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Oct 12th 2004. At the request of my employer this article has been deleted

Saw this post about alien flight training on the AOPA website this week and am very disappointed. As they explain, the TSA has issued a “final interim ruling” (surely an oxymoron) stating that from October 20th any non US-citizen wishing to undertake any kind of flight training in the USA has to pay a $130 fee, send in fingerprints, photos etc and be approved. And not just once, but every time you want to take a training: the biennial review, an instrument proficiency check, a checkout in a new plane and so on.

I agree with the intent, lets keep a close eye on who might be wanting to fly in the skies, but its been proven time and time again then a Cessna 172 can do very little damage when used a weapon. Even filled with explosives it would cause less damage than driving a rental truck filled with same into a building.

As a resident alien I’ve already been approved by the USCIS, vetted by the FBI, CIA and who knows who else, submitted photos, fingerprints and deemed to bea suitable resident of the US of A. Its just crazy then that now I have to go through the same process to learn to fly, or to improve my safety through further training.

Hopefully common sense will prevail but as it stands, starting Oct 20th, all flight instructors in the US will have to check that their students are US citizens or aliens approved to take the training, keep records of this information under penalty of fines and jail time. I think many of them will give up, and many legally resident foreigners like myself will be taking a lot less training.

Oct 12 2004. At the request of my employer this article has been deleted.

(2 updates in one day, aren’t you all lucky!)

I’m loving my iPod, already have 15Gb of music on it but I’m not having any joy with the music delivery system, aka the headphones. I’ve never been able to get the ‘inside your ear’ style to stay in my ears so I bought some that clip on to the top of the ear but after an hour or two they start to hurt. So now I’m back to the regular ‘sit on your head’ type, and will see how those work for me.

Song of the day: Emma Bunton Crickets Sing For Anamaria

Everyone is aware of the heat that one endures in the desert during the summer months, but many people don’t realise that we also get some nasty winds that pick up the dust and create little blizzards. Of course, Saturday I had my MINI detailed so last night the winds were fierce and down by Imperial Airport there were patches where you could not see more than a few feet where the dust was being blown across the road. I’m glad I was only driving by and not trying to land there. So today the MINI has a nice film of dust on it; still looks good though.

Another interesting thing about desert life is that when its hot outside the water in the toilet bowl gets hot. When you sit down to do your business, sometimes you get a real warm blast of air up between your legs. And not a lotta people know that.

I love extreme weather so I am a little envious of the people in Florida, Louisiana etc anticipating the arrival of Hurrican Ivan. Saw some neat pictures of high seas this morning as the outer bands of the hurrican were approaching. Of course I can do without the destruction and risk of death associated with these things but before I die I want to get close to a hurricane, some tornadoes and, the ultimate, a tsunami.

I like fast food and staying in hotels for work means I am eating a lot of it – so much for the weight loss I achieved earlier this year. Anyway, here are the totally undisputable – I dare you! – champions of fast food:

Best Burger: Burger King Angus Burger
Best Fries: Burger King
Honourable Mention: Wendys
DisHonourable Mention: Jack In the Box for introducing natural cut fries
Best Chicken Burger: Wendys
Best Chicken Nuggets: Jack In the Box
Best Salads:Burger King Fire-Grilled Salads
Best People-Watching:Carl’s Jr

Every month in the AOPA magazine there are reports of cities, counties whatever wanting to put houses and schools next to airports or, amazingly, under the approach path to airports. In the latest magazine plans are discussed for Oxnard, Riverside and Miami to name just three. Apart from the obvious safety issues, who wants to go to school next to busy airport noise? Same with homes, if you don’t love aviation why would you buy a house next to an airport? Now, in many cases the developers or city officials hope that once moved in they will complain and get the airport closed (“no I had no idea there would be airport noise when I bought this house next to the runway”) which most of the time is impossible as any airport that has accepted federal funds is obliged to keep the airport open for 25 years.

Oct 12th 2004: At the request of my employer, this article was deleted.