<html><head><style type='text/css'>p { margin: 0; }</style></head><body><div style='font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000'>I saw something yesterday about the TSA wanting muleskinners to be certified because of terrorist anxieties. They only walk about 2 mph and they are pulling a barge in a reenactment.<br><br>Whatever happened to the time when the only thing we had to fear was fear itself?<br><br>----- Original Message -----<br>From: "Nate Duehr" <nate@natetech.com><br>To: "CLUE talk" <clue-talk@cluedenver.org><br>Cc: steve@airspeedonline.com<br>Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 11:03:39 PM GMT -07:00 US/Canada Mountain<br>Subject: [clue-talk] Re: [OT] Urgent request - probably off-topic but please read...<br><br>Folks, I am not a spammer by trade or by choice in normal <br>circumstances, but I BEG of you to please read this.<br><br>If you are even a SMALL enthusiast of Aviation, Aerospace or anything <br>related to breaking the surly bonds of earth and reaching skyward, <br>PLEASE take a moment, I beg of you.<br><br>To my friends and members of:<br><br>Boulder, CO Linux Users Group<br>Colorado Linux Users and Enthusiasts<br>Rocky Mountain VHF+ Amateur Radio Group<br>Colorado D-STAR Association<br>Grand Mesa Contesters of Colorado<br>Amateur Radio Satellite Corporation and Mailing List<br>Repeater-Builder Mailing List<br>MIT PIC Microcontroller Mailing List<br>Yaesu FT-857 Mailing List<br>VHF Contesting Remailer Mailing List<br>The Internet Radio Radio Linking Project<br>The D-STAR Digital List<br><br>And other friends and acquaintances who will receive this message <br>privately... and anyone you care to forward it to...<br><br>Tonight on my way home I fired up my iPod to listen to a podcast by <br>well-known and very well-spoken Steven "Force" Tupper, an aviation <br>enthusiast from Michigan. What I heard chilled my heart to the bone.<br><br>The TSA under the auspices of "Homeland Security" has floated a <br>proposal to restrict and in my opinion, DESTROY numerous legendary <br>aircraft, by limiting their use so heavily that you will never see <br>them in the skies over America again. While this may sound <br>"alarmist", please trust me, it's not.<br><br>You all know me, and know that I can write well, expressing my <br>concerns with politics, living, and even the banal things of life in <br>words, fairly well -- but I can not possibly top the writing of Mr. <br>Tupper.<br><br>Even more eloquent is his VOICE in his podcast, where he perfectly <br>expresses the frustration, and sheer TERROR that the TSA itself has <br>brought down on the United State's Aviation community with the <br>proposal they've recently released, inappropriately entitled, the <br>"Large Aircraft Security Program", or LASP.<br><br>For the best and most intelligent commentary I've heard on the topic <br>to date -- PLEASE ... LISTEN to his podcast at:<br><br><http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/AirspeedLASP.mp3><br><br>You really must just hear... his voice. I do hope his server can <br>handle an onslaught -- if it can't, wait, and listen later.<br><br>(I fully intend to help him with the costs associated with <br>distributing his podcast if he needs it this month, it's just that <br>important. Steve, please let me know if you need assistance. I have <br>worked in data centers and web-based businesses, and I understand that <br>publishing these things online to large numbers of people, is NOT free.)<br><br>It's just over 30 minutes in length, and he NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT -- even <br>if you are NOT a pilot. He gives instructions in the podcast.<br><br>If you honestly do NOT have time to listen, at least READ and RESPOND <br>to his letter in response to the TSA's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. <br>He needs your input by TOMORROW. The entire text of his podcast is <br>also available at the link below, if you read faster than you listen <br>-- so to speak.<br><br><http://airspeedonline.blogspot.com/2009/02/large-aircraft-security-program-capt.html <br> ><br><br>If this non-legislative rule change comes to pass, you and your family <br>may never SEE many historical aircraft or have an opportunity to <br>purchase a RIDE in any classic "warbird" aircraft in the skies over <br>America ever again. The rule is BROAD and affects modern aircraft <br>also, but the aircraft we will miss the most, are the ones of our <br>history that tell our story as a country.<br><br>To NOT take action and RESPOND means that you've let a small group of <br>tireless aviation historians, restoration specialists, mechanics, <br>pilots, and everyone who's ever watched an airshow with aircraft from <br>the classic Warbird fleet down. WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT.<br><br>PLEASE read or listen. Mr. Tupper explains it far better than I <br>possibly can. The TSA's proposal adds NO security to our nation <br>whatsoever. It's simply government run amok.