Pilot Skims River in CA

jmartinez443 · #1 07-10-2007, 12:24 PM

Check out this story on AVWeb. Some crazy dude was making low passes over the Sacramento River. "Low Pass" is an understatement, he was actually skimming the water with his wheels.

http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news..._195584-1.html

RV8iator · #2 07-10-2007, 12:45 PM

I read the story and the part that scares me is the cops are trying to find a way to press criminal charges. We don't need to go down that road in this country.
It appears he was doing some crazy stuff, BUT, let the FAA handle it.
It amazes me that everytime anybody does something stupid, it has got to end up in a criminal proceeding.

szicree · #3 07-10-2007, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RV8iator

I read the story and the part that scares me is the cops are trying to find a way to press criminal charges. We don't need to go down that road in this country.
It appears he was doing some crazy stuff, BUT, let the FAA handle it.
It amazes me that everytime anybody does something stupid, it has got to end up in a criminal proceeding.

Two days ago I saw the strangest thing while driving. A couple of teenagers pulled up behind me at a light with the usual ridiculously loud bass thumping from their car. A little further down the road they passed me and accelerated up to about 60 and veered straight towards a group of people walking along the sidewalk. The pedestrians were right along the edge of the curb and the car came flying by them so close that the two right wheels went in the gutter and threw a cloud of dirt all over the walkers. I have never seen anything so reckless. When I first saw the car veering I thought it was out of control and that I was about to see three people get squashed. At the next light we could see the kids in the car laughing like imbeciles. The local police dept was about a mile down the road so I stopped in and told them what I saw and the license plate. I have no idea if this is something that the police can act on, but I certainly hope so.

Buzzing tubers on a lake or pedestrians on a sidewalk is pure childish B.S. and I don't have any problem with criminal charges for such behavior.

Ron Lee · #4 07-10-2007, 01:20 PM

Rulon Gardner was in a Cirrus not long ago where they skimmed Lake Powell. In that case the Cirrus went too low and is a fish sanctuary (unless it was recovered).

plehrke · #5 07-10-2007, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmartinez443

Check out this story on AVWeb. Some crazy dude was making low passes over the Sacramento River. "Low Pass" is an understatement, he was actually skimming the water with his wheels.

Check out these crazy pilots.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDDBbmedrgk

Jamie · #6 07-10-2007, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by szicree

Buzzing tubers on a lake or pedestrians on a sidewalk is pure childish B.S. and I don't have any problem with criminal charges for such behavior.

I think the concern is one of setting precedent. If you're doing aerobatics over a farm house and someone is 'scared', should the police be able to charge you criminally just because someone is scared? I think that was his point. Potentially the police *could* charge you with some vague law (there are plenty of them on the books) like "reckless endangerment", etc even though you are in no violation of FAA regs.

I'll agree with you that the pilot was an idiot, but we have to remember that every case sets a precedent, and when the precedent is cited the circumstances of the precedent case are rarely called into question.

I agree that the FAA should handle it. They will easily take care of him.

cytoxin · #7 07-10-2007, 02:07 PM

go vertical over my house at about 200-300 feet kick the rudder then dive back at it again, seems as though they are using it as an aiming point, dusting the field across the street. really gets me ill. now i got a new video camera

the next time it happens i'll try to set a precedent of my own.

L.Adamson · #8 07-10-2007, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronlee

Roulan (sp) Gardner was in a Cirrus not long ago where they skimmed Lake Powell. In that case the Cirrus went too low and is a fish sanctuary (unless it was recovered).

It's been recovered...

I believe that, that was a case of getting lower than they thought, due to the smooth water. Probably were thinking they were at least 50' high!

L.Adamson

az_gila · #9 07-10-2007, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronlee

Rulon Gardner was in a Cirrus not long ago where they skimmed Lake Powell. In that case the Cirrus went too low and is a fish sanctuary (unless it was recovered).

These guys were not so lucky on another AZ lake last month....

http://www.azcentral.com/community/p...ebodiesON.html

http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id...23X00623&key=1

gil in Tucson

videobobk · #10 07-11-2007, 06:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmartinez443

Check out this story on AVWeb. Some crazy dude was making low passes over the Sacramento River. "Low Pass" is an understatement, he was actually skimming the water with his wheels.

First off, I would NEVER try anything like this, but I understand "skimming" isn't all that big a deal, nor dangerous if you know what you are doing. My flight instructor said he was shown how to do it back in the 60's by a man who used the technique to land on sand bars. He said a Cub was quite happy to roll it's wheels on water and it was just a glorified soft field technique.

Maybe we have something evil and dangerous here and maybe we don't. I really don't trust this type of reporting anymore. I think we need to know a few more facts here.

Bob Kelly