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Flying too low

I

Indabush

Registered User
Interior Alaska
http://www.adn.com/2012/08/04/2572591/long-island-man-accused-of-flying.html
BELLMORE, N.Y. - A Long Island man has been arrested on a reckless endangerment charge after police say he flew his plane too low in the vicinity of a high school.
Nassau County Police say Marc Capus flew his 1972 Cessna at altitudes between 200 feet and 400 feet on the afternoon of June 17. Police say the 49-year-old man flew over Bellmore near Kennedy High School and also made sharp banking maneuvers at low altitudes.​
Police say Control Tower personnel identified him to the Nassau County Air Bureau police after he landed his plane at Republic Airport in Farmingdale.
Police say he was arrested at his home Saturday with assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration. He was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment. A phone number for Capus went unanswered Saturday.
 
Not really. Similar actions aren't unprecedented here. I have a friend who had a very similar violation right here in Anchorage.
 
49 year old pilot? Low maneuvering near a high school? I'm guessing a distraught father with a rebellious daughter. Probably a douche bag boyfriend in the mix, too. Flying low probably wasn't the primary issue. Just guessing.
 
I'm curious.

Here in Canada, in uncontrolled Class G airspace (most of the country!) we must stay "500-feet AWAY FROM (my emphasis) any vehicle, vessel, person or structure on the ground". So, essentially, there is no reg that prohibits low flying in Class G airspace, though a lot of Canadian pilots think there is a blanket 500-foot minimum altitude requirement that applies to the whole country.

Similar regs in the U.S. ?
 
FAA regs

Anywhere: an altitude allowing a safe emergency landing without undue hazard to person or property on the ground;
Over Congested Areas: an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal distance of less than 2,000 feet;
Over Populated Areas: an altitude of 500 feet AGL;
Over Open Water or Sparsely Populated Areas: an altitude allowing for a linear distance greater than 500 from any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure;
 
You know when you don't have children in school you don't think much about schools , although we should. I still have two kids in school so I'm in tune when schools in. I had an instructor tell me (he never had kids) that a school hired a photographer to take aerial shots of the school. Due to bad weather and a lot of time passing between being asked and actually taking the photos they forgot all about the photos had to be taken on the weekend. When they landed the sherrif was waiting. Only after the principal informed the sherrif that he had hired them and that they had made a dumb mistake were they off the hook. This pilot was a US coast guard pilot and he said it was one of the dumbest things he had done in a helicopter. They were focused on the task and not the surrounding safety.
Ron
 
Looking at the date and the age of the pilot he may have been doing exactly what I did a few years back; pictures of his graduating son or daughters school. The steep banks could have been to line up the shot. In my case I had the entire school on the football field spell out 2000; about 700 kids. The school was in the airport traffic pattern so that helped. Great pictures, news paper and all. Who knows what the guy was doing; the officials and
media may not care about his intent.
Marty56
 
Long Island, NY.----------glad I live out here with the uneducated in the nether land----
 
Barbwire

You don't know what you are missing. There are always plenty of people to inform you when you are doing something they don't like. Some of them are even Senators. I don't know how you guys live without the benefit of all that guidance.

Some of my ancestors settled on LI around 1650. It's been all downhill since then.:roll:

Many years ago I got asked by the local Lions Club to do a fly-by over the opening of the July 4 parade. I was flying a Fleet BiPlane. If you don't believe me, I still have the letter from the Feds I got about "flying at an altitude hazardous to persons and property on the ground." Fortunately the Lions had enough horsepower to make it go away. That wouldn't happen today. The guy who turned me in was a pilot and a local cop. He never got a ride in my BiPlane.

Rich
 
I know two guys up here that have been turned in for low/reckless flying. One got a 30 day suspension one lost his job. We need to remember everyone has a camera with them these days
 
If you are going to do an entertainment gathering fly by, there are ways to get a waiver from the FAA giving permission for you to fly below the minimum distances, and even low level aerobatics.

takes some time and energy, but less than explaining...

I just don't get the arresting the guy, that seems just wrong.
 
This is a reason to paint your cub yellow and put small letters on the tail.
 
