Flying High At Horace Williams

If we didn't have cause enough to be concerned about the safety of
Horace Williams Airport, the prospect of stoned student pilots flying
overhead gives more than pause.

UNC Police last week charged Roderick Morris Farb with operating an
aircraft while impaired, in connection with a plane crash June 5,
1999, at the airport. Farb at the time was a student pilot soloing in
an aircraft owned by the Chapel Hill Flying Club, based at Horace
Williams. The charge stemmed from a report by the Federal Aviation
Administration, which concluded that "the pilot's impairment by
marijuana" contributed to the accident.

It's hard to argue with the assertion of Flying Club officers that the
apparent drug-related accident was "an unusual circumstance." We
certainly hope so.

But the charge simply underscores the folly of allowing the airport to
be used by student pilots -- stoned or not. Horace Williams is
surrounded by five public schools -- with real students -- as well as
an expanding complex of neighborhoods, churches and day care centers.

The airport has suffered four crashes in the last two years, and the
most recent, in May, also involved a Flying Club aircraft. Flying Club
officers insist that the club places a premium on safety and, indeed,
makes the skies safer by teaching safety.

But logic tells us that, whatever the precautions, the presence of the
flying club raises the risk of accidents associated with the airport.
It places more student pilots in the air over Horace Williams, and
they by definition are less safe than experienced pilots. And having
the Flying Club located at the airport increases the number of pilots
- -- there are 285 club members -- and flights into and out of the
airport, which necessarily raises the risk of mishap.

We hope James Moeser, when he reports for duty as UNC's new chancellor
on Aug. 15, will put a review of the airport operation at the top of
his town-gown agenda.