APRS and THE LAW

[bsacks05]

A beautiful Saturday morning flight to Milledgeville, GA.

http://aprs.fi/?call=KJ4EFS&mt=m&z=11&timerange=10800

Use the satellite view and zoom in to see my track over Lake Sinclair on final for MLJ. This was my first time there and after a touch and go I was headed back to Perry. It was one of those perfect flights on a perfect day...yeah, you know what I'm talkin about.

After clearing final, back on the ground at PXE, Pat at the FBO asked me to stop in. Uh Oh...what did I do....Ok at the FBO, shut down, here comes Pat.
"Bruce, the police just called......they asked about a blue and white, high wing Cessna which was apparently buzzing houses and generating complaints.....did you see this plane?"
No I didn't see it and I told him of my flight to MLJ
"Ok Bruce, just asking. Need any fuel?"

After tucking my baby back into her hangar, I got to thinking.......what if the complaints were about a plane buzzing houses but with no description of its type or color.......also, what if the police were at the airport when I came taxiing in in my sporty RV? Then I am faced with denying what I didn't do.....not a position I care to be in.

However, a short stroll into the FBO, a few clicks on the computer, and my APRS track would have come up with all the information necessary to take me off the Perry PD list of suspects.

But it was a PERFECT RV morning.

 

[mburch]

On a somewhat related note... My home field is located in close proximity to an NCAA college football stadium, in such a way that when the game-day TFR is active it actually overlaps a little bit of the south end of the field. SOP for TFR days is to take off to the north and land to the south, which keeps you out of the TFR. Notices to this effect are posted in the local FBO.

On one such day, I went flying with a friend aboard and followed the other airplanes in avoiding the restricted area. About a week later, I received a letter from the FAA: "We know you violated that TFR by flying right over the stadium! We're going to take away your ticket and lock you up for endangering innocent civilians with your dangerous RV-9A!" Well, imagine my surprise...

After I changed my shorts, I called around trying to figure out what could have happened. I eventually was able to piece together the whole story: Some other bozo had ignored the TFR and flown right through it, and either someone called the authorities to complain or ATC saw his target on their screens. The lawmen called out to the FBO, demanding "What plane just landed there?!" The line boy who'd answered stopped hitting on the desk girl long enough to look out the window and spot my airplane taxiing to the hangar. "Oh, I guess it was that RV, Nxxxxx." He probably waved at me as I went by. So there I was, in the right place at the wrong time.

My lawyer and I fired back a letter to the feds that essentially said, "No I wasn't anywhere near there, I had a retired TWA captain in the right seat who's prepared to say the same thing, and oh by the way would you like to examine my GPS track log?"

Nothing happened for a few months. Then after a few months, nothing continued to happen. Eventually, a long time later, I got another letter from Oklahoma City. This one said: "We decided not to bust you. Keep your nose clean and be a good boy."

So, yes, I would say that having a record of where you've been could come in handy from time to time.

mcb

 

[the_other_dougreeves]

Having an APRS log would be good, but a GPS logger would be better. Harder to claim the data was faked if it's still in the device.

TODR

 

[N941WR]

Didn't this happen sometime back to Richard Collin's wife?

I could be wrong here but I seem to remember the FAA trying to bust his wife and they used the GPS log of her flight to prove she was nowhere near where the FAA said she was.

It came down to that Garmin handheld saving her ticket. If she had not had it, it would have been her word against the FAA's and just like getting a speeding ticket, she would not have won that battle.

 

[Pugslycat]

Didn't this happen sometime back to Richard Collin's wife?

I believe the wife of the last AOPA president got a call about busting the DC ADIZ. I vaguely recall that she was flying an aircraft AOPA uses to demonstrate the benefits of ADSB. Having ground track data turned out to be one of those benefits.

 

[aerovin]

If you have been using flight following, or even if you haven't, you should inform the local approach control (if there is one) or ARTCC to save the FAA radar data for the area and time of the alleged infraction for future review. It used to be that this data was only retained for 15 days and then discarded, so once that time passed the data was lost. I think it is still the same time frame.That radar data can be very useful for flight track information especially if you are in a well-covered terminal area.

 

[jtrusso]

If you have been using flight following, or even if you haven't, you should inform the local approach control (if there is one) or ARTCC to save the FAA radar data for the area and time of the alleged infraction for future review.

Not as good as having the actual track information from ATC but if you're on with flight following you can look up your track on flightaware.com as well. The map isn't to good but it would be better than nothing.