Aviation Conspiracy: Is Sen. Spector Calling For Flight Limits?

Aviation Conspiracy Newsletter
#480........................................................................May
11, 2008 Past newsletters can be accessed at:
http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/ACNewsmenu.htm If you want to get the
newsletter sent to you every week, sign up to AviationWatch. Bill Mulcahy
rockaway@prodigy.net

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Quote of the Week: "It's throwing a wrench into the works" comment in a
news story this week about new Airspace Redesign flight pattern at Newark
Airport that has confused pilots and has "led to several incidents in which
planes turned in the wrong direction."

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Is Sen. Spector Calling For Flight Limits?

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As Bill Sees It (Editorial): Is Senator Spector Playing Games With Aviation
Pollution? Is Arlen Spector (R-Penn.) finally listening to the cries of
their constituents and demanding that there be some controls on the
increasing numbers of plane "operations" that occur at major airports in the
United States? I thought so at first when I first read the story about him
introducing amendments to the FAA Reauthorization Bill. But looking at the
story more closely I see its more political double talk. Spector is saying
its OK for the FAA to use the new Airspace Redesign routes "when the airport
is most congested." Spector, like his buddy Chuck Schumer, can't seem to
break away from promoting the health damaging, air polluting aviation
industry.

The Tale Of Two Hudsons And Their Opinion On Aircraft Noise!!! It is
almost amusing to see the different attitudes on aviation expansion of
politicians representing communities located on New York's Hudson River.
While one area's politicians are desperately fighting the FAA's Airspace
Redesign scheme, which will bring Newark Airport flight paths and noise
over their heads, another community's politicians are PUSHING for the
creation of a forth major N.Y. City airport (Stewart Airport) in their
backyard!!! Airport expansion Senator "Chuck" Schumer is one of the main
characters not only behind the Airspace Redesign scheme but also the
expansion of Stewart Airport. This week he announced that 2.7 million
dollars has been allocated for rail link to Stewart Airport. Of course no
environmental impact study will be done on the increased passengers and air
cargo that will increase when this rail link is built. There wasn't one when
the New York and New Jersey Port Authority took over possession of the
airport and announced it planned for a major expansion. While Schumer is
wheeling and dealing in the effort to expand Stewart Airport, he has not
responded to the people in lower Hudson Valley area whose health and quality
of life will be impacted by the change in Newark Airport routes.

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Spector's FAA Bill Amendments Putting Lipstick On A Pig? May 5, 2008 -- U.S.
Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) filed two amendments to the Federal Aviation
Administration Reauthorization Act which is currently being considered by
the Senate. The amendments seek to reduce overflights over Delaware County
and delays caused by flight over-scheduling at Philadelphia International
Airport. Senator Specter investigated both of these issues at a field
hearing he convened in Philadelphia on Friday, April 25th. During the field
hearing, Senator Specter questioned FAA's Acting Administrator Robert
Sturgell on airspace redesign and flight scheduling practices at
Philadelphia International Airport. Sturgell acknowledged that planes are
sometimes directed to fly a route over residential suburbs in Delaware
County as a primary option - not as a congestion-relief option as the FAA
earlier indicated would be the case. "The FAA has been unwilling to honor
its commitment by limiting use of the headings to only those times when 10
or more aircraft are waiting because they claim that doing so would require
them to conduct a reevaluation and analysis," said Senator Specter. "This
amendment will ensure that communities are not frivolously disrupted by
overflights but still give air traffic controllers the option of using
dispersal headings as a relief option when the airport is most congested."
http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/48746953_senator-specter-introduces-amendments-faa-bill-red
Media Buys The Con Job!!! U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter is proposing an amendment
that could cut down on the number of low-flying planes over Philidelphia
International Airport sends over the Delaware County suburbs. The republican
senator filed an amendment Monday to the Federal Aviation Administration's
funding bill. The amendment would allow use of the Delaware County departure
headings only to reduce airport congestion. Specter questioned an FAA
official about the takeoff routes in a hearing last month in Philadelphia.
The official acknowledged planes can sometimes sent over residential suburbs
even when it is not necessary to relieve congestion.
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/NEWS01/80506014/1006

