Aircar
Well-Known Member
The Touring Motor Glider thread highlighted a difference in attitude of WHERE and HOW aircraft are allowed to be used in different countries (motor gliders were restricted to local flying only within 7 NM of their take off point in Australia for many years --compared to use as long range touring aircraft in America) -the fight to get DESIGN freedom in Australia in the form of an experimental category took over 40 years but the OPERATION of various classes of aircraft is still subject to draconian or just outdated prohibitions that would similarly hamstring or even kill the use of personal flying machines to their full capacity and benefit. The ones most restricted might be roadable aircraft (or not, if their ability to convert to ground mobility allowed to get around airspace restrictions ) -- the concept of URBAN and SUBURBAN flying operations is most closely connected with this type of aircraft and the recent CAFE "Pocket airport" paper promotes that concept in the US context. Brazil features a quite substantial urban airborne transport system using helicopters particularly across Sao Paulo --China has apparently banned personal flying until very recently and other countries have various types of prohibitions in place of unknown severity . Well known Australian Aviator Dick Smith records how he asked for permission to fly low to film bears in Alaska during his round the world solo helicopter odyssey only to be met by stunned silence --the controller simply said that it was a free country and he was allowed to fly as low as he liked --it would have been a federal offence to fly below 1500 ft in most places or 500ft in even the remotest in Australia.
The sort of restrictions that apply in other countries would be interesting to know -- as much as for the future use of "personal Air Vehicles' PAVs in US acronym which could become far more numerous than light airplanes are now. (and the public would want to use them more like motorcars )
Ironically it was in the flyleaf of a book titled "The case against private aviation" that the quote from the US Federal Aviation Act came to my notice '" there is hereby declared to exist for every US citizen the right to use the navigable airspace of the United States of America" (not verbatim but close --the section of the act was appended but maybe somebody else can supply it ) --the legal basis for having access to airspace, or not, would be of great interest to know also. "navigable" is a curious term meaning what ?
The sort of restrictions that apply in other countries would be interesting to know -- as much as for the future use of "personal Air Vehicles' PAVs in US acronym which could become far more numerous than light airplanes are now. (and the public would want to use them more like motorcars )
Ironically it was in the flyleaf of a book titled "The case against private aviation" that the quote from the US Federal Aviation Act came to my notice '" there is hereby declared to exist for every US citizen the right to use the navigable airspace of the United States of America" (not verbatim but close --the section of the act was appended but maybe somebody else can supply it ) --the legal basis for having access to airspace, or not, would be of great interest to know also. "navigable" is a curious term meaning what ?
