We gotta watch this

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.
 
RV8iator said:
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.
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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.
 
Lake Powell amphibious Cirrus

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).
 
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szicree said:
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.
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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.
 
crop dusters

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 :cool: the next time it happens i'll try to set a precedent of my own. ;)
 
ronlee said:
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).
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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! :D

L.Adamson
 
jmartinez443 said:
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.
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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
 
We have a couple members of our EAA chapter who used to do this quite often. They have the Alaskan bush wheels/tires on their Cubs and land on gravel bars in the rivers around here--well, gravel bars is an understatement, we are talking rocks about the size of a volleyball. Anyway, they used to have a ball skimming the water surface, throwing up big rooster tails with their wheels.

About a year and a half ago, the retired crop duster got a little too slow while skimming & flipped his plane. Fortunately, he was almost to a gravel bar when it happened, which is where part of the plane came down, with the cockpit in shallow water. He and his passenger were trapped inside & couldn't get the door open until the other pilot landed on the gravel bar and helped out. If they had landed in deep water, they would have been in deep doo-doo as only the gravel bar kept them from sinking.

Haven't heard them talking about skimming the water since then. The ex-crop duster has his Supercub flying again.
 
Need more facts? Maybe...maybe not

If the pilot was doing this anywhere near people on the water he was wrong. If a pilot chooses to do something that is potentially fatal (see other posts above) then do not put others at risk and don't do it in an RV. I want my insurance rates to go down.

Better yet, get a large horsepower jet ski and go have fun.
 
Skimming

Fabulous footage. Obviously these pilots are highly skilled. I won't try this myself but it sure looks cool.
Tad Sargent
 
It is entirely appropriate for the police to file charges against them if they were endangering anyone and breaking the law in a community in which the police are empowered to enforce the law.

If it was out in the middle of nowhere and no one was around, then let them cheat death all they want.
 
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One thing most of you missed...

The guy flew under a bridge. Seems like the FAA and the local cops are going to have fun with him.

The part about the chopper forcing him to land is a bit out there and that is something we should all take a close look at. When, how, and why are cops allowed to "force" a plane to land.
 
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