New York County Legislators Push To Stop Increased Aviation Health
Impacts!!! County Legislators Alden Wolfe, Connie Coker, Chair Harriet
Cornell and others timely rendered an April 30 Environmental Committee
resolution seeking removal of funding provisions for the New York/New
Jersey/Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Airspace Redesign from the Federal
Aviation Administration reauthorization bill pending before the U.S. Senate.
The Legislature's May 2 press release, issued by Legislature Press
Coordinator Betsy Saetre, enables Quiet Rockland to alert other communities
nationwide to how our county is fighting FAA injustice, while the related
Senate proceedings - on C-SPAN2 - hopefully empower those communities to
take similar action. The Robert "Bobby" Sturgell FAA has allowed at least
hundreds of thousands of passengers to fly on cracked airplanes; tolerates
low-fuel landings at Newark Liberty and elsewhere; has brought us an
unacceptable number of near-misses and runway incursions; and seemingly
would rather threaten whistleblower inspectors than solve airplane safety
problems, in turn triggering FBI and congressional investigations. Some of
those affected aircraft, or ones like them, could end up among the 400 or
more planes per day that the redesign threatens to regularly run at low
altitudes through the Route 304-to-306 corridor. Our county's
now-almost-yearlong fight against the redesign is not simply a pursuit to
prevent noise and air pollution in our backyards. This is about a rogue
failed federal agency and restoring safety to our skies. The writer is a
co-founder of Quiet Rockland, www.quietrockland.com.
http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080505/OPINION/805050312/-1/SPORTS

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Important Aviation News
Stories This Week

Controllers: Airspace redesign causing wrong turns at Newark

By DAVID PORTER | Associated Press Writer

May 10, 2008
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--newark-airspaceco0510may10,0,6805516.story
NEWARK, N.J. - A new takeoff pattern aimed at easing congestion at Newark
Liberty International Airport has confused some pilots and led to several
incidents in which planes turned in the wrong direction, according to the
union that represents air traffic controllers.

Three of the incidents occurred in the last nine days, according to Ray
Adams, vice president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
union at Newark.

Many pilots aren't notified of the specifics of the new pattern until they
are on the runway preparing to take off, Adams said.

"It's throwing a wrench into the works, basically," he said. Jim Peters, a
spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, confirmed an incident on
May 1 involving a United Airlines flight that turned the wrong way on
departure. But he said FAA logs had no record of two separate incidents on
May 8 involving planes operated by Virgin Atlantic and Continental.

Adams and Newark union president Ed Kragh contend, however, that a
controller noted the incidents, which occurred within about an hour of each
other, and notified a supervisor in writing. None of the incidents placed
planes in imminent danger, Adams said.

On a recording from the Newark air traffic control tower last month obtained
by The Associated Press, pilots of several planes that are minutes from
takeoff are heard expressing unfamiliarity with the new pattern.

"That's a negative," a JetBlue pilot says when a controller asks if he's
familiar with it. "Here's how it's going to work," the controller begins.

About two minutes later, another pilot asked the same question responds, "I
don't know that we are."

Air traffic controllers at Newark have been pushing the FAA to "publish" the
new pattern so that its chart is included in a book kept in every plane's
cockpit. Peters said Friday the FAA won't publish it until more work is done
on the overall airspace redesign.

Airlines were alerted to the new procedure by the FAA before it was
instituted in December, and it is referred to in bulletins contained in the
Airport Terminal Information Service, which pilots can access when they
enter the cockpit and which also provides weather updates.

According to Kragh, that reference is not specific enough. He said when the
new procedure was implemented, Newark controllers initially gave pilots
specific information about the takeoff procedure when they first made
contact with the tower, about 30 minutes before takeoff.

That prompted so many questions from pilots that it interfered with
controllers' ability to carry out their duties, Kragh said, and controllers
were ordered by supervisors not to specify the new procedure until planes
were on the runway. The FAA did not comment on that claim.

The new takeoff pattern from Newark is part of the first phase of a general
redesign of the airspace around New York. The plan also included a cap on
the number of flights at JFK Airport.

Congestion at the region's three major airports _ Newark, JFK and La Guardia
_ have been blamed in recent federal reports for causing significant delays
nationwide.

At Newark, planes departing to the southwest have historically turned to the
left immediately on takeoff. Under the new procedure, they can be directed
to turn to the right.

The new pattern is used during peak times to allow planes to depart with
less distance between them since their paths will diverge once they are
airborne, according to Kragh.

When a pilot turns the wrong way on takeoff, that can put the planes closer
together than is allowed under FAA regulations, Kragh said.

According to Peters, the fault lies with the pilots.

"The responsibility for acknowledging air traffic control instructions rests
with the flight crew," he said. "If they don't comply with those
instructions, it's pilot deviation."

Adams said the wrong turns place more stress on pilots during the crucial
first minutes of a flight.

"Is it an imminent collision threat? No," he said. "Generally a controller
can catch it. But it causes confusion and additional workload, which does
raise the risk of potential problems."

date: Tue, 13 May 2008 06:34:28 -0400 author: Bill Mulcahy