TSA Watch: Alphabet Soup Plans Meeting With Agency

David M. Stone, the TSA’s acting administrator, plans to meet May 7 with the General Aviation Coalition (GAC), a loosely defined collection of all the GA trade associations from the largest to the smallest. The meeting, the latest in a series of ongoing dialogues between the agency and the “problem child” GA community, probably won’t generate much in the way of earthshaking developments, however. Likely items on the agenda include the upcoming presidential campaign season and associated airspace restrictions, the status of the TSA’s efforts to develop a plan leading to reopening Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) to non-scheduled operations and continuing efforts to scale back the Washington Air Defense Identification Zone. In other words, the same set of issues with which the industry has been grappling since roughly, umm, September 2001. Other topics could include the status of the TSAs apparently stalled efforts to promulgate a series of security recommendations applicable to GA. As far as the upcoming meeting with Stone is concerned, however, it might be best if that question is not asked — the industry may not like the answer. Look for more information on this meeting, and the scoop on its outcome, if any, in the next edition of AVweb‘s Business AVflash.