Student pilot celebrates 4th by water balloning car show !

[Mojo Risen]

A local Utah student pilot was cited on July 4th along with his passenger for flying 300agl, at night with their nav lights off, over a annual car show and dropping water ballons on the crowd and vehicals. Local county sheriffs contacted the pilot and passenger, which both denied the incident until the rental shop provided slips of the aircraft rental. The sheriff said he would turn the matter over to the FAA. Ouch !

Can we attribute this to Bipolar?

 

[UnAnswerd]

Student pilots can carry passengers???

 

[CFIcare]

Wow...I'm a car show junkie and if someone did that to my car that I spent all day shining...well let's just say that nothing incites the "wrath of Towanda" like someone messing with my car!!

Sure you can drop objects as long as they don't harm people or property, but i can tell you that a nice original unrestored 1959 Corvette convertible's interior would not handle a splattered water balloon well. Nor would my suede lambskin seats in my 83 TA...

 

[joe_pilot]

You know, as IDIOTIC as those 2 were to do that in today's climate, don't you miss the good old days when something like that was just a prank? No harm, no foul?

Please no flamers about being lower than 500' agl and how GA gets a black eye from this. I know that and don't condone it. But if Chuck Yeager had done 1/10th the stuff he did in his biography today, the FAA would put him in gitmo.

Man, too bad M-80's are outlawed too. There's just no more fun to be had.

 

[joe_pilot]

Wow...I'm a car show junkie and if someone did that to my car that I spent all day shining...well let's just say that nothing incites the "wrath of Towanda" like someone messing with my car!!

Sure you can drop objects as long as they don't harm people or property, but i can tell you that a nice original unrestored 1959 Corvette convertible's interior would not handle a splattered water balloon well. Nor would my suede lambskin seats in my 83 TA...

If they damaged a car, then yes back in the day they would have gotten their a$$es beat. Deservedly.

 

[UnAnswerd]

You know, as IDIOTIC as those 2 were to do that in today's climate, don't you miss the good old days when something like that was just a prank? No harm, no foul?

That prank itself is the least of thier problems, and will likely go unnoticed anyway. The issue is that they broke about 4 FARS. They should've just done a drive-by instead.

 

[SammyG]

Rats. They changed the rules and allow student to carry passengers now, eh. Figures after I already have my licesne they change things

Wouldn't this be the most obvious of the student pilots violations? Any chance he can still complete his training?

 

[joe_pilot]

That prank itself is the least of thier problems, and will likely go unnoticed anyway. The issue is that they broke about 4 FARS. They should've just done a drive-by instead.

I know, I know. An instrument student of mine was involved in something similar about a year before we started flying together. He dropped water baloons on a friend's yard, but at no point broke any FAR, altitude, etc. He was very careful to not do that. His mistake (pretty dumb by his own admission) was doing it about a month after 9/11. He was driving home 4 hours after and heard the story on the radio. He pulled over immediately and called the sheriff and turned himself in. People all over the town were making up stories of how a cropduster (he was in a 172) was flying 50' agl over main street and terrorizing people. I know the guy, he broke no FAR, the worst he did from a LEGAL standpoint was litter. The FBI and the FAA got involved. Got a suspension for either 30 or 90 days, I forget. He's a good guy. Had a great idea. Just really, really bad timing on his part.

 

[jetexas]

I've seen a water baloon smash a car windshield. It's lucky no one got hurt!

 

[Immelman]

I had a water balloon tossed at me from an airplane once before... was at a small flyin at a podunk strip.... I got out of the way but the damn thing hit dirt, splattering it all over my pants. The balloon was dropped from approx 20' agl.... yes, twenty...

that was a fun flyin!

 

[flyifrvfr]

I have seen a water balloon get a woman pregnant. Boy lucky no woman got pregnant..

 

[FN FAL]

I had a water balloon tossed at me from an airplane once before... was at a small flyin at a podunk strip.... I got out of the way but the dang thing hit dirt, splattering it all over my pants. The balloon was dropped from approx 20' agl.... yes, twenty...

that was a fun flyin!

I watched two sheriff's deputies jump into their Blazer and spin the rear tires on a sod runway at a private airport once. They were trying to avoid a cabbage that had been thrown from a 182 from 250 feet agl. The police blazer just sat there with the rear wheel spinning like mad...the only thing that would have made this look even more dumber, would have been the siren and lights on, while the truck just sat there reving away and going no place fast. The cabbage toss was part of an annual event at that private airport and the SGT stopped by to say hi...he was one of our jump pilots and flies charter for the FBO in ATW now.

