which have been used by terrorists far more often than aircraft of any kind), I am not supporting it. Nor am I supporting the new CBP rules, which will be shoved through if the LASP is put into effect.

Charter operators are up in arms about it, but it could affect everyone who flies anything, even "little guys" flying bugsmashers out of controlled fields that are used by bizjets.

And the warbird and vintage community would suffer, too... nobody will want a Tri-Motor ride if they have to submit to this inquisition first.

Here's some comments from the EAA that show how pilots and pax of heavier aircraft that are not even charter planes can be affected:



"EAA is urging its members to send comments to the TSA about the LASP. At the request of EAA and other aviation organizations, the TSA has extended the comment period for the LASP to February 27, 2009.

In brief, the LASP would impose the following requirements on every owner/operator of any aircraft over 12,500 lbs MTOW:

    * Require every owner/operator to assign a security director to oversee flight operations and to set up a TSA-approved security program, with an audit of the security program initially and every two years thereafter.
    * Require fingerprinting, and multiple background checks of all pilots and flight crew members, to be repeated every five years.
    * Require every owner/operator to submit the passenger manifest for each flight and to receive TSA clearance for all passengers prior to the flight.
    * Prohibit firearms and other restricted carry-on items from the cabin area unless the aircraft has a TSA-approved storage area.
    * Require some non-commercial airplanes to carry a federal air marshal, when instructed to do so by the TSA.

The LASP would affect an estimated 15,000 aircraft and 10,000 operators, plus thousands of pilots and flight crewmembers and an untold number of passengers. It would also impose many new security requirements on some 320 airports that TSA has identified as serving “large” aircraft.

But the long-term risk to general aviation (GA) is much greater than that. New security rules just finalized by the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apply to all private aircraft, regardless of weight, capacity, or type. The CBP’s new anti-terrorist rules make no distinction between a 747 and Cessna 172. LASP would put “a foot in the door” that could be extended later to cover all GA aircraft of any weight."


Here's a link to the government page where you can post a comment:

http://www.regulations.gov/search/search_results.jsp?css=0&N=0&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+...