Tis the Season ----Now thru November---

:roll::roll:2 small planes enter Obama’s NY, Conn. airspace By Associated Press, Published: August 6NEW YORK — F-15 fighter jets have intercepted two small airplanes in the New York metropolitan area after they entered airspace temporarily restricted because of President Barack Obama’s campaign visit to Connecticut.The North American Aerospace Defense Command says the first incident was at 7 p.m. Monday over Long Island. The plane was followed until it landed, where local law enforcement was waiting.1CommentsWeigh InCorrections? Personal PostNORAD says the second incident was at 7:30 p.m. near New Haven, Conn. That plane was allowed to continue to its destination.Obama was in Connecticut on Monday night for fundraising events.Similar airplane interceptions have happened in other locations, including several in Los Angeles and one near Camp David in Maryland.
 
barbwire said:
:roll::roll:2 small planes enter Obama’s NY, Conn. airspace By Associated Press, Published: August 6NEW YORK — F-15 fighter jets have intercepted two small airplanes in the New York metropolitan area after they entered airspace temporarily restricted because of President Barack Obama’s campaign visit to Connecticut.The North American Aerospace Defense Command says the first incident was at 7 p.m. Monday over Long Island. The plane was followed until it landed, where local law enforcement was waiting.1CommentsWeigh InCorrections? Personal PostNORAD says the second incident was at 7:30 p.m. near New Haven, Conn. That plane was allowed to continue to its destination.Obama was in Connecticut on Monday night for fundraising events.Similar airplane interceptions have happened in other locations, including several in Los Angeles and one near Camp David in Maryland.
Click to expand...

I fly almost every evening just before dark, I hope that he stay's the hell out of Cooperstown.

Glenn
 
Our airport was on the edge of the TFR. In our area you could fly if you were in contact with ATC and had a transponder code. There was a 172 on the ramp getting ready to leave. He had no idea there was a TFR. It was about 30 mins before the effective time. He asked me about it. I suggested he get a briefing. He said that was too much trouble. I explained he could get a squawk code and be safe. He said he didn't like to talk on the radio. He was leaving LI for Virginia. He blasted off before the TFR started and I guess he got out of the area.

Sometimes we are our own worst enemy.

BTW, I don't think this 30 mile TFR bull makes any sense but it's not the hardship it used to be now that they specify an inner ring and allow certain operation in the expanded ring. Anyway, I saw the fighters chasing the Kitfox over my house. Pretty impressive.

Rich
Rich
 
These VIP TFRs are a lot of BS. If "they" didn't draw a big circle with a bulls eye around the location, no one would know where the holy one was expected to be. And there would be no security concerns what so ever.
 
Ron B. said:
You know when you don't have children in school you don't think much about schools , although we should. I still have two kids in school so I'm in tune when schools in. I had an instructor tell me (he never had kids) that a school hired a photographer to take aerial shots of the school. Due to bad weather and a lot of time passing between being asked and actually taking the photos they forgot all about the photos had to be taken on the weekend. When they landed the sherrif was waiting. Only after the principal informed the sherrif that he had hired them and that they had made a dumb mistake were they off the hook. This pilot was a US coast guard pilot and he said it was one of the dumbest things he had done in a helicopter. They were focused on the task and not the surrounding safety.
Ron
Click to expand...


About 30 years ago I was invited by a teacher/pilot to fly my ultralight I was flying at the time into the local elementary school yard. No kids outside when I did it a few days later. Then they wanted me to go inside and give a little show and tell. So for 15 minutes or so I answered questions, after choosing the most persistant hand wavers. One little girl was very energetic in her waving so I picked her next, she said "hey mister, your airplane tipped over"!

They didn't call them ultralight for nothing, no harm done, it had just rocked over on a wing tip. I blasted out of there (1,000 fpm climbout at 35 mph after a 50' take off roll) and headed home, mission accomplished. I can get the plane I fly now in that same schoolyard no sweat, but something tells me an invite isn't in the cards these days.?

And we don't even want to talk about landing by prisons! I have a friend who used to fly a Helio Courier off his Salmon River airstrip, and he has a big enough piece of ground overlooking Pocatello to make it an easy landing, and he has invited me several times. Only thing is a womens prison is about 1/4 mile up the same road, and I can just imagine the CF that would result! Just because you can doesn't mean you should sometimes.:evil:
 
Boulder, Co. airport is located next to a prison. In the early '90s, a prisoner escaped, walked over to the FBO, signed up for an intro flight, then hijacked the airplane and instructor (a young woman) at gunpoint. Fortunately, he let her out unharmed at a nearby airport, then flew the plane to the midwest somewhere. He was eventually caught. No harm to the plane other than the fingerprint dust everywhere. The instructor quit soon after, but I don't know if this event was a factor.

Update: I stumbled across the hijacker's appeal case: he was actually an escapee from a prison in Arkansas, not Boulder.
 
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