You are not alone
The same can be said for aerobatics, or formation flying, or flying over water, or over mountains, flying single engine IFR/IMC, or shooting approaches when weather is at minimums. By choosing to place themselves in these and other situations each pilot exercises his/her discretion as to the level of risk they are willing to accept. My point is that reducing the margin of safety is NOT synonymous with being unsafe, reckless, stupid, or some of the other pejorative descriptors that have been recently used on various safety threads to describe pilots that do low approaches.
It appears that I?m in the minority of posters here, but I really enjoy seeing airplanes (especially cool ones!) do low, high speed passes! My personal observation of others over the years ? including pilots ? that have witnessed this activity is that enjoyment is generally shared by the majority as long as the passes are done with appropriate consideration (see F1Boss?s post - #25 of this thread - for a good set of guidelines). Perhaps now that the ?self appointed performance police? are on the rise this attitude will change?I sure hope not. I have done plenty of passes myself, and I must say I?ve never once felt ?dirty? afterwards. My personal motivation is that they are fun and exhilarating. Sometimes there have been people on the ground to see me, sometimes not. Either way, I have the same amount of fun.
Hearing how people think and process is always interesting to me. Several safety-related posts have assigned unflattering motives to pilots who do passes, with "showing off? being mentioned more than once. Are these motives merely assumed, or are those who are accused of this offense actually known by their accusers; i.e., do they know their personalities well enough to really understand their motivation? Perhaps some do, but the inference I get is that this ?showing off? motive is largely being projected. It would behoove all of us not to participate in this practice, and give our fellow pilots (and their motives) the benefit of the doubt unless or until such time that doing so is demonstrated to be unwarranted.
I'll stand beside you on this post. You are not alone. I suspect you aren't even a minority, it's just that most don't have the time or emotional energy available to engage in the debate.
The self-appointed safety police might not realize that EVERY SINGLE report the FSDO receives MUST be investigated.
People who attribute motives to other pilot's behavior bother the heck out of me. I don't fly a low pass down the runway at my sky park to show off...I do it to check for the stupid neighbor's dog that has been out on the runway numerous times (I defy you to see a miniature Chow dog from pattern altitude, and somebody back me up on the math...a 30 pound dog hit by a 40 or 50 mph airplane isn't going to end well for either dog or airplane).
Perception is key. Anybody with an RV will know that my pass at 20" MP and 2000 RPM isn't really a "High Speed Pass" but the spam can drivers out there are frightened by my 150 Knot low flyby. I have one hand-wringing neighbor in particular that just can't convince his wife that I'm not going to splatter myself across the field. He calls the FSDO all the time.
I've been contacted by the FSDO on this topic. On my third visit to the FSDO, their exact words were "Tim, I can't tell you that you are doing anything wrong, but I will violate you on FAR 91.13 if you don't make the complaints stop" I make my living with my pilot's ticket. I'm not doing anything wrong but they will declare me "careless and reckless" so that they don't have to deal with whiners. "Houston we have lift off..." I went ballistic.
I was prepared to take this to court and become a test case on this issue. How is my low pass in violation of a regulation? People will spout "No Flight below 500 feet except for the purpose of landing..." Ok, how is my low pass to inspect the runway environment ANY different than performing a practice ILS to a missed approach? In the case of the ILS, the pilot doesn't intend to land so the by hand-wringer's logic she or he shouldn't go below 500 feet? They will say "You're going too fast"...really, I shoot ILS's in the jet at 140-160 KIAS all the time, that's why there are Category C and D minima.
The FSDO guy's solution was to advise me that I should lie and say I flubbed the approach and had to go around. If I'm wrong, stupid or doing something unsafe, by all means please counsel the **** out of me but I will not lie about my conduct in an airplane.
For all the high and mighty folks who are naive enough to believe that they've actually conducted a flight for which not one single regulation was violated, I have news for you. The regulations are intentionally written so as to allow for selective interpretation and arbitrary enforcement. You ALL taxi too fast, the regulation reads "No faster than a man can walk." Who among us hasn't ever flown within 5 miles of an uncontrolled airport below 3000 agl without intending to land? We all study current charts and AFD's regarding every airport we might land at every flight, right? A full and complete weather briefing...every flight? Don't think that our pretty Garmins with XM would qualify as a full brief. NOTAMS? FDC NOTAMS? You do perform a weight and balance for every leg, right? Everybody who's actually calculated the density altitude and runway requirements prior to each flight, raise your hand.
I operate in a sector of aviation where safety is a CULTURE. I not only look at every thing I do but also the way I do it to see if there's a safer, smarter, or more economical way to accomplish the goal of going home every night.
SMS (Safety Management Systems) is coming to GA here in the USA...it's a pain in the butt and the hand wringers will love it. ICAO currently requires pole vaulting over every mouse turd, and soon we here in the USofA will be doing it too.
In closing, I will pass along how I feel about the FARs. In general, they are great, people usually paid in blood for the lessons put forth in any given regulation. While not every single reg leads to more safety, I don't know of any regulations that actually detract from safety.
To those who say "We must each be our brother's keeper" I say..."let (s)he without sin cast the first stone."
