Have some visitors coming in to town and would like to be able to track their flight across country. Anyone know of a sight that allows this? I've seen lots for commercial, but none for private.

Thanks to the godzilla tactics of the Airplane Pilots and Owners Association, private aviation escapes any kind of monitoring at all other than the radar that hands them off from one section to the next.

How do you think a lot of the drugs can criss-cross the Mexican and Canadian borders so easily? And if they can, imagine what al Qaeda could do.

Hope you and your visitors have a nice, peaceful Thanksgiving uninterrupted by reports of terrorists using private planes to invade "protected" airspace over power plants or sensitive, populated areas, or to dust areas with biochemical toxins, or whatever, because by the time the F-16s can scramble, they've done their job.

I'm sure lots of people will assume I'm a paranoid wacko. But think like a terrorist for a moment and check out just how easy it is to get into your local private airport or rent a private plane and file a fictional flight plan. The airport may have a fence around it, but if it has automatic landing lights (thousands do) so that no personnel need be at the airport at night, any plane can land there and take off -- picking up or dropping off any kind of contraband you want -- without detection.

You're right, I think you're a paranoid wacko.

I seem to recall a 20/20 piece of 60 Minutes thing actually on this now. They flew numerous times back and forth over the Canadian/US border...never filed anything, never communicated with anyone...nothing.

Mike, do you happen to have any idea approximately when that aired (no matter whether it was 20/20 or 60 min.)?

It was on 60 min "2" in July.

This isn't so wacko, actually.