Your Own Personal F-15 Airshow

[CODs4ever]

This came off the AVWEB news wire:

Family's Private Air Show Draws Fire

It's OK to show off to your relatives, but when it involves low-level aerobatics in an F-15, it might be best to let others in town know. The impromptu display by the F-15 included at least four low-flying passes, loops and barrel rolls over Geneseo, a town of 6,400 in western Illinois. At the controls was Maj. Whitney Sieben of the Oregon Air National Guard, a Geneseo native. He said he was putting on the show for his grandmother. Sieben pre-arranged the display with his family by e-mail. The fighter pilot's uncle, State Sen. Todd Sieben (R-Geneseo), joined in the fun, as he flew a Grumman Tiger, at times in formation, with the F-15 Eagle. Apparently, the local air traffic control facility and Quad City International Airport controllers were advised of the impending air show, but residents and town officials were kept out of the loop. The result was a swarm of phone calls to the local law enforcement. "People were concerned,'' said Geneseo Police Chief Tom Piotrowski.

http://www.avweb.com/newswire/9_08b/complete/182872-1.html#3d

Sounds like fun & would have been totally acceptable in "the good old days" however, I wonder if this guy was standing tall in front of a pilot review board when he got home? Oops....

 

[GIVJoc]

Okay…

I imagine if this guy did not clear this with the brass back home he’s in deep **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**, but lets say he did.

All’s left to do is for him to notify ATC, which he did, maintain VFR and clear of obstacles by the prescribed distance.

Since when did it become the PIC’s responsibility to notify every swinging dick this side of Proxma Centauri that he plans to show off a bit?

My gawd, we made a couple of passes over my parents house earlier this year when they had the whole family over for a reunion, should I have notified the mayor, police, dog catcher and the local nursing home to have extra depends on standby?
This sky is falling attitude everyone has lately is getting old just look at the recent duct tape debacle.

GIV

 

[dgs]

The situation is a little bit different when it is govenment iron. There was a famous accident years ago with an A-10 that crashed doing an impromptu airshow for his parents. Yes, mom and dad got to watch their boy go from jet jock to fireball in front of their eyes--not good! The regulations about this are very specific and the powers at be were death on anything that even smelled like an airshow. I can't believe any commander in his right mind would have approved it. If this guy really did it, then he is probably getting a lot of heat that he deserves for intentionally violating regulations. If it was willful disregard for the regulations, he'll be lucky to keep his wings.

 

[LR25]

Not show off related but, in the ATL area, I think in 2000 there was an F-15 coming out of Warner Robbins and he was late or something going back to St. Louis and he was doing about 1.2M over ATL at low altitude, not sure how high.

I was on the ramp in ATL with all the noise on the airport and I heard and felt it, I though an airliner crashed near the airport but didnt see any smoke.

The next day in the paper they uncovered what had happen, eveybody around town heard it. He wasnt even talking to ATL APP while he was hualing a$$, I guess trying to find a freq.

 

[ShawnC]

I see the guys rolling all the time, a pair of NASA T-38's did a couple of rolls over Ponce Inlet one day, cool thing to watch as your heading in your C152 towards the downwind leg.

 

[dav8or]

Returning to the airport one day after a flight in our practice area the flight shool manager aproached me and asked "Was I was flying over the lake?" I replied "yes" She then went on to tell me of all the calls she recieved about low flying aircraft and how the residents thought a plane just crashed.blah,blah blah. I had to stop her mid sentence to tell her that we were at 4500 ft and saw the 2 F16's about 500' agl on the charted military route. So even in an area that should be acustomed to low fly bys your still going to get calls.

 

[trigeek]

While he may have been "FAA legal" but that doesn't mean he won't face repercussions on the AF side of the house. Unauthorized airshows are frowned upon. Especially when they are followed by a lot of press or attention. Not the best decision he ever made unless he was ready to quit/retire. You can do almost anything you want on your last flight

Bottom line is th AF doesn't take kindly to you shining your @$$ on their dime in their toy. This is a very different scenario than a preplanned training flight on a MTR.

 

[CCDiscoB]

How many times?

HELLO, ANYBODY HOME?
To say this guy is in trouble is an understatement. He may never fly the F-15 again. What a dummy. How many more of these "fly-bys" before the message finally sinks in? He's lucky he didn't crash like the F-16 pilot did.

Some of you younger civilian pilots are probably wondering, "What's wrong, I think that would be cool." Sure it's cool but too many pilots have killed themselves doing it and the AF has taken a very hard line approach to it. Like Trigeek wrote,

Bottom line is th AF doesn't take kindly to you shining your @$$ on their dime in their toy.

 

[brianjohn]

What is the "duct tape debacle" all about?