The cabbage hit the ground about two feet away from the right rear wheel.

I think it would have been funny as hell if the cabbage would have pounded through the back part of the roof...there would have been a "green leafy vegetable matter" all over the inside of that patrol vehicle.

I bet the Sheriff would have slapped the taste buds out of that SGT's mouth if there would have been a cabbage hole in the roof of one of "outagamie county's" 4x4's.

 

[ebaybob]

Any news link to the story of the Utah incident? I'm in SLC and would be interested in hearing more details...just curious...


bob

 

[Mojo Risen]

SLC news on pilot.

The SLC Trib carried the article in the Utah local section on page three. It was over the annual Logan Hotrod show. My buddy with a 69 blown Chev Camaro was not amused by the stunt.

I still can't help but giggle. I'll keep my skeltons in the closet.

 

[CitationXDriver]

Student pilots can carry passengers???

Student Pilots can carry bombs??

 

[mattpilot]

that would leave less than 30 airports open nationwide

 

[avbug]

Those kids deserve to have their butts kicked.

On the subject of drops, many moons ago on halloween we had a pumpkin drop contest at the DZ at a private airport. The idea was to get out of the airplane holding the pumpkin, get the parachute open, descend to 2,000', and try to drop the pumpkin in a trash can identified with big orange panel markers. From there the jumper would proceed to a gravel "peas" area for a spot landing on a 3 cm electronic disc.

I foolishly brought a bigger pumpkin, which I carved, while others wisely brought small gourd-like pumpkins they could hold in one hand. I ended up having a total malfunction anyway, and got rid of the pumpkin for a reserve ride back down, but I sat on the ground and watched others do their thing. The funniest part of the day was watching someone spiraling down with the pumpkin in their mouth. He was holding it by the stem, and the stem broke off. I saw a little tiny dot move away from him, and someone yelled, and several folks started running. It hit about ten feet behind them, and sounded like a small grenade. One of them fell down and started screaming, "I'm hit, I'm hit," at which everyone else began laughing. Pumpkin shrapnel. I guess from 2,000', it hurts...they sure blow apart from that altitude when they impact.

For the record, if you're going to jump out of an airplane with a pumpkin, smaller is better.

 

[CitationXDriver]

For the record, if you're going to jump out of an airplane with a pumpkin, smaller is better.

Smaller is always better for everything right??

 

[TrafficInSight]

Those kids deserve to have their butts kicked.

On the subject of drops, many moons ago on halloween we had a pumpkin drop contest at the DZ at a private airport. The idea was to get out of the airplane holding the pumpkin, get the parachute open, descend to 2,000', and try to drop the pumpkin in a trash can identified with big orange panel markers. From there the jumper would proceed to a gravel "peas" area for a spot landing on a 3 cm electronic disc.

I foolishly brought a bigger pumpkin, which I carved, while others wisely brought small gourd-like pumpkins they could hold in one hand. I ended up having a total malfunction anyway, and got rid of the pumpkin for a reserve ride back down, but I sat on the ground and watched others do their thing. The funniest part of the day was watching someone spiraling down with the pumpkin in their mouth. He was holding it by the stem, and the stem broke off. I saw a little tiny dot move away from him, and someone yelled, and several folks started running. It hit about ten feet behind them, and sounded like a small grenade. One of them fell down and started screaming, "I'm hit, I'm hit," at which everyone else began laughing. Pumpkin shrapnel. I guess from 2,000', it hurts...they sure blow apart from that altitude when they impact.

For the record, if you're going to jump out of an airplane with a pumpkin, smaller is better.

We had some pumpkins left over last halloween so we used them in a sort of message drop contest at the next flight team practice... Though I think we just wanted to destroy some pumpkins more than hit anything. I did a low pass over the "target" at high speed and on my signal my kicker shoved the pumpkin out the baggage door.

Quite impressive, little bits of pumpkin everywhere with a very clearly defined point of impact. unfortunately my kicker was wounded in action as the baggage door snapped back shut on his thumb. He thinks it was worth it, although he probably wouldn't do it again

 

[siucavflight]

Smaller is always better for everything right??

Keep telling yourself that.