Met with the feds this AM.

The guy was a really good/nice guy. I obviously had my tail between my legs for this one...knowing full well my desision was not a good one leaving Big Creek flying to McCall, only to keep going all the way the Minden for my fix it job.

All in all, it is in there hands now. My fingers are crossed as I can only hope now for a letter of repremand. Hopefully I will not loose my licence for a period of time, but I certainly could. As of this moment I am not grounded and I still have my license....but.....again my fingers are crossed as I have a commercial / IFR test in two weeks.

It does not make any sense to point fingers at anyone on this forum.

I can tell you for certain, 100% it came from this site. I was questioned about this forum and my posts. They had them. Not that I was hiding anything anyhow, but again just for the record, they had the posts and had read them. Thankfully my posts were honest and no BS. Had I been trying to hide you can bet I would not have been on here posting the events.

Anyhow to elaborate on just that. Lessons learned here.

Dont try to fly your plane if you can spend a day walking out! Ask yourself, can I get into trouble for this? If your even questioning yourself, you probably can. If your not in Alaska you better do the right thing. The FAA is not here to terrorize you.

You terrorize yourself only if your trying to get away with something.

The FAA will help you make it right. It may take a paper trail and some time, but bottom line, there are doing the job of keeping you/us safe ultimently.

I did a few stupid things in Idaho. I did learn how to fix a nose wheel in the event I find myself in Alaska in a predicament however.....

No need to get into who the snake in the grass is.....I already know...thats the important part. Its not for you to try and figure it out. Most of you know whom it is as well. Bottom line, it does not matter!

I made a poor choice and the guy who spoke up has a job to uphold. Its just to bad he did not wait the 10 days to see if I would do the correct thing and uphold my own integrity as a pilot.....

I guess thats what happens when you fly around in a low wing all day not being able to see the ground. You start to pondering on whats going on at ground level since you cannot see it clearly. Lets hope your own PIC judgment is as clear as your job is to uphold.

Thanks for the report. Sorry for your ordeal.

CAVU

aktahoe1, Thank you for the information. I hope things go well for you.

Was the Fed fron Boise. A guy by the name of Goostree. May be a bad spelling.

Tim

Just remember, don't lie, be courteous and respectful, but only answer the questions, don't elaborate. Do you have AOPA's legal defence plan or whatever it's called? I hope I never use it, but I consider it like insurance. Don't know what if any real good it really is though. Does anybody have any experience with it?
You'll get through it, youv'e got the right attitude and that is important.
What goes around comes around. Maybe our little do gooder will forget to put the gear down one day. He does have to look at himself in the mirror every day when he shaves, and I don't think he likes what he sees looking back at him now.

So how did they find you? I have no idea who you are or even exactly where you live. They must of had your N number and I dont see how they would of got it from somebody here. Its not in any pictures of your photo album.

Maybe BackCountryBoyScout would know the answers?

Come on guys. I would put it at about 95% chance that it was nobody who posts here. Thousands of people look at these forums who never post. Ask our favorite forum moderator what his hit rate is compared to the post rate. Maybe it was an FAA guy looking for people unwise enough to post their indiscretions on the internet. I could tell from the first post where that thing was going to wind up and the second post was somebody asking if you might want to delete the thread. Sorry for your problems but where ever did you get the idea to post pictures and data like you did. If you don't want your mom and the FAA to know about it, don't post it on the web. There is no such thing as anonimity (sp?) on the internet.

Wayne

Apparently the Feds have a way to monitor web forums, whether it's an in-house policy or simply a snitch. AK, don't put anything else about your plight on here, or it could be held against you. Good luck, Roger (or maybe that's not my real name, G-man!).

c180pilot wrote:Come on guys. I would put it at about 95% chance that it was nobody who posts here. Thousands of people look at these forums who never post. Ask our favorite forum moderator what his hit rate is compared to the post rate. Maybe it was an FAA guy looking for people unwise enough to post their indiscretions on the internet. I could tell from the first post where that thing was going to wind up and the second post was somebody asking if you might want to delete the thread. Sorry for your problems but where ever did you get the idea to post pictures and data like you did. If you don't want your mom and the FAA to know about it, don't post it on the web. There is no such thing as anonimity (sp?) on the internet.

Wayne

I believe aktahoe1 intent was to give advice to us newer backcountry pilots and other pilots what not to do in the situation he was in to start with. I don't believe he posted his trip on here to brag about what he did. I for one enjoyed the story and gladly accepted his advice on what not to do! Also, I think he gave a good clue to who may have turned him in on the first post above. I certianly don't know who and would hope it wasn't anybody on this forum. But I did read the first two pages on the original subject and I'm sure I can take a good guess who it may have been. I do know that I will be more cautious on what I post on this forum and in my photo gallery. It's just a shame to what this society has come to these days!

58Skylane wrote: do know that I will be more cautious on what I post on this forum and in my photo gallery.

Sad day for freedom of speech! Big Brother is watching...

