Howdy, in reading these posts, there's a lot of mixed answers and opinions. First off, calling 911 wont get you very far or with any desireable results. They will not be able to intervene or arrest anyone without a valid complaintant such as the airport authority/city/county, whoever. The first thing that comes to mind is that this guy has probably been banned before and that's why he piggy-backed you. You should not confront him but take note of his description, vehicle, and license and report that to whoever is in charge of security at your airport. If he has been banned before, he may be criminally trespassing. The best thing is to do your part by reporting him and then removing yourself from the situation.
I agree with a lot of people here that say they don't want to hide general aviation behind a wall or fence. The sad fact is that we have been attacked and the DHS/TSA has the responsibility to protect the public from terrorists. Granted, the threat from general aviation is small, but there is still a risk. Imagine if the terrorists started crashing 172's into malls or schools or dense population areas. The actual deaths caused wouldn't be anywhere near the WTC, but it would cause "terror". This is what they relish in. TSA has to address that potential with what we have now. I hate it just as much as the next guy, but we still get access to our hangars and fly relatively unmolested. The guy that blew past you is the person that causes us to get more and more rules put upon us. I have no problem of making him suffer due to his inability to go along with the program. If we police ourselves and deal with security unwavered and with prudence, TSA will see that we are addressing the issue and they don't need to impose anymore restrictions upon us.
I'm a Sheriff's Deputy and fly out of a class D airport. Keeping aviation like it used to be is very important to me and we work hard at our airport to keep it that way. We have controlled gates and had to attend a meeting on access and insurance verification. We have had a few incidences, but nothing major. We had one teenage kid of a pilot that was going to have a big party at his dad's hangar by staying inside the gate after the airport close at night. We intercepted that and hopefully prevented a lot of potential damage to aircraft. The only other problems we have had is with a few nasty pilot's including a CFI who, unbeknowst to him, invited our Chief Deputy to get out of his plane and fight. Needless to say, he was no longer employed with the flight school. A few other nasty ones have been squelched when we invite them over to the Sheriff's hangar to talk about it. For the most part, we have a friendly and courteous airport. 99.9% of the people do the right thing and try extra hard to keep the kindred spirit of aviation alive. Do not let the .1% ruin it for all of us and all the kids hanging on the fence. Many years ago, I was hanging on the fence and walking the flightline looking into airplanes and dreaming. Having an "advanced" pilot taking a few minutes of time to show us their Mooney, Citation Jet, helicopter,etc. impressed me with the camraderie and willingness to share their passion of flight. When I started flight lessons, it was also reassuring knowing that those pilots also persevered with awkward radio calls, manuevering, etc. when trying to shoot an instrument approach. That's what's important to me in aviation and now I'm the "advanced" pilot who patiently works with and around new pilot's. Isn't that what aviation about? Let's get rid of the schmuck's and keep it pure. I don't like the additional rules either. Let's just stay proactive and maybe we can keep the rules to a minimum.
