TSA Visits Flight Schools?

N801BH said:
El Paso. You might consider the fact that Jackson Hole was and is the home of VP Cheney and while he was sitting VP ,security was like no other airport in the country so maybe I have seen things the rest of you guys haven't. The SS did their job perfectly and the TSA fed off the procedures... IMHO.
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That makes perfect sense to me -- just more variation on procedures to confuse the honest folks.

Still isn't required per the TSA guidelines, though, but your local guy could have been a ****.

By the way, love flying in and out of the Hole. Stunning place!
 
Anthony said:
I understand where you are coming from, but just because neither you nor I have had any "problems" on a GA ramp from the TSA, doesn't means it isn't happening.

Recently, on a business trip, driving in NJ, I was pulled over at a mandatory, state police check point supposedly to check for NJ state inspections. I am not an NJ resident, but yet they could pull me over, and detain me without probably cause. Next to the state police inspection van was a TSA van who was "augmenting" their procedures. Once I explained I was an out of state resident, and showed my out of state license and registration, they let me go. I was almost late for my meeting. It is something right out of the Gestapo/STASI/KGB playbook, and it is currently gaining scope in the U.S.
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About 10 years ago I was pulled over at a DUI checkpoint in Parker after midnight. I think they were stopping cars randomly although I don't remember for sure. I think I had to walk a straight line but they didn't give me a breathalyzer. Funny thing is I was in uniform although they might not have been able to tell since I was wearing a jacket.
 
We have an interesting situation in my airport because I have a private hanger that accesses a taxiway on the airport. They tried to fence us out and we litigated and won. Now, we have to have access passes to drive about 200 feet from a gate to our hanger. Our actual hanger and ramp to it is on private property.

We've had some episodes right out of Seinfeld <g>

We have to enter the gate and for awhile if someone was in another car following, we couldn't do tandem entry. So.....if one let the other person drive in first and got out and entered the code for them to the gate for it to open, they were on airport property unaccompanied. If one entered first, there was no way for the second car to enter without giving them the code since there's no pedestrian gate.

A friend got a warning ticket the other day. He was leaving. There is no code to leave. One just drives near the gate and it opens. No tandem egress <g>
So, a police car came up behind him while he was exiting and he didn't block the gate until it closed. He let the marked police car out <g>

Airport operations says tandem access is approved. Police are enforcing something different.

I was asked for a badge when in my hanger. Police car was in front and the officer asked if I had my badge. I said it was in my car. He asked why I wasn't wearing it. I said because I was working on my plane and it could get caught on something. He said I had to wear it; I pointed out I wasn't on airport property.

We used to have a very lively social group out in my little area where folks would come and chat. Some worked on their planes, some were building them; others would come by to socialize. It's very quiet out there now.

Best,

Dave
 
Sounds like we live in a good time for little Caesars.
 
Judging by the comments on this article about TSA teams at Subway stations, I'm definitely questioning whether or not our so-called "Representatives" really are listening...

http://ask.slashdot.org/story/12/01...ts-the-best-way-to-deal-with-roving-tsa-teams

Looks like not just pilots and aviation folk are sick of TSA's Bravo Sierra.

Best comment there...

"[TSA Airport checkpoints] are a terrorist's wet dream. Waiting in long lines at them, I realized how they're now a perfect target."

Oh well. I forgot. Hiring more TSA keeps the unemployment numbers that much more artificially low, as if they were adding something productive to our Country's bottom line.

Another great comment pointed out the similarity between the question posed and the quiet private discussions ex-Soviet friends of the commenter used to have about how to avoid regular searches in public by Soviet officials, only a couple decades ago.

Who voted for this?
 
Why is it that every time I read about the TSA I feel like this:

:mad2:


Common Sense, RIP
 
Wow, am I glad I am at a non airline airport...
When I go over the the "big" airport (KMBS) to have radio service all the locked doors are a real pain and their employees have to keep putting down what they are doing to buzz me in and out...
My airport KHYX has electric gates for us to get in and out and I (we) have gate openers so we don't have to get out in the nasty weather... But we, being country hicks, do tandem entry and exit - especially when the guy behind you just loaned some tools so you could fix your plane... And we drive on the taxiways to get to the hangars...

We have not had TSA there when I have been there... Though one saturday morning a woman (did not identify herself and I now suspect she may have been) came into the pilot lounge and since I was standing at the DUATS terminal while everyone else was snarfing down donuts and coffee and yakking, she came up and asked me what kind of security the airport had to prevent anyone from stealing an airplane... The question caught me by surprise since strangers have never asked me that before... I kind of looked around, recognized there were two off duty police officers in the crowd and that several others would also be packing heat... I said that everyone in the room was armed (an exaggeration but close) so all the planes were safe... She looked at me rather strangely and walked back out the door...

