Oregon Man Indicted for Flying without Airman's Certificate -

[8GCBC]

Can we name our:

City, State and National Representatives?

Hoping the the universe is magically going to fall into place seldom works for me. Get involved and make a difference. Give a solution, even if it is, to minor issues. Then work your way up. Show some balaz man!

[ndill]

Surely this all happened before your time as well, I don't remember it any other way. It is interesting to me that we often have arguments on this forum about how sad it is that we don't have access to all the "land" out there to land on - because it is private, or otherwise held property. It seems we want "socialist" land when it is convenient and private land when it is convenient. The tax I pay on my "land" largely goes for access to it and services. Since pretty much all the land is spoken for, somebody has to maintain access to it.

I'm curious, what country has a land / tax model that makes more sense, and who handles the maintenance of access to that land?

sj

I can agree with your points about infastructure and accessing your property via public roads ect. I think taxes should be paid as long as you have a loan because you don't truly own the land. But once the property is paid off property taxes should stop or be dramatically reduced. The only states that have a method of acquiring alluvial title are texas and nevada. To get alluvial title in texas you have to pay all projected taxes due in your life time up front and then you can have the title without taxes, but you forfeit the land when you die so its just easier to pay the taxes.

[OLDCROWE]

I can agree with your points about infastructure and accessing your property via public roads ect. I think taxes should be paid as long as you have a loan because you don't truly own the land. But once the property is paid off property taxes should stop or be dramatically reduced. The only states that have a method of acquiring alluvial title are texas and nevada. To get alluvial title in texas you have to pay all projected taxes due in your life time up front and then you can have the title without taxes, but you forfeit the land when you die so its just easier to pay the taxes.

fine, as long as your willing to not need a school, ambulance, fire truck, road to drive on, or cop after your mortgauge is paid off....

[8GCBC]

The last ambulance ride I had cost $1200.00 bucks! Never gone to public schools much. Never caught anything on fire. And my area has little crime.

PS I walked out of third grade public school and told my Mom to forget it.

[S2D]

Accused of breaking. I believe a federal indictment would have gone through the grand jury process where a panel of randomly selected regular citizens would have heard the evidence and recommended the case for trial, right?

49 U.S.C.
United States Code, 2011 Edition
Title 49 - TRANSPORTATION
SUBTITLE VII - AVIATION PROGRAMS
PART A - AIR COMMERCE AND SAFETY
subpart iv - enforcement and penalties
CHAPTER 463 - PENALTIES
Sec. 46317 - Criminal penalty for pilots operating in air transportation without an airman's certificate
From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov

[h=3]§46317. Criminal penalty for pilots operating in air transportation without an airman's certificate[/h](a) General Criminal Penalty.—An individual shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned for not more than 3 years, or both, if that individual—
(1) knowingly and willfully serves or attempts to serve in any capacity as an airman operating an aircraft in air transportation without an airman's certificate authorizing the individual to serve in that capacity; or
(2) knowingly and willfully employs for service or uses in any capacity as an airman to operate an aircraft in air transportation an individual who does not have an airman's certificate authorizing the individual to serve in that capacity.

Yea, we found that one, but that refers to " involved in air transportation" that is not the same as flying your plane around the back 40 by yourself.

[centmont]

Yep....it is official. Still winter with many of the hangar doors frozen shut. R and R....here we come. R

[qsmx440]

Fascinating how people can scan a report, then essentially ignore the actual story. The helicopter guy had his pilot certificate SUSPENDED for buzzing. That is a civil matter, not a going to jail criminal matter, NORMALLY...refer to CFR 14, part 91.13 (careless and reckless).

The TAIL NUMBER gig was just his little ploy to hopefully prevent anyone from noticing that he was still actually flying. TSA, having followed him with his jugs of gas and observed him filling said helicopter, then no doubt tried to discern who he was by looking up the helicopter's tail number.....and nothing matched. Enter the FAA again, having been notified by TSA that there's something strange about that helicopter.......

So, he lost the helicopter because he was operating it without a valid certificate AND because he'd illegally altered the registration number to cover his violations.

It wasn't a "get even" kind of deal at all....it was his second and third INTENTIONAL and willful violation of the regulations. Most folks, if they had their pilot certificate suspended would lay low for a while till the suspension expires, THEN go back to flying.

So, the question here, which I'm sure the judge considered, is do we really want this guy flying ever again? Now, of course, he COULD just go buy another helicopter and register it to a dummy corporation......and maybe he will. If he were to do THAT and get caught, I'd bet the US Attorney's office would be involved with criminal charges and potential jail time.

MTV

MTV I am wrong about this case after reading Kase's link on avweb. The only one I saw was this one:
http://www.newson6.com/story/2124244...eral-plea-deal
I missed the other one. This time I read the plea:
http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/griff...0agreement.pdf
Item 10 of the plea only mentions the N number violation but they do reference other offenses. That plea doesn't as far as I can tell mention confiscation or any "buzzing" at least as far as that agreement. I wonder if avweb got it right? If there were previous "buzzing" charges and there were conditions attached to their resolution then this additional violation must have triggered the confiscation based on earlier agreements? Anyway you are correct I "reacted" to the channel 6 news report and I should know better than to believe anything the news says but I got bit on this one. Thanks for pointing it out...