<br><br>Here's a list from Mr. Tupper's website, of aircraft that I personally <br>believe you will RARELY see in the skies of America again, if the <br>TSA's "LASP" passes into being without even so much as a single <br>legislator overseeing it, and little to no due-process available to <br>anyone who violates it.<br><br>Aircraft and Max Takeoff Weight (Varies within Type)<br>Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress - 65,500<br>Chance Vought F4U Corsair - 14,449<br>Consolidated B-24 Liberator - 65,000<br>Curtiss C-46 Commando - 48,000<br>Curtiss SB2C Helldiver - 16,800<br>Douglas A-26 Invader - 35,000<br>Douglas DC-3/C-47 Skytrain/Dakota - 31,000<br>Douglas B-23 Dragon - 32,400<br>Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar - 64,000<br>Fairchild C-82 Packet - 54,000<br>Ford Tri-Motor - 13,500<br>Grumman AF-2S Guardian - 25,500<br>Grumman Avenger - 17,893<br>Grumman F6F Hellcat - 15,415<br>Grumman F8F Bearcat - 12,947<br>Grumman HU-16 Albatross - 33,000<br>Grumman G-73 Mallard - 12,750<br>Junkers Ju 52 - 24,200<br>Lockheed C-60 Hudson - 18,500<br>Lockheed L-18 Lodestar - 17,500<br>Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon - 31,077<br>Lockheed T-33 - 15,100<br>North American B-25 Mitchell - 41,800<br>North American P-82 Twin Mustang - 25,591<br>PBY-6A Catalina - 64,450<br>Republic P-47 Thunderbolt - 17,500<br><br>You may not be a pilot, you may not even care about ANY aircraft -- <br>but if you care about the pilots who fly them, the mechanics who <br>wrench on them, the crowds at hundreds of airshows across the country <br>who see them, and the thousands of thousands who lived their lives <br>building an American legacy in Aviation -- one of our best legacies <br>ever -- please follow Mr. Tupper's request, and add your name to the <br>list of people who AGREE with him in his response to the NPRM sent out <br>by the TSA.<br><br>I, like you, am a busy person -- I had other things to do tonight. I <br>would much have preferred an enjoyable evening pursuing other things. <br>Hell, I would rather have just forwarded you all a few jokes or stayed <br>"on-topic" on our favorite mailing lists, but I can not sit by idle <br>and watch this come to pass.<br><br>Mr. Tupper needs your support no later than mid-day tomorrow, please <br>listen, read and RESPOND.<br><br>Thank you for your time, and I apologize if this is FAR off-topic for <br>some of the mailing lists you all know me from. Some lists, it's more <br>on-topic than others. This is so aggregious, so saddening, so <br>frustrating, that I just HAD to share. Like Mr. Tupper -- I'm trying <br>hard to keep this message "PG Rated". VERY hard.<br><br>I just can't think of any more caring, thoughtful people in all of the <br>other hobbies and passions of my life to share this critical <br>information with, and to BEG for your support of Mr. Tupper's letter <br>in response to the TSA. Mr. Tupper also points out that the rule <br>isn't far from encompassing other iconic aircraft, and says that if <br>the TSA enacts this rule and LOWERS the weight limitations low enough <br>to encompass such iconic aircraft as the North American P-51 <br>"Mustang", then... as he so eloquently puts it:<br><br>"Be very careful. You might get away with decimating other grand dames <br>of the skies, but every redneck, suit, line worker, banker, <br>lumberjack, lawyer, cop, fireman, landscaper, fast-food cashier, and <br>child able to stand recognizes the mighty P-51 Mustang. Not that <br>aviation would fail to miss the other aircraft that the TSA would so <br>cavalierly tear from the sky, but at least we have the P-51 Mustang <br>still guarding the 12,100-pound boundary."<br><br>Thank you deeply from the bottom of my heart if you take the time to <br>listen or read, and especially if you will send your full name as a <br>U.S. Citizen to Mr. Tupper with your comments.<br><br>Aviation is one of my deepest passions, and I can't imagine that even <br>the most disinterested person in Aviation would let these great ships <br>of our past be virtually banned from our skies in a single powerful <br>and misguided attempt at "security" over liberty, in this great country.<br><br>Enjoy the rest of your evening in peace, please help, and thank you <br>again.<br><br>--<br>Nathan Duehr, nate@natetech.com<br><br>Private Pilot, Single-Engine Land (since 1991)<br>Aircraft Owners and Pilot's Association Member (since 1992)<br>Amateur Radio Extra-Class Operator (WY0X - since 1991)<br>Current President, Colorado Repeater Association<br>Former Secretary, Colorado Council of Amateur Radio Clubs<br>Former Member, USAF Auxiliary - Civil Air Patrol<br>Linux, Electronics, and RF enthusiast ...<br>... Or however else you know me.<br>--<br> Nate Duehr<br> nate@natetech.com<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>clue-talk mailing list<br>clue-talk@cluedenver.org<br>http://www.cluedenver.org/mailman/listinfo/clue-talk<br></div></body></html>