warning (FAA)

[jsoceanlord]

a few months ago i posted about a raspy mid air with a caravan and an islander in vieques puerto rico (no one hurt)

long story short is that a caravan pilot who wasn't involved recently flew through a cloud. unbeknownst to him there was an inspector in back and my friend got a 90 vacation (suspension), which he's spending in st thomas.

nobody was violated for the mid air but the feds were watching this company - and my friend wound up the fall guy.

 

[Brother Francis]

Was your buddy operating under VFR when he flew through the cloud?

 

[FL000]

So what's the lesson here? Don't break the regs? Thanks for the heads up. I'll get right on that.

 

[flx757]

Seems like I also remember you posting something about "pax on the floor of cargo planes". If you and your "friends" would just follow the rules, you wouldn't have anything to worry about.

But since that isn't likely to happen, I wouldn't worry too much about the "feds". You're your own "fall guy".

 

[flydog]

Whats your point? That we should file IFR when flying in IMC conditions. You should have learned that from studying for your Private Written.

From your posts here it sounds like maybe you need a checkride with the Feds too. Here is my favorite:

I crashed a 7 person hot air balloon into some power lines - which is the biggest cause of balloon fatalities. i also lost a fuel pump on climb in a ce 210 in the dark, and made a hail mary belly loanding on a taxi way - i thought i was toast.

and i've had about another ten close calls in flight where it was 50/50 whether i'd live. after a couple of those, my legs were so shaky i couldn't stand up for awhile.

Whats the next lesson Professor? Dont fly baloons into power lines?

 

[Brother Francis]

I asked if your bud went IMC under VFR. Everone else seems to have assumed that, and going back and checking some of your previous posts, that seems to be a valid assumption.

So the point of your thread starter was be careful when you break the reg's because sometimes people get caught and punished, right? And I further glean that the reason he got caught was his company was under surveillance because it was involved in a recent midair?

My gift for perceiving the obvious leads me to the following question:

Did it occur to him at the time (or for that matter to you OR him at some later time) that penetrating a cloud while operating VFR is a--- COLLISION HAZARD?

I guess the silver lining to this dark (and I might add, illegally penetrated) cloud is that for the next 90 days we have one less thing to worry about: meeting the scofflaw coming the other way when we are legally operating in IMC.

If you punks want to run around like a pack of naughty children, then have at it. You have the right to endanger your own lives. You do not have the right to endanger mine or anyone else's.

What is really astonishing, at least to me, is that in your previous posts as well as this one you are actually bragging about these stunts. Read the replies. Does it appear you have gained the respect of your fellow pilots through your antics?

Your friend is not a victim, please don't try to make him out to be. Victims, by definition, are innocent. He is a culprit. You and he and whatever other punk friends run with your pack of hoodlums have the potential to make lots of victims when natural selection catches up with you, though. And probably CNN also.

 

[Dep676]

Is the company to cheap to put on the required backup vaccum pump on it? That way they would be able to fly in IFR. When we had ours I remember the boss didn't want to buy one either. Doesn't hardly make sense. Flying a 1.5 mil plane and is to cheap to buy a $5000.00 pump so you can fly passengers in the soup.

 

[Brother Francis]

With all due respect, I rather doubt that any amount of equipment added to the planes these guys fly would effectively address the fundamental problem.

 

[Dep676]

True but if they had proper equipment they could legally fly in IMC. Correct.

I don't disagree these guys are probably a bunch of hotdogs out there. But if they had the right equipment they wouldn't need to break the reg's. I am not defending anyone I am just making on observation.

 

[jsoceanlord]

how'd I get labeled a cowboy punk?

what's up with that?

I'm as 'by the book' as anyone

maybe the cloud buster should've had his license totally revoked

in the balloon, i saved seven people from being fried

 

[flydog]

A lot of these operations that work the Caribbean are 135 VFR only. I believe Chalks has a VFR only certificate. Its a good place for a 500 hr guy with the 135 VFR mins to get a flying job. I can only assume this is the reason why he was busted.

Either that or like some guys I know he was in a hurry to get to the hotel and called the airport in sight so he could get an early descent, cancel IFR, and get cleared for the visual instead of getting vectored around.

 

[Typhoon1244]

How'd I get labeled a cowboy punk? What's up with that?

I can't speak for everybody else, but I've read some of your other posts. They're very...colorful.

There are people who idolize pilots who survive accident after accident. I just wonder why they've had so many accidents...

You've told all of us that you (1) smoke pot, or at least keep the butts around, and (2) have a felony arrest record. Now here comes this "warning" about the F.A.A. busting people who deserve to be busted.

What exactly do you expect us to think of you?

 

[willi7]

I am glad you fly down in the Islands, that way when you and your buddys next stupid stunt kills you, I won't be anywhere near...
Most people don't have to worry about the FAA, because they are not breaking regs..
Wake up!!! you have 3000 hours and you have more close calls than 10 pilots have in a life time.. That should tell something!! Maybe you guys should do everybody a favor, including your relatives and change careers....

