9/11 REMEMBERED
Sadly, the eleventh day of the ninth month will always be remembered for the
horrible terrorist attacks which took place in the United States last year.
Since that day, the aviation industry has been in a constant state of
restructuring, leaving many of us wishing we could sweep all the negative
repercussions from 9/11 under the rug.
This month no doubt, the media will be flooding the airwaves with coverage of
the one-year anniversary of 9/11, and we can only hope it will pass without
disrupting our lives and businesses.
However, that said, it would be inexcusable for Canadian Flight to ignore this
gruesome anniversary and not pay respect to those who died on that horrible day.
Twenty-four Canadians died in the World Trade Centre, and the innocent airmen
who were overcome by the terrorists were pilots just like you and me who loved
to slip the bonds of Earth as often as possible.
COPA continues to work with Canadian and U.S. authorities as well as U.S. GA
associations to regain and retain the freedoms we had prior to September 11th.
The New York skyline may never again look the same but we hope that GA will
regain the access to airspace that was in place when this photograph of a
FlightStar ultralight flying over New York harbour was taken.
CHANGES IN THE AIR SINCE 9/11...
In this post-9/11 world that is still being remade, one of the many changes
is the relationship between the FAA and the military. The latest proof is in the
number of times the military scrambled fighter jets to intercept suspicious
aircraft.
Between September 11 and June of this year fighter jets were launched 462 times.
That’s nearly seven times as often as during the same period a year earlier.
NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) is now linked up telephonically
24 hours a day, seven days a week with ATC.
On September 11, about 15 minutes elapsed before ATC notified NORAD of the first
suspected hijacking, today, NORAD would know instantly about difficulties in the
sky.
CANADA-US BORDER CROSSING
We have members reporting to us that they have encountered problems clearing
U.S. Customs. The only way to be sure that you will not have a problem entering
the U.S. is to telephone U.S. Customs at your intended point of entry at least
two hours prior to your arrival, tell the officer you speak to when you will be
arriving, and get his or her badge number. If you do this, and for some reason
no one from U.S. Customs is there when you land, you have verification that you
followed the proper procedures.
Penalties of up to $5,000 have reportedly been assessed against Canadians who
did not give proper notification or relied on FSS personnel to inform U.S.
Customs. Also, give the Customs agent the name and birth date of all passengers
and make sure they have all the necessary paperwork and documentation to enter
the U.S.
If you are driving into the U.S. and there is a problem, you will simply be
refused entry and you turn around and drive back across the border. However,
when you fly in and try to clear customs some distance inland and there is a
problem, the Customs officer will not likely let you take off to return to
Canada because he cannot be sure you will do so.
FAA issued a NOTAM shortly after the terrorist attack that required all aircraft
crossing the border in either direction to be equipped with a functioning
transponder, squawking an assigned code and in communication with a controlling
agency at the time of crossing. If you do not have a transponder or a means of
communicating, a waiver can be obtained from the FAA but you need to give them a
couple of days advance notice. This procedure was publicized by EAA prior to
Oshkosh but apparently some of our members did not know about the waiver. The
FAA Web site for the waiver is www.intl.faa.gov/displaypage.cfm?id=22 or call
202-267-8592 or 9820.
BACKGROUND CHECK REQUIRED FOR ALL FOREIGN PILOTS
Recently the U.S. banned foreign licence conversions. Now they’re back on.
Background checks now required for some foreign pilot certificate applicants
have new procedures requiring all foreign pilots to submit to background checks
before the agency will issue a U.S. pilot certificate based on a pilot licence
issued by another country.
This new procedure will remove an emergency suspension of pilot certificate
issuance to foreign pilots put into place because of national security concerns.
The policy will establish new procedures for FAR Part 61.75, issuance of an FAA
pilot certificate based on a current foreign pilot certificate. Non-U.S. pilots
will be required to submit an application directly to the FAA’s office in
Oklahoma City and, upon approval, will be directed to the appropriate FAA flight
standards district office to receive the U.S. certificate. According to the FAA,
the entire process could take up to 60 days.