How is it possible to strap 100 lbs of moose head and antlers to the strut of your certified Super Cub but I can't strap a five ounce Gopro camera and mount to mine without some kind of STC or Field Approval?

For the same reason tires, tailwheels, special VFR trains into a zone, and external loads are allowed. The oxygen is different up north, and the FAA (used to) get some to their brains.

Gump

FAA we aren't happy till your not!

Crzyivan13 wrote:How is it possible to strap 100 lbs of moose head and antlers to the strut of your certified Super Cub but I can't strap a five ounce Gopro camera and mount to mine without some kind of STC or Field Approval?

As Gump noted, Alaska Region of FAA has a very logical and liberal fixed wing external loads policy in place.

Abou nine or ten years ago, FAA HQ in DC decided to develop a national fixed wing external loads policy, based at least in part on the Alaska Region policy. They held two meetings in AK to discuss with pilots any problems, and how best to implement the new national policy.

Soon, the Engineering branch of FAA got wind of the effort, and allowed as how this was a certification thing, not a regulatory issue. They, being engineers, did not of course accept the premise that just because pilots in Alaska had been operating quite safely with some fairly impressive external loads for decades, suggested that was evidence it could be done safely.....

With the entry of the engineers into the fray, cooler heads in the Flight Standards branch realized that most likely all that would come of this effort was the loss of the eminently workable Alaska policy".......and that effort was summarily tubed. Thankfully.

In other words, Gump nailed it.

MTV

These answers are exactly what I figured. A double standard.

Just one more reason to live in Alaska. I can build a building however I see fit and strap whatever the hell I want to to the outside of my airplane as long as I don't kill myself or someone else in the process.

Common sense is cool.

just don't get caught with a cam on ur plane. you ain't doing anything wrong till caught!

Crzyivan13 wrote:These answers are exactly what I figured. A double standard.

Just one more reason to live in Alaska. I can build a building however I see fit and strap whatever the hell I want to to the outside of my airplane as long as I don't kill myself or someone else in the process.

Common sense is cool.

Oh, don't believe for a moment that the FAA in Alaska is all sweetness and light.....they can be just as screwed up on many issues as the FAA in the Lower 48.

MTV

I recall the FAA got pretty excited when Ketchum shucked a load of plywood over
Spenard. We all had to low for awhile

Crzyivan13 wrote:How is it possible to strap 100 lbs of moose head and antlers to the strut of your certified Super Cub but I can't strap a five ounce Gopro camera and mount to mine without some kind of STC or Field Approval?

You actually asked the FAA for permission to mount a camera? I thought they were taking the don't ask approach. With all the videos on the web which were obviously recorded with an external camera it is not like they don't know was is going on. I know several people with gopro sticky mounts on the outside of their plane, just don't put them in obvious locations and if parked outside don't leave the camera in the mount.

whee wrote:

Crzyivan13 wrote:How is it possible to strap 100 lbs of moose head and antlers to the strut of your certified Super Cub but I can't strap a five ounce Gopro camera and mount to mine without some kind of STC or Field Approval?

You actually asked the FAA for permission to mount a camera? I thought they were taking the don't ask approach. With all the videos on the web which were obviously recorded with an external camera it is not like they don't know was is going on. I know several people with gopro sticky mounts on the outside of their plane, just don't put them in obvious locations and if parked outside don't leave the camera in the mount.

No I didn't ask. It was a hypothetical question.

My point was, technically speaking, it is illegal to mount a camera externally on your airplane "temporarily" or not. Yet it is legal to strap a set of antlers or even a wolf or small caribou to the strut and fly off of a gravel bar in the middle of nowhere and this is deemed acceptable.

Don't get me wrong, a game laden super cub taking off of a remote river bar is freaking awesome and I would love to take part in such events.

I just think it's funny. The logic behind it is all....

Crzyivan13 wrote:I just think it's funny. The logic behind it is all....

There's logic?

Edit: The lack thereof.

It's not a camera. It's an optical flight data recording system. You should be able to do it with just a 337.

Phil

Here's what I'd do...

Strap on an old stiff, dried up road kill opossum to your strut. Then attach your camera to said opossum.
If its legal to attach the dead animal and go fly, then keep the camera attached to the dead animal and all is well in the world.

Still skeptical.........

............then use a dead skunk.

No one will ever bother getting close enough to see your camera.


Tongue firmly in cheek of course.

DonC wrote:I recall the FAA got pretty excited when Ketchum shucked a load of plywood over
Spenard. We all had to low for awhile

Yeah, they got interested in the guy who lit his 206 (on wheels) on fire with a load of plywood strapped to the belly a little too close to the exhaust.....but in the end the apparently just assumed you can't fix stupid.

MTV

I love my experimental airplane with the camera mounted on the strut. Or tail. Or where I want.

That reminds me of a situation back in the early winter of 71-72, after lots of snow but before the water has frozen. We were camped with the Anchorage Good Sam club at some parking lot near a lake with a boat ramp--can't recall exactly where, but north of Anchorage.

A Super Cub landed on the lake. Pretty soon a flatbed drove up with a load of lumber, backed down the boat ramp, and the pilot and truck driver started loading down the float struts of the Cub. When the tails were under water and the bows of the floats were just barely above water, they stopped, pushed the airplane out into the water, and the pilot cranked up and took off, after an amazingly long run. He pretty much stayed in ground effect, disappearing around a bend in the lake. I was not yet a pilot, but I wondered if he'd crashed or what.

But an hour or so later, here he came again, maybe a little higher like 100' or so above the water, landed, taxied to the boat ramp, and again he and the truck driver loaded down the Cub. This scenario repeated itself a few times. At some point, I asked the truck driver after the Cub had left on one of the trips what it was all about. The pilot was going to build a cabin at another lake nearby, and the Cub was the only way to transport the materials.

Only in Alaska.

Cary

Crzyivan13 wrote:How is it possible to strap 100 lbs of moose head and antlers to the strut of your certified Super Cub but I can't strap a five ounce Gopro camera and mount to mine without some kind of STC or Field Approval?

Conservation of Angular Bureaucracy.

Crzyivan13 wrote:How is it possible to strap 100 lbs of moose head and antlers to the strut of your certified Super Cub but I can't strap a five ounce Gopro camera and mount to mine without some kind of STC or Field Approval?

Actually, you own your airplane, and you're the pilot in command. You can do whatever you want with it. I suspect this is the traditional mindset among pilots in AK, and the FAA in AK knows what it doesn't have a snowballs chance of doing anything about. So they've learned to work with the situation, or risk losing all control over it. We in the lower 48 don't have much seclusion to give us cover, and we are by nature too compliant.