So the Governor wants to fly!!

[MaxTorque]

Interesting story from Georgia...
Perdue wins helicopter suit

BY ALAN RIQUELMY


A Friday ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land ends litigation against Gov. Sonny Perdue by a former Georgia State Patrol unit commander who claimed the governor piloted state helicopters while unlicensed.
The judgment against Mike Boyd, former unit commander of the Georgia State Patrol Aviation Unit, came the same day Perdue traveled to Muscogee County in a helicopter to view the devastation caused by Thursday's storm.
Boyd, who filed the federal lawsuit in May 2005, argued that his allegations about the governor's helicopter piloting cost him his job in 2003.
The allegations stem from a Dec. 11, 2002, helicopter trip in which then Gov.-elect Perdue allegedly took control of the helicopter. Boyd had ordered all secondary control sticks removed from a number of helicopters' co-pilot seats. All were removed, except for one.
Boyd argued a similar incident happened a few days later, which caused him to report the alleged infractions to his superior — then GSP Col. George Ellis, another defendant in the suit.
"Despite (Perdue's) actual knowledge of (Boyd's) instructions to remove the second stick from helicopters in transporting the governor, he has continued to insist upon the presence of such equipment and has continued to take control of GSP helicopters during flights virtually every time that he is a passenger," Boyd states in his suit.
Perdue discovered Boyd's complaint in early 2003 and made comments intended to lead Ellis to stop Boyd from interfering, Boyd claimed. On March 7, 2003, Ellis brought about Boyd's suspension.
Shortly afterward, Boyd claimed Ellis began an investigation of the unit that was little more than a justification to attack him. On May 14, 2003, Boyd was demoted to a pilot. That was followed by a press release from Perdue, Ellis and the Georgia Department of Public Safety that resulted in findings leading to Boyd's reprimand, he said.
Boyd said a back injury restricted him from performing pilot duties. That injury, along with the publicity of the negative press release and his demotion, led him to retire, he said. In his suit, Boyd had argued for compensatory and punitive damages as well as payment for the litigation's expense. Land's ruling said Boyd would pay for the service fees associated with the suit, though no ruling was made on attorneys' fees.

 

[svcta]

Sonny is a pilot, as far as I know. My old boss ran in to him a few years ago at CSG on a banner tow and sonny talked with him for about 15 minutes about his Maule and something else that he had. Can't remember but I think he had a couple of airplanes. Not that he's rated in a helo, but come on, have you ever let a friend with no airman rating at all fly a little when you were giving a ride? Yes.

 

[wrxpilot]

That Boyd sounds like a cry baby - glad he didn't win!

 

[FL420]

When you hafta take a leak, be sure you aren't pissin' into the wind.

 

[A Squared]

Sonny is a pilot, as far as I know. My old boss ran in to him a few years ago at CSG on a banner tow and sonny talked with him for about 15 minutes about his Maule and something else that he had. Can't remember but I think he had a couple of airplanes. Not that he's rated in a helo, but come on, have you ever let a friend with no airman rating at all fly a little when you were giving a ride? Yes.

I looked up Perdue in the FAA data base. He does have a Commercial certificate with ME and instrument rating, but no helicopter rating. Agree that there's nothing illegal about having an uncertificated person handle the controls. However, I'm betting that it was explicitly forbidden by the Georgia State Patrol aviation division's own policy. It's probably not too much of a stretch that the governor was fairly "proactive" in circumventing this policy.

Now, I'm so far removed from Georgia State politics that not only do I not have a dog in this fight, I don't even know the dogs. (Before I read this thread, I couldn't have come up with the Governor's name if my life depended on it) However, I'm going to play devil's advocate a little here. Let's take a hypothetical: Let's say that you're the director of a corporate aviation department, I mean a real director of a real aviation department, managing 2 jets, a helicopter and 5 pilots, not the "chief pilot and errand boy" of the "corporate 182". Now, suppose that the CEO of the company was constantly overriding your safety based policy and operational decisions? Let's say that he was countermanding your pilots' no-go decisions, let's say that he demanded to fly the G-IV from the left seat, even though he was a 30 hour student pilot. Would you consider yourself a "cry-baby" for objecting to his interference? Say you were the Aircraft Commander of a helicopter temporarily assigned to an Armor battalion for Command and & Control. Let's say the non rated battalion commander ordered you to let him fly the helicopter ... would you consider your self a cry-baby for objecting? I think that it's pretty common to prohibit non-rated passengers from handling the controls of an aircraft. I bet you'd find that it's prohibited more often than not in federal, or state, county, municipal, military etc. aviation departments. Certainly it's not allowed in Part 135 and Part 121 operations. My point is that such a policy is not unusual, nor unreasonable. I would go as far as to say that the Governor has no business countermanding the policies of the Georgia State patrol aviation, especially as the policy is based in safety and liability and his reasons for countermanding them are purely for the benefit of his own ego. (There is no other reason for the governor to fly the helicopter) Suppose the governor flew into a radio tower guy wire ...who's a$$ is going to be in a sling? You think that ensuing investigation will look pretty hard at the head of the aviation department and his policies on non-pilot passengers flying department aircraft? You think the department head will be out of a job after an incident of that nature?

Anyway, perhaps Boyd could have handled it more effectively or more diplomatically. I don't know the details of how it went down. Perhaps he shouldn't have taken a stand for what he thought was right, maybe there were some other personal issues at play. For sure, Boyd came out on the short end of the stick, and if he'd just gone along with the Governor's little ego trips, he'd still have a job. Than may be true, but is it right?


On an almost unrelated note, as I was doing a little reading up on the situation, I ran across this on the Governor’s web page:

While still in school he volunteered to serve his country in the United States Air Force where he honed his flying skills, by earning instrument, flight instructor, and multi-engine ratings.

Notice how he doesn’t *quite* say that he was a pilot in the Air Force, but the two subjects are carefully juxtaposed so that it would leave that impression to the casual reader. In point of fact, he was a veterinarian in the Air Force. Like I said, this isn’t overly relevant, but it did jump out at me when I read the gov’s bio, and to me, it identifies him as an egotist who isn’t above trying to mislead folks into thinking he was an Air Force pilot. Of course, it could be just a coincidence that the references to him being a pilot and being in the Air Force wound up in the same sentence, even though they are completely unrelated.....wanna buy a bridge?

 

[Axel]

Abuse of power.

 

[svcta]

I don't know about all of this "abuse of power" or the suggestion that he would have been threatening in any sense. What little I know about the guy is that he's sort of just a friendly goober sort.

Honestly, if I were flying some guy around knowing he was rated airman, and the situation were right, I wouldn't have any trouble at all with letting him fly a little. I know this makes me a renegade, but come one. Let's just say it's a beautiful afternoon between points "A" and "B" and I'm having a conversation about helicopters with the Gov. next to me. Hey, man, want to fly a little? Again, it happens all the time other places. I think we're assuming a lot by jumping to the conclusion that this was such an wild event, and I'm sure politics play a huge role.

 

[richav8ter]

good for the gov

I'm glad the court drop that case. Even tho Sonny is a fix wing pilot there was never even a hint that he wanted to fly the King Airs when I was at GA DOT. GO DOGS

 

[Van Hooydonk]

Nice post A-Squared

Not only do you make some cogent points regarding the Gov's flying, but your sleuthing on his web site and vet background (and were not talking war vet) was very insightful and amusing.

 

[svcta]

Not only do you make some cogent points regarding the Gov's flying, but your sleuthing on his web site and vet background (and were not talking war vet) was very insightful and amusing.

Uh, oh. Looks like A SQUARED has two user names. Be on the look out!