[sierra bravo]

Yea, we found that one, but that refers to " involved in air transportation" that is not the same as flying your plane around the back 40 by yourself.

I understand there's an argument that the law is about commercial transportation, I just don't see that position supported in the words that are written. Don't much care, either.

[logjam]

Every year Illegal Guides operate in Alaska and in many cases their clients have no idea that they are dealing with unlicensed, un insured crooks who are cutting corners on every side of their operation, hunting same day airborne, endangering clients, and stealing wildlife from the people of Alaska as well as sportsmen from all over the world who pay legitimate guides to hunt in the same areas employing the ideals of fair chase. If this prosecution is one step in putting these guys out of business then More Power to them. I would tend to agree that there is more to this story than some guy out boring holes in the air and making noise.

I looked at the advertising link above:
"You are flown in and out with Insured career bush pilots who have landed in the tundra thousand of times"
I have no idea if this is the same guy, but at least it wasn't false advertising...he never said anything about being licensed.

[logjam]

I will add that I don't disagree with anything else written before about overzealous prosecutions, and I don't like reading about homeland S armored personnel carriers, major ammo purchases, or the idea of sharing airspace with unmanned drones.
So I'll put back on my tinfoil hat and put down my confusor.

[8GCBC]

In the '70s our airplane landed in Peking ( now called Beijing ) because of an administration error. We were detained, Americans were not allowed in China at that time! No embassy and no way to contact anyone, pretty scary. The authorities said we were looking at twenty years in jail for various reasons. Luckily one of the Army Officiers was kind enough to let us take off. The Chinese Officier said he would get some heat but he knew we did not do anything wrong.

I believe most people in authority are reasonable. They have a lot to deal with and we need to walk a mile in their shoes to understand their mission.

[ScrewedinAK]

There is much more to this story. Looks like the troopers in AK are doing there job. I was part of a group who answered an add from the Michigan Sportsman regarding a moose hunt in AK. Long story short we paid mcalister several thousand dollars only to be completely screwed over. Mark never gave us the correct coordinates to the agreed upon cabin. The coordinates that he sent us were to a blm owned cabin in a game unit where we could not legally hunt moose. 2days before our commercial flight to Fairbanks he said we were complainers because we did not want to go to the cabin where it would of been illegal to hunt. He said he was sending our money back. Never happened! Not only the money we we're out to him we had thousands of dollars in license fees, airline tickets, shipment of gear up to Galena AK, food, supplies, you name it. Alot goes into a 12day bush country hunt as many off you know. This was to be a once in a lifetime trip for the 4 of us. Mark destroyed that. All he had to do was give us the correct coordinates to the cabin in the bush. We learned a valuable lesson regarding checking more than one reference. The one we were given was a friend of his we found out later. Sorry to ramble but it makes me sick to think some of you would start a fund to help him fight this. Now you have the story. I hope the charges we have filed against him have caused these legal trouble. If you want to send some cash send it to a local charity. Hopefully they can do some good with it....

[ScrewedinAK]

The money we are out sucks but the trip we missed out on and the stress associated with dealing with the whole thing is by far the worst part. Many sleepless nights. It is a shame that you really cannot trust anyone in this world. That is truly a shame. I am always the first to believe that most people are genuine and trustworthy. Lesson learned. Unfortunately it is going to be a long time before I can save up enough money to plan another trip to AK.

[mvivion]

Thank you for the clarification. Unfortunately, while there are many legitimate, honest and competent guides in Alaska, there are always a few pretending to be legitimate guides and screwing their clients. I've had to arrange a rescue for a few of those folks who were left in the bush, and it breaks your heart to learn of this sort of thing.

Okay, now back to your conspiricy theories, folks.....

MTV

[ScrewedinAK]

For sure there are some great guys and guides up there. Joe Schuster from Alaska Air is one of them. He returned our deposit and is also upset about what happened. Another is Jim Tweeto Owner of ERA Alaska. Jim returned our un used tickets to and from Galena even though their cancelation policy states no refunds only vouchers. After hearing our story he issued us a refund. Most of the folks in AK live off their reputation. The state is very large but also very small when it comes to people in the industry. They all have common friends.

[aktango58]

Joe's company is Alaska Sportsman's Air.

Yes, he is top shelf.

[ScrewedinAK]

Yes you are correct Alaska Sportsman Air.

Logjam had it correct much more to the story. I hope we can recover some of our money down the road. The trip and time planning are lost

[ScrewedinAK]

Is texting while flying illegal. I have several texts from this guy that state can't talk only text I am flying. Seems like it should be

[Bill Rusk]

I am very sorry for your misfortune. Don't give up on that dream trip..........never give up, never quit.........

Bill

[SOUTHERNAMT]

Screwed in AK......How long ago was your ordeal w/ McAlister?

[ScrewedinAK]

We were suppose to be in camp last September 10 to 19.