 

[jsoceanlord]

typhoon 1244;

i have no felony's or even a misdemeanor - it was a first offense and i recently learned that, because it was a first offense, it was dropped (the misdemeanor).

i've had two crashes; one in a balloon, where every flight is basically an emergency, unless you're out in the middle of the desert at dawn
the other crash was after a fuel pump failed in a ce 210. unfortuantely in flying we deal with nature, which isn't always black and white.

a long haired friend told me that when police ask to search your property without a warrant, you can say no and possibly avoid an unpleasant night in jail. i'm not all squeaky clean.

it's one thing to reply to kids post here who is flying a ce 172 and has a basic question, etc, and it's another to then have my well intentioned reply get ripped by a turbine jet ace.

the caravan pilot who was suspended was pretty experienced. i say it pays to fly cargo (no pax). i'm not being anti authority; 'just saying don't break the rules with passengers or you may also get suspended

my near death experiences were mostly in bush type flying; like taking off from a dirt runway near big bear lake east of los angeles and hitting mud spots that sap your speed - you accelerate/decelerate and it's a hairy thing. i released a banner once (or tried) and it didn't drop and it flew between some trees. we had a super strong weak link and it may not have released.

so it'as pretty easy to have a bunch of close calls; throw in a couple serious fuel emergency's when you're a new pilot and my two crashes and the above incidents, and I've got almost ten close calls right there.

i provide a valuable service to some small communities out here and i've done it well for a long time.

everyone's a little hyper vigilant these days about flying.

 

[eriknorth]

'just saying don't break the rules with passengers or you may also get suspended

I still don't see why you have to tell us when and when not to break the rules. I don't have much time, but I know that for me and the people that I fly around, and it looks like everyone else on this post, there is an accepted DON'T BREAK THE FREAKING RULES that is always in place. If you really feel that way about not breaking rules with passengers, then I hope for the sake of everyone's safety that you work for a place like a landfill where when the $h!t hits the fan cause you were irresponsible, it fits right in with the surroundings. I am a 20 year old kid flying a ce 172, and my simple question that I want answered is "why are there morons flying and getting paid when good responsible pilots are sitting at home wishing they had a job?"

If I am wrong about my assumptions, then disregard this, but I think you've spelled it out pretty clearly.

Fly Safe.

 

[TurboS7]

Your friend could have fought that one and won. As a FAA inspector it is his responsibility to write up the violation. Once that happens and he submits it, it is out of his hands. I can assure that the inspector was not back there just because he enjoys riding around in single engine caravans. The company was under investigation to figure out why they had the midair, in his report I am sure that he concluded that he had the reason. The reality is that it wouldn't hold up in court unless the whole airplane full of passengers signed an avidafit saying he flew through the cloud. Of course if the pilot had declared an emergnecy then there is not one thing that the FAA could have done to him. Maybe the 90 days will give him some time to think about it.

 

[avbug]

Big Bear, California, is bush flying? I guess at that rate, LAX would be rural. Big Bear is to bush flying what herding goats is to monkey ranching. I hope that makes as much sense to you as it does to me.

It's superfluous, really. If it's in the Republik of Kalifornia, it's really flight into a foriegn country. The rules and definitions are all different.

If you had a brush with death, did you get any on you? If so, get it off; it starts to smell bad after a while. Is that at all like a toothbrush with death? Why does death need a toothbrush? Death with bad breath? Can death breathe? Perhaps a typo: the toothbrush of death. Cool mint death. Cool mint death with baking soda. And the little whiteners for sparkling nectrotic teeth.

I would strongly recommend that whatever it is on your person or property that will get you arrested, go away. Don't do that any more. Pot, stolen property, pictures of small cuddly fur animals performing unnatural acts, whatever. Avoid your long haired friend. Don't try to find loopholes around getting busted; try to find ways to be comfortably legal, such that you can say, "sure, go ahead and search."

"it's one thing to reply to kids post here who is flying a ce 172 and has a basic question, etc, and it's another to then have my well intentioned reply get ripped by a turbine jet ace."

What does that mean?

 

[tdvalve]

"The reality is that it wouldn't hold up in court unless the whole airplane full of passengers signed an avidafit saying he flew through the cloud."

You can't be serious! Do you really think a fed on your jumpseat that sees you bust a reg needs backup from the passengers in order to make a violation stick?

 

[aero99]

ocean lord,

why do you brag about being close to death 10 times? Do you think that makes you heroic? I'd say it makes you pretty unsafe.
Get a grip on the ego (i.e. bush flying in Cali- ha bout fell outta my chair) or your gonna be a smokin hole someday.

p.s. Please advise what company you fly for. I go down to the Islands once in a Full Moon and I want to make sure I don't fly with whatever you are talking about.

Scary.

 

[TurboS7]

When the pressure is on the fed lawyers go for the easy targets. If it looks like one of their inspectors could be compromised they will move onto another target to prosecute. The secret is getting the limelight on the case. I have been there done that and won.