Big Brother (DHS) is Watching

Bubblehead · #1 09-29-2010, 11:24 AM

This may be better put in a different sub forum. I'll depend on the highly trained and friendly moderators to make the call. This concerns a phone conversation with Department of Homeland Security after a long flight. Ironflight's recent thread on avoiding weather while transversing Texas reminded me that I need to tell the story of a trip from Fort Worth to Mason City, Iowa in my -8 a couple of weeks ago.

As background, I have a standard 6-pack of instruments and a Garmin 496 with XM weather, and through the entire flight I had clear skies east and southeast.

There were a lot of rain showers between the Red River and Tulsa. Ceilings were about 1000' and I don't like being caught that low. So I climbed up to 11,500 and trucked north until I got to the building cumulo nimbus south of Tulsa and had to wind my way through them. I stayed legal but had to make some 120 degree turns and climb a little to get through all of them.

A little north of Tulsa things got good for a couple of hundred miles and I bee-lined for MCW. Past Kansas City the clouds were building again so I did more twisting and turning and at one point even did a 360 degree turn. The first 90 was to head between two clouds and the (almost immediate) 270 was to get back out of there because I could see lots of motion in the clouds and was concerened with turbulence.

So between Kansas City and Des Moines I ended up moving farther northeast along the front to find a way around the clouds and finally decided that I did not have enough fuel to get around them and then into Mason City so I trimmed down elevator for a 500 fpm descent, headed east to clear weather and landed at the beautiful little airport in Oskaloosa, Iowa (OOA). Firendly people, a quick fill up, a bathroom break and then back into the cockpit to get on up to Mason City.

The best is yet to come!

The skies were clear and beautiful and I only had an hour to go so I climbed to just 2500 feet, throttled back, and cruised along enjoying the beautiful summer evening. When I got close to Mason City I decided to go a few miles north to get some aerial photographs of a facility we operate so I flew up over the town of Manly, flew 3 circuits around the facility and then landed at Mason City.

Just as I was starting to tie down the airplane, a police officer walked across the ramp to me. I thought he was probably just coming to admire the -8 or tell me what a beautiful landing I'd made. Nope, he very politely asked if I had just landed (yes) and could he see my drivers license, pilot's license, and aircraft registration (yes, yes, and yes). He was soon joined by another very polite officer who called in the drivers license info (no wants, no warrants!).

Ultimately I ended up on one of the officer's cell phones talking to a gentleman from the Department of Homeland Security. It seems they had been watching my "erratic behavior" on radar all the way from Tulsa and were concerned that I was somehow incapacitated. When I landed at Oskaloosa they sent the police out to talk to me but I took off before they got there! Then they watched me circle three times around a point in Iowa before landing.

According to the guy on the phone they were mostly concerned for my safety but that sort of fell apart when I said "so I successfully navigated around and through storms from Texas to Iowa, landed at a small airport, fueled my plane, flew to another little Iowa town, did turns around a point, navigated to Mason City and landed. All while incapacitated."

I also asked the guy if he had checked weather along the route, and did he know there was a whole line of thunderstorms across OK KS MO and IA.

I'm not sure what to think about it all. Everyone was very nice about it, but I really don't like having to show all that stuff just because someone was watching a radar screen for 5 hours while I traveled 800 or 900 miles. I also don't like the government tracking me and my plane when I'm legally committing aviation. I also don't like thinking there is now a report filed somewhere with all my information on it. Maybe the next time I ask for flight following my N-number will bring up some info.

Any comments?

Oh - had the same weather problems coming back two days later. Every time I made a turn I chuckled thinking about some poor DHS guy or gal watching the radar screen wondering what kind of (incapacitated) idiot was flying the plane. Nobody was waiting for me when I landed at Hicks though so I guess it all worked out ok.

TSwezey · #2 09-29-2010, 11:35 AM

Don't worry big brother is watching your every move! Just amazed how much money is wasted on this stuff! I wonder what would have happened if you refused to give them your stuff?

MikeJ 7A · #3 09-29-2010, 11:37 AM

Looks like you awoke the sleeping bear (cub).
Bear cubs are cute, but they grow up quickly...

larrynew · #4 09-29-2010, 11:57 AM

Next time, spell something kinda' like skywriting but on radar.

az_gila · #5 09-29-2010, 01:54 PM

...the the "facility" you inspected wasn't a nuclear power plant...

And I presume you have a mode C transponder and not a Mode S... since they didn't seem to have your N-number down pat...

Bubblehead · #6 09-29-2010, 02:21 PM

...and definitely was not looking at a nuke plant, although the logic of worrying about a 1500 lb plane doing anything to the containment vessel of a reactor astounds me.

It reminds me of Chicago's Major Daily wanting a no-fly zone around downtown after 9-11. He was worried about "one of those little planes intentionally flying into a building." Of course, there are already laws making that illegal, but he seemed to think another law would deter someone willing to die anyway.

Actually the site handles wind turbine components. Doug Rozendaal flies over it all the time too. Here is a picture:

The site is emptying out fast. We spent last winter filling it up off railroad cars and once the thaw happened we started loading trucks to go to the wind sites in Minnesota, Illinois and Indiana. We've recently shipped as many as 36 truckloads in a day.

Come to think of it, the facility also has an ethanol storage and shipping terminal! Not exactly underway on nuclear power but could do some damage.

Phlyan Pan · #7 09-29-2010, 02:26 PM

Is your plane painted flat black?

N395V · #8 09-29-2010, 02:35 PM

It would not have been DHS concerned about you being incapacitated. t would have been the FAA if safety or incapacitation were a concern.

N8RV · #9 09-29-2010, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by N395V

It would not have been DHS concerned about you being incapacitated. t would have been the FAA if safety or incapacitation were a concern.

And I'm just ornery enough to go up and TRY to get DHS to follow me ... heheh ...

Bubblehead · #10 09-29-2010, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by N395V

It would not have been DHS concerned about you being incapacitated. t would have been the FAA if safety or incapacitation were a concern.

That's exactly what I thought.Some of it just did not make sense. Why would I do "flight of the bumble bee" over 5 states and then attack some target? There were not even any TFRs out there other than the one in Dallas for President Bush, I was heading away from Dallas.

N8RV - I like the way you think! Maybe we should have a mass fly around where we all weave our way all over the sky. It could be some kind of mass demonstration or protest against Big Brother. I wonder what DHS would think if 500 small airplanes were all doing the cha cha across the sky at the same time?