[JYO] Bush's Visit Takes Wind Out of Antique Airplane Show

Bush's Visit Takes Wind Out of Antique Airplane Show 
By Susan Kinzie  
Washington Post Staff Writer 
Monday, October 8, 2007; Page B05  

Nice day for a flight yesterday. 

Unless you were headed to the  annual Hagerstown Fly-In in an antique plane 
without a radio and your flight  plan took you directly over restricted 
airspace in Maryland where President Bush  was attending a memorial service. 

According to the Federal Aviation  Administration, from about 9 a.m. to noon 
yesterday, a dozen planes crossed into  the no-fly zone, a temporary 
restriction of 30 aeronautical miles on the  airspace that included Camp David 
and 
Emmitsburg, the site of the National  Fallen Firefighters Memorial. 

So the North American Aerospace Defense  Command began dispatching fighter 
jets. 

Four planes were escorted out of  the area by F-16s, said Master Sgt. Anthony 
Hill of NORAD. They landed at nearby  airports, where Secret Service agents 
followed up with the pilots, said Kim  Bruce, a Secret Service spokeswoman. 

Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the  FAA, said the agency will also interview 
the pilots. "They could face penalties  including suspension of their pilot's 
license," she said. 

Meanwhile, at  the fly-in, some people were wondering where all the planes 
were. Suddenly there  was a roar outside. Everyone was staring at the sky, 
where 
a little propeller  plane was buzzing along, with an engine that sounds about 
like a Volkswagen, and  a sleek fighter jet was flying circles around it. 

It was hair-raising,  said Tracey Potter, owner of Hagerstown Aircraft 
Services. "The F-16 is an evil,  menacing scary sound, and at the same time -- 
amazing," she said. 

The  pilot had to be terrified, Potter said. "I can't imagine what the 
feeling would  be when that fighter aircraft is screaming around you. If he 
decided 
to squeeze  a couple of rounds off, he'd blow your airplane right out of the 
sky."  

As it turns out, the fly-in, which benefits two nonprofit groups, the  
Experimental Aircraft Association and the Hagerstown Aviation Museum, and 
offers  
free plane rides for kids, was happening at the wrong time and place. 

At  Hagerstown Regional Airport yesterday morning, an announcement explained 
to the  crowd what was happening. Most people were amused, Potter said. 
But some  pilots were annoyed by the rules. 

"I think these TFRs [temporary flight  restrictions] are poorly coordinated, 
poorly publicized and not very effective,"  said Dennis Boykin, chairman of 
the Leesburg Executive Airport Commission, who  avoided the event because of 
it. 
"It's not that I'm unpatriotic, not that I  don't believe my commander-in-"I 
think these TFRs [temporary flight  restrictions] are poorly coordinated, 
poorly publicized and not very effective,"  said Dennis Boykin, chairman of the 
Leesburg Executive A

Brown said  that if the pilots had been using radios, they wouldn't have been 
in the no-fly  zone to begin with. She said the FAA has worked closely with 
pilots'  associations to reinforce the need to be aware of restrictions put in 
place for  safety. 

"Pilots are supposed to check the notices to airmen that we put  out that are 
in effect for the area," she said. 

The fly-in often brings  in well over a hundred visiting aircraft. This 
weekend, about 20 planes visited,  said Potter, who spent more than six months 
organizing the event, getting  insurance, coordinating schedules and so on, 
only 
to learn about the temporary  airspace restrictions. "It really killed our 
event. . . . It's a real kick in  the head." 

Then again, they did get one spectacular plane to visit,  Potter said: The 
F-16 was the high point of the weekend, for  sure.




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