Comments on: An Air Force One colossal screw up

By: Eric Renegar

Eric Renegar — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:35:04 +0000

Just shows you that obama and his foiiowers are plain stupid and will drive this country to the brink and me to drink!

By: Patrick Mahaffey

Patrick Mahaffey — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:15:03 +0000

Like all of you, I am appalled by the lack of coordination within government agencies. This incident could and should have been avoided with a little foresight and communication.
But that is just half of the outrage. We all should be asking for an resonable justification for this flight activity. The authorized expense incurred in a meaningless photo opportunity is reason to question the government’s rationale in its overall fiscal responsibility.
Before I lose focus, the point I wanted to make is this whole picture opportunity could have been created using a number of video editing software porducts such as PhotoShop. Someone else can do the cost analysis.

By: Kevin L. Cope

Kevin L. Cope — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:26:37 +0000

Like so many ‘stands” that AOPA takes, this one is far too weak and obliging. AOPA should immediately begin pounding at Congress and at relevant legislators, pointing out that the one documented case of even a perceived aviation threat since 9/11 emerged not from general aviation, but from the government and the military itself. Haines’s reticence–his weak “hope” that “someone” will be scolded–is symptomatic of AOPA’s excessive politeness (another symptom might be its obsession with large and fast airplanes piloted by the wealthy rather than with the kind of budget flying that would expand its membership and strengthen GA). AOPA, please make maximum publicity out of this flyover episode. Instead of cow-towing, embarrass some influential people so as to send a signal that GA is not to be abused!

By: Steve Roth

Steve Roth — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:08:47 +0000

Unfortunately, I heard Chuck Shumer of NY blamed the FAA and the “political hack” administrator installed during the Bush administration. Huh?

It is so unfortunate that the real culprits here were the elite White House employees who dropped the ball. Word has it that they could not divulge all of the information on the flight since it was classified. Give me a break. Also, the media has been commenting on the “training flight” portion of this “fiasco”. What they do not realize is that all such activity is a training flight — there is no such thing as “around the patch” for these aircraft.

The real aspects of this scare me into understanding the coordination processes at the highest levels of Govt. I worked for the Federal Govt for 30 years. Career Feds would have done it right. The White House “Poltical Hacks” messed this up.

By: John K. Jones

John K. Jones — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:17:44 +0000

As a private pilot, it just pisses me off as I am sure this can’t help GA. Nice to see that there were open lines between the different government groups.
I don’t think the pilots will be face down on the tarmac.

“Makes me wonder if the VC-25 pilots were forced to lie face down on the tarmac with a gun pointing at them as we’ve seen happen to GA pilots.”

By: Dan Namowitz

Dan Namowitz — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:58:27 +0000

Obviously Uncle Sam didn’t read last week’s ePilot Training Tip about the etiquette associated with performing low-altitude maneuvers before dispatching that “photo opp” flight.

Quoting us: “Practicing ground reference maneuvers or simulated engine-out emergency landings could bring about a conflict-or defy local training etiquette-in inappropriate areas…”

By: Jaz

Jaz — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:31:26 +0000

I’m confused and alarmed by a few things
1) Did the President know about this before hand? If Not, why?
2) If the plane accidental crashed into a building, who would have been held responsible?
3) How much did this “stunt” cost the tax payers?
4) You don’t do this in New York or in any major city in a post September 11th world with out notifying the public, they have the right to know especially New York!!

By: Paul Pakusch

Paul Pakusch — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:10:03 +0000

Makes me wonder, too, why the government can demonize the use of general aviation as frivolous spending, yet spend obvious thousands of dollars of tax money on a photo op.