>From AvWeb: http://avweb.com/n/?35a
Congress Ponders Grounding Warbirds
Legal Language Could Have Dire Consequences...
It is probably just an oversight ... legal language
that the mostly non-pilot members of Congress would
never catch. But under new rules included in the
military reauthorization bill, H.R. 4205, the warbirds
flown at your local air show could be grounded as
surplus military equipment. How is this so? Well,
language contained in H.R. 4205 requires the
demilitarization of surplus military equipment after
the Department of Defense (DOD) disposes of it, and
carries no time limit on the demilitarization
authority. In other words, just because a P-51, P-40
or B-17 is 50 years old doesn't matter. Theoretically,
aircraft owners could be told that to comply with the
law, they would have to make their planes unflyable.
That would be bitter irony to those warbird owners who
have spent thousands of hours and tens of thousands of
dollars to make their planes airworthy again.
"This effort to create federal policy to correct a
specific problem grants sweeping authority that could
unintentionally cripple the warbird preservation
movement," said EAA President Tom Poberezny. "While
the resolution's authors had no such intent, it is
highly possible that this legislation could force
warbird aircraft owners to make their rare airplanes
unflyable to meet overzealous enforcement standards."
As Poberezny says, though the authors of the bill had
no such intent, it is still hugely unwise to leave the
fate of the warbird movement to the common sense of
those bureaucrats charged with interpreting the law.
EAA has decided the best way to deal with the problem
is to fight lawmaker with lawmaker. They have enlisted
the aid of frequent EAA AirVenture-visitor and
GA-friendly pilot Senator James Inhofe (R-OK). Inhofe
is one of a rare breed -- a lawmaker who understands
aviation and can make things happen. He is working
with EAA to clarify the language within the military
reauthorization bill to protect warbird owners.
...Protecting Those Who Need It, Not Those Who
Don't...
The resolution causing the problem was included in the
bill at the DOD's request to confront concerns about
the uses of a civilian-owned former military
helicopter built from surplus DOD parts. Inhofe and
the EAA believe the DOD's fears can be addressed in
another way. Under their suggested change, EAA and
Senator Inhofe are asking that the bill include
demilitarization for purposes of "solely deactivating
offensive equipment and weaponry" in disposed surplus
items ... in other words, de-milling bombs, bullets,
missiles, guns or other things that go "boom." This
language would handle the specific situation that
sparked the creation of the resolution," said Michael
Pangia, a member of the EAA Legal Advisory Council.
"It is important, however, not to harm more than 40
years of preservation efforts to warbird aircraft. The
warbird movement has safely maintained rare and
significant airplanes as part of our nation's -- and
the world's -- history. These aircraft are flown as
display aircraft, and pose no offensive threat to
anyone or anything." The resolution is now in
conference committee. AVweb will be following this and
we'll let you know what the decision is.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere!
http://mail.yahoo.com/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Sep 02 2000 - 09:32:37 PDT