The FAA (FSDO actually) has been around at times to give the manager heartburn... One time they had him take them into all the rental hangars so they could photograph and record tail numbers... My hangar door was raised and I was changing oil on the engines (I was gone to the auto parts store right then), trouble light was hanging on the couwling, etc... He told me later that they trotted to get to my hangar, getting ahead of him... When he got there one was peering at an engine and the other was looking at the engine log book that was open on the wing... He told them that hangar was private property and that the owner was a hard nosed sob... He said they scooted back out onto the ramp as soon as they heard that...

It is just this kind of accretion of endless regulations and minutiae and threats of fines and license suspensions that is killing GA, not the price of avgas...

denny-o
 
Interstate checkpoints are next(yeah I know they have them in border states.) Papers please. TSA will be all over the highways soon.
 
denverpilot said:
Pilot program already done in Tennessee.

http://autos.aol.com/article/tsa-screening-drivers-in-tennessee/
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"The VIPR teams are sent into places where people travel – by bus, train, and now apparently highways – to provide a 'surge' in screening from time to time. That random surge is meant to deter criminals from trying to carry out their evil deeds, because they never know when they'll be subjected to searches. "

And here I thought TSA's mandate was preventing terrorism, not crime in general.

Who knew that nullifying the Fourth Amendment could be so easy?
 
SCCutler said:
This is at O69, right?

This is plain nuckin' futz. They can achieve all of their record audit functions with phone calls and mail. Again, an example of the bureaucracy creating new and needless functions in order to justify and increase themselves.
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I can hear Ben Ladden laughing in his watery grave....

I won...hi hi hi...I won....
 
Wow sounds like the TSA are a big hassle in your parts of the world.

Thankfully the TSA does not give us one bit of trouble down here in AR. They show up at our flight school every six months to go over the student records but thats it. Our airport does not even have a full fence around the field. :D We often just hang out on the ramp, throw a football or just watch new students try to land.

Our local "big" airport LIT is almost as relaxed. You have to have a SIDA badge for the airline terminal but thats normal. The FBO even has a deck on the roof for hanging out. Heck even while I was waiting for some friends to land last night. I was out on the ramp talking to some F4 pilots who had just arrived. :lol:

Now getting into Falcon Jet or Hawker is a huge hassle. Since they are both green aircraft completion centers. Its a basic background check and FAA approval just to tour that place. They even have aircraft gates across the taxiways leading to the hangers.
 
ARFlyer said:
Wow sounds like the TSA are a big hassle in your parts of the world.

Thankfully the TSA does not give us one bit of trouble down here in AR. They show up at our flight school every six months to go over the student records but thats it. Our airport does not even have a full fence around the field. :D We often just hang out on the ramp, throw a football or just watch new students try to land.

Our local "big" airport LIT is almost as relaxed. You have to have a SIDA badge for the airline terminal but thats normal. The FBO even has a deck on the roof for hanging out. Heck even while I was waiting for some friends to land last night. I was out on the ramp talking to some F4 pilots who had just arrived. :lol:
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Oh, don't worry. AR just may not be recognized yet by the TSA as a high priority target for terror.

Give it time... they will come for you too. Just takes a little more budget and staffing to push that through...


Here, just in the last few weeks:

Body scanner debuts at Arkansas airport 12/27/2011

Twenty-five “viper” (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) teams have made 9,300 unannounced visits at various transportation centers around the U.S. Wednesday, January 04, 2012

TSA's VIPR Teams Now Conducting 'Suspicionless Searches' at Train Stations
January 6, 2012

In 2011, the TSA spent $110 million on the VIPR teams. Like every government agency ever heard of, it wants more taxpayer money and is seeking another $24 million for 2012. That would be a 22 percent increase — at a time of severe budget deficits.

The VIPR teams in 2011 checked ferry, cruise-ship, bus and train passengers. According to News Channel 5, a Nashville, Tenn., TV station, in October, “Tennessee was first to deploy VIPR simultaneously at five weigh stations and two bus stations across the state. January 02, 2012
 
ElPaso Pilot said:
Oh, don't worry. AR just may not be recognized yet by the TSA as a high priority target for terror.

Give it time... they will come for you too. Just takes a little more budget and staffing to push that through...
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I heard about the body scanners. I hate that they have come to LIT. :mad2:

Eh only thing we have to worry about is rednecks shooting at us for flying to low during deer season.:nonod:
 
ARFlyer said:
I heard about the body scanners. I hate that they have come to LIT. :mad2:
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There's a body scanner joke in there somewhere but it needs the full ICAO designation.



ARFlyer said:
Eh only thing we have to worry about is rednecks shooting at us for flying to low during deer season.:nonod:
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Rednecks in Arkansas think deer can fly?
 
ElPaso Pilot said:
There's a body scanner joke in there somewhere but it needs the full ICAO designation.
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Since I spent a lot of my childhood in a TV Tower Transmitter building. My dad was a TV Engineer for 30 years. I have most likely had my lifetime RF radiation exposure. :eek:

ElPaso Pilot said:
Rednecks in Arkansas think deer can fly?
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Especially around Christmas!! :D Just the other day we got a call from a disgruntled hunter. He said we were scaring away the deer. He said he was located about a 1/2 mile from the airport. :rolleyes2: So we just hung up on him.
 
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