AB3A's Journal: Is it safe to fly near DC yet?

OK, I've been lurking on the ground way to long. I thought about selling my share of our airplane, but I decided after some extended consideration that I'm satisfied with what I'm flying right now.

The reason I wrote satisfied, and not "happy" is because there is this great big bogus "Air Defense Interogation Zone" or ADIZ hanging over the Washington DC region, where my airplane is based.

This ADIZ is bogus because you can't really use the actual ADIZ procedures defined by the FAA in the Aeronautical Information Manual. Instead, everything is filed as if it were IFR, except that if you're VFR, you have to follow VFR rules and regulations while maintaining IFR radio procedures.

And heaven help you, if you hear about traffic for "huntress" in the area, triple check your position, make sure you're talking to ATC, and then keep your head on a swivel looking out for those Blackhawk helicopters or F-16 interceptors.

I love to fly. But not with some jar-head lighting me up with radar, threatening to blow me out of the sky. That's over the top. And the thing is, even as good as our military training is, they make mistakes. Just ask the good Senator from Kentucky. He was only a minute or two from getting shot out of the sky because the DHS radar watchers and the FAA controllers weren't speaking to one another.

Things are settling down once again, however. I hope there are some checks and balances trying to make their way in to DHS and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Anyway, I recently overcame my fears and I'm going up soon for a flight review, and an Instrument Proficiency Check. I don't feel comfortable flying VFR in the ADIZ, but at least when flying a legal IFR flight at least I might have the FAA on my side.

It's not a big reassurance, but it will help.