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Personal Jet, Low Flying LearJet, Thanks Guys!

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~Caution Wake Turbulence~
Joined
Jul 12, 2008
Posts
60
I guess during a downward spin of all of our careers there always has to be guys that just cant act professional. Doing Rolls at 200 feet?

At least it made the local newspaper...

For the guys without jobs, maybe there will be some openings. Worth a call!!

What do you think?

Wayward Learjet buzzes Deerfield
Horrified residents watch business jet fly over Pioneer Park at 200 feet
By Jim Lusk
It was a peaceful afternoon last Sunday around 3 p.m. when suddenly a loud jet engine noise shook homes in the Pioneer Park area, bringing residents darting outside looking to the sky. The white Learjet was heading east just north of Hillsboro Boulevard and was low, very low. It caused concern throughout the area.
The jet disappeared below the tree line across Federal Highway. Then 10 minutes later it appeared again, this time heading westbound over the same area, engines roaring , less than 200 feet in the air — which again brought everyone running outside for fear that it was going to crash and this time, right over Pioneer Park, the pilot performed two barrel rolls similar to a fighter jet and soared to over 1,500 feet in seconds.
Loretta Jones, who lives in an apartment on Federal Highway said “I thought the plane was on my roof, it made me think of 9-11.”
Cindy Ritzler of NE 8 Terrace said, “We thought something was going on.”
Bill Coutts of NE 9 Avenue said, “I saw it come over the first time and then the second time, I was waiting for the fire engines to take off because I thought it was going to crash.”
A major problem could have been that, at 250 feet and 200 miles per hour, if it lost control, it would have punched through three to four homes before stopping.
A call to Paul McDermott of the Boca Airport Authority revealed that the Gates Learjet 35 tail N37TA was enroute from Palm Beach International Airport to Executive Airport in Ft. Lauderdale when it decided to try and fly undetected over northeast Deerfield, which is not controlled by the Boca FAA tower or Pompano. There is a small triangle of uncontrolled airspace right over the Pioneer Park area that increases activity and is used for flying, training or stunts.
For example, the Goodyear Blimp routinely buzzes the area and the small helicopter from Pompano airpark trains overhead. After an investigation, the Observer found that the jet is based out of Personal Jets at Executive Airport. The Flight Standards Regional Office (FAA) said they were aware of the incident and due to an ongoing investigation, they could not comment yet. As of press time, it is still unknown who was at the controls during the flight.


FAA Altitude Regulations
Sec. 91.119 - Minimum safe altitudes: General.
Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes:
(a) Anywhere. An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.
(b) Over congested areas. Over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons, an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.
(c) Over other than congested areas. An altitude of 500 feet above the surface, except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In those cases, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.
(d) Helicopters. Helicopters may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (b) or (c) of this section if the operation is conducted without hazard to persons or property on the surface. In addition, each person operating a helicopter shall comply with any routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the Administrator.

Click filename below to access file
Lear_Jet_Radio_Transmissions.AU
Flight Path
Click filename below to access file
Lear_Jet_Path.pdf
At 00:54-00:59, Boca Air Traffic Controller asks the pilot "Is Hillsboro Blvd. over your air space or are we going over to Pompano at that point?" to which the aircraft replies "I have no idea."




 
Ha ha, so that's the article... I heard about this just the other day. From what I understand, this happened awhile ago and yes the pilots are in deep s***. Pretty damn stupid. Unfortunately I know one of the idiots involved.

Edit:
Did some searching and found the newspaper link. That actually sounds a lot worse than what I was originally told. Just love the picture of them in the article, really nice.

http://tinyurl.com/d8axdz
 
Last edited:
From what I heard, you have that backwards. It is the pilot (female) asking where Hillsboro Blvd is, not ATC. I don't see how you could get that mixed up. Are you a pilot?

At 00:54-00:59, Boca Air Traffic Controller asks the pilot "Is Hillsboro Blvd. over your air space or are we going over to Pompano at that point?" to which the aircraft replies "I have no idea."
 
I've met numerous idiots who brag about rolling their non-aerobatic ride. "It's a 1-G maneuver" "There's no stress on the plane"...etc. I have several substantial issues with this:

1. Most pilots do not have the skill to do this (aside from Tex Johnson) and a consistent 1-G is highly unlikely.
2. Other elements of the airframe, including that lead-acid battery, can't tolerate negative G. There are also oil/fuel cavitation issues.
3. Do you really want to fly this aircraft to minimums with gyros slammed to their limits by the prior pilot? Of course, you will likely not know.

You asked what I thought. Pilots who roll commercial airplanes threaten the life of every later occupant of that same aircraft. They're idiots.
I have aerobatic time and I would never do this.

......despite my signature line
 
"which again brought everyone running outside for fear that it was going to crash"

They meant to say "hoping that it was going to crash"
 
that picture is photo shopped, look at the details and note under the picture.
 
The stupidity of some people never ceases to amaze me. Especially some Lear pilots who perpetually think they're flying a fighter plane.

I remember years ago when I was a lowly 20 series Lear F/O, I was flying with an older captain who claimed to have "more Lear time than anyone else in the world." He was one of these guys who would always fly a trip long enough without stopping for fuel that the low fuel lights (or light, singular? It's been a long time since I was in one of those) were flashing in the pattern at the destination airport, etc. etc. Always doing stupid crap because he thought he knew every rivet of those planes.

One day, we were taking off from an airport in the SW. Unbeknownst to me, he had told the line guys at the FBO we had just stopped at that he was going to "give them a show" on takeoff. So after we rotated, he flew along the runway at about 20 feet, called for the gear up, yaw damper on, and flaps up, and accelerated. As we passed the FBO at the other end of the field, we must have been doing easily around 200 knots, probably more, at which point he pulled what felt like 3 G's or more and pitched up into an incredibly steep "Blue Angels" climb, leveling off with negative G's as the airspeed bled off.

Needless to say, I didn't fly with him again after that flight.

And, almost needless to say, about a year later he crashed in Texas and made about an 8-foot deep hole in the ground, killing himself and his co-pilot. Apparently ATC last talked to them when they were descending through the lower flight levels. Did he try another "watch this" moment of some kind with his inexperienced F/O, and have it ball up on him? No one will ever know.

But there is certainly truth to the "No old, bold pilots" adage.

Who knows if the female F/O (I assume she was the F/O) was new and inexperienced...maybe she had no idea that they were going to fly that low. If that's the case, I hope nothing happens to her. On the other hand, I hope the dumb@ss who was flying has everything revoked, and gets fined to boot. Maybe he or she will never fly again, if we're lucky.
 

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