With any luck, they've already read your above post and realize how rehabilitated you've become in the last 48 hrs.

I'm ready to tar and feather that bastard! Where is he? If I seem a little nasty, it's only because I flew 8 hours in a 14 hour duty day today. I hope that the forum rat knows that I'm still legal.

Hey, didn't you and your brother kill your parents? I thought you were in prison and now I find out you're a 777 jockey that almost goes over flight time and duty time?!?!? What's the world coming to?

Naw, he would never spend Tuesday morning in the office drinking coffee while flying off Monday's time. Musta been some other guy.

We are FAR squared away on this site. I wasn't even there.

Gump

a64pilot wrote:Just remember, don't lie, be courteous and respectful, but only answer the questions, don't elaborate. Do you have AOPA's legal defence plan or whatever it's called? I hope I never use it, but I consider it like insurance. Don't know what if any real good it really is though. Does anybody have any experience with it?
You'll get through it, youv'e got the right attitude and that is important.
What goes around comes around. Maybe our little do gooder will forget to put the gear down one day. He does have to look at himself in the mirror every day when he shaves, and I don't think he likes what he sees looking back at him now.

I have the AOPA legal service and used it when I had my ground loop. I called them and spoke to an attorney about 4 times during my situation. Each time it was easy to get to speak to the same attorney who was familiar with the facts, even if I had to wait for them to call me back later in the day. They were prompt, professional, and gave me good advice which I tried to follow diligently. It all worked out ok for me and my dealings with the FAA were rather abreviated.

The advice to be friendly, courteous, professional, brief and only answer the questions without volunteering is sound advice. Remember, the best way to be is to act (after carefully thinking) , not react.

onthegas wrote:Hey, didn't you and your brother kill your parents? I thought you were in prison and now I find out you're a 777 jockey that almost goes over flight time and duty time?!?!? What's the world coming to?

No that was the MeLendez brothers..

Problem with all of this, is that the FAA may feel they're sort of backed into a corner, at least in terms of cutting our pilot some slack. They know a lot of people know about this and will follow the results. So even though no damage, no foul, they may still come down hard. (If you're reading this Mr. FAA investigator. Please rest assured that you should go easy, we'll still behave ourselves and be good. Honest.)

Speaking of which. Several years ago I flew my Aeronca Champ (later sold it) looking for some missing debris from a glider mid-air break up that killed the pilot who was a friend. Debris field was almost a mile long due to winds aloft and the altitude of the accident. I was cooperating with the NTSB in this. My search pattern was just south of a prison in Carson and they went ballistic. Said I overflew their guard tower by 2 or 3 hundred feet and caused the prison to go into lock-down - no kidding.

Anyway, I explained to the investigator what I was doing and that we (I had a retired airline pilot as a back seater) were very careful to maintain legal distances during the search. The investigator was friendly and professional. They came back with an unsubstantiated ruling - - but I was sure sweating it for awhile.

bumper

From what little I know, which isn't much, they don't usually go looking, except apparently for ramp checks. I'm 99% percent sure someone made a complaint. Once a complaint is made, they really don't have any choice.
The range of enforcement from what I've seen is all over the place. I've seen MAJOR manufacturers of equipment manufacture and sell equipment of someone else type certificate, without direct ship authority, a PMA or any quality control program and nothing much happens, to loss of privledges for what seemed a minor infraction for an individual.
Attitude seems to be very important. The person that realizes their mistake and is obviously not going to repeat it, I believe get's treated differently than someone that has the attitude of "it's a free country, and that's my airplane, and I can do anything I want to with my airplane", and, you know it seems that's the way it should be too.
All of us have done something stupid, got away with it, and afterward said "that was stupid, I'm not going to put myself in that position again". I call it learning the hard way.
My Father used to call me hard headed and said I had to learn things the hard way
bumper, he is our pilot isn't he. That I think speaks of the community almost all of us here are. The fact that we think of him as "ours". That is what I miss about being in the Army, that sense of family.

I had a similar incident happen once when I landed in the back country. I was standing next to the airplane and I noticed movement in the distance. Two figures were walking toward me from about half a mile away. Being in a back country strip frequented by Illegals and who knows who else I decided to depart the scene. I took off and climbed out at 1000 ft per min. and was about 250 over them when I looked down and saw they were eyeing me with binoculars...Several days later I heard at the airport that the border patrol was looking for a cessna with red stripes. I was in my PA 22. I called BP and got a sergeant and advised him I thought they were looking for me. He immediately wanted my name and N number. I asked why and he advised me his agents reported that I had dove my plane at them in an attempt to hit them. After some conversation he realized the absolute obsurdity of me trying to hit someone on the ground and felt no further investigation was necessary. I did tell him to relay to his agents that they were both damn liars. I never identified myself. But just remember not all law enforcement officers are honest and some are downright unscrupulous. This coming from a former PD officer with a son on the NYPD. by the way the strip is called smugglers gulch and you can see it in my gallery.....I took off from the two trees at the right end of the strip and they were a little further than halfway down the strip....