The latest thing in our little world of General Aviation is the new idea that we are a huge security threat to the United States. Government officials and other political idiots are climbing all over themselves with new regulation and restriction ideas for we people who dare to fly “those little airplanes.”

            Those little airplanes are apparently the most threatening thing of all for government buildings, shopping malls and the general public. According to the security idiots you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting some sort of crazy-eyed pilot trying to fly his airplane into the courthouse.

            A long time ago there actually was an attack on the White House carried out by a crazy pilot who was driving a Cessna 150. The pilot penetrated the perimeter of the grounds and actually did fly his airplane right into a window of the West Wing. His airplane literally bounced off of the window, fell to the ground and burned up. I thin they had to repaint some of the trim around the window.

            I’m not saying that airplanes can’t cause terroristic damage. Any person alive during 911 knows that it is possible. My question is: when do we stop?

            After all, your average three quarter ton pickup truck is heavier and can do more damage than your average single engine airplane. Most trucks can go faster too. Since every government and, for that matter, every other building is firmly attached to the ground, it would be very easy for your average pickup truck to drive into your average building.

            The other big threat we pose to the country has always been crop dusters. The theory is that they can fly into a town and spread disease and chemicals. This can be more easily accomplished with a car or even a bicycle and an average sprayer you can buy at any hardware store.

            The Oklahoma City bombing was done with a rental truck. Where are the restrictions and extra security charges on U-Haul?

            I know that point has been many times by many people but the politicians and the government clerks aren’t getting the message. I suggest a week-long general aviation strike. We should hold it during the week of Oshkosh. During that week there would be no air ambulances, no law enforcement from the air, no air taxi, banner towing, fish spotting, pipeline patrolling, flight instruction, news cameraperson carrying and definitely, certainly, no carrying of politicians of any kind for any reason.

            Let’s see what the country can do without us for a week. We’ve given them too much power. It is time to take it back. People who can’t land an airplane are telling us where we can land ours. People who wouldn’t know a V1 cut from a cold cut are telling us how much noise we can make. Idiots who have never touched the controls of an airplane, let alone owned one, are telling us that we are the danger and we need to be controlled.

            They have no power over us that we don’t give them.