The September 11th attack
New rules ground smaller aircraft
By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer
Emergency federal restrictions on airspace surrounding Honolulu have left hundreds of pilots grounded and hurt some O'ahu air tour companies, flight schools, and other businesses since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
"It's basically putting me out of business, period," said Pat Magie, owner of Island Seaplane Service. "We've been down for over three weeks now and it's hurting. I don't know how long we can last."
New flight restrictions forced Pat Magie of Island Seaplane Service to change the way he does business.
To more strictly control the movement of small aircraft, the National Security Council and Federal Aviation Administration reclassified the busy airspace over dozens of major American airports after hijackers crashed commercial jets into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
The changes severely restricted flights by small aircraft that operate under visual flight rules in those areas, essentially grounding more than 40,000 aircraft throughout the country. VFR flights aren't required to file flight plans or rely on instruments to guide them, making them difficult to track and monitor.
O'ahu is the only island in Hawai'i to be affected by the reclassification to "enhanced Class B airspace," and pilots here say the impact has been huge. Tiny Dillingham Airfield on the North Shore is the only civilian airport on O'ahu outside the restricted airspace.
Similar restrictions on VFR flights across the state went into effect immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks, also threatening the livelihood of flight schools and other aviation businesses on the Neighbor Islands. Those restrictions were later lifted, but the reclassification of O'ahu's airspace has kept most small planes here from flying.
"The average airplane owner who uses a plane for business or personal flights is basically grounded," said Hank Bruckner, president of the General Aviation Council of Hawaii, a pilot advocacy group.
Hawai'i has about 3,000 licensed pilots, and about 70 percent fly under visual flight rules, he said. O'ahu has about a dozen air tour companies and flight schools, but not all are affected the same. Tour companies that are licensed to fly by instrumentation, and to go longer distances, don't fall under the same restrictions, even if they are flying the exact same route.
"In a case like that it's terribly unfair," Bruckner said, adding that he feared a lack of business would cripple the island's aircraft maintenance and support infrastructure unless planes are allowed to resume flying soon. He and other pilots said they realized the need for increased security, but that the changes have resulted in rules that make little sense.
For instance, qualified student pilots can fly small planes in the affected airspace under Visual Flight Rules. But seasoned pilots, and even flight instructors, can't fly the same plane in that airspace if they're not teaching a student.
"It's ridiculous that a student pilot can take off and fly out of here, but an instructor can't fly out by himself," said Magie, who's flown seaplanes for more than 40 years. "Who dreams this stuff up?"
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, which has 375,000 members nationwide, calls the situation "ludicrous."
"This has resulted in some 41,000 general aviation aircraft, which account for some 22 million flights per year, being trapped inside these areas and not allowed to leave, unless they are flown on an instrument flight plan," AOPA president Phil Boyer wrote in a Sept. 28 letter to Congress. "The Catch-22 is that only 15 percent of the nation's pilots are instrument current, and many of these planes are not certified for instrument flight."
Bruckner said an even smaller percentage of pilots in Hawai'i are instrument rated because the weather here is usually so clear.
FAA officials could not say how long the restrictions were likely to remain in place.
George Hanzawa, who owns a flight school and airplane rental company called George's Aviation Services, agreed that the rules were odd. But he noted that all aircraft flying under Visual Flight Rules had been grounded immediately after the attacks, and said he would be out of business if the FAA had not allowed students to resume flying.
"They have really gone out of their way to allow the students to continue," he said. "If that didn't happen, our business would be zero and we would come to a grinding halt. At least now we can salvage a little."
Student pilots can now fly as they did before Sept. 11, but business is still down because newly licensed pilots can't build up time and experience under Visual Flight Rules because of the new airspace rules, he said.
"It has a tremendous impact, and we're hoping that will change, but we appreciate what they've given us so far," Hanzawa said. "If not, we'd be dead."
