An “A” for Creativity

A couple in suburban Philadelphia has a message for the FAA. They’ll lose points for the language skills but they get an “A” for creativity in presentation.

Take a look and come back. (Yes, I know it’s the internet and I could get away with copying it. I used to be a photographer. Copyright is copyright.)

Just this morning, I asked you to consider the implications of slot limitations for airports. Did you think about noise ? If you reduce the number of scheduled flights back to a level that makes weather delays manageable, you negate the argument for the illusionary efficiencies the FAA says it can get out of redesigned airspace. Without the redesigned airspace, the noise stays where it has been for years and years -- and there will be less of it. Less airplanes = less noise.

As I’ve said before, there are legitimate reasons to redesign airspace. Perhaps they have legitimate reasons now -- I don’t know. I do know that redesigning airspace won’t change runway capacity and the location of JFK, EWR and LGA hasn’t changed.

Oh, I almost forgot. Years ago, I tried to get NATCA to rent a farmer’s field near an airport, to display a message. Old sappy me, I wanted it to spell out “Merry Christmas from NATCA” in lights so that the pilots and passengers could see it as they flew by -- low and slow -- near the airport. Forgive me. For, right about now, some guy in advertising is thinking he can make that idea work.

Don Brown
January 24, 2008