Posted on 02/24/2007 1:09:53 PM PST by buccaneer81
Pilot broke rules when he buzzed Downtown Saturday, February 24, 2007 Matt Tullis THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The F-16 flight carrying then-Lt. Gov. Bruce Johnson over Downtown in August rattled workers for only a few seconds. The investigation into whether the jet flew too low or too fast took 174 days.
The Federal Aviation Administrations conclusion: The F-16 Fighting Falcon was flying at almost twice the speed limit and too low.
The report the agency turned over to the Air National Guard on Feb. 7 says the pilot flew at speeds of up to 550 mph at altitudes between 2,100 and 3,000 feet.
FAA regulations say the top permissible speed over Downtown is 288 mph. The jet pilot, it added, did not have authorization from air-traffic controllers at Port Columbus to fly below 10,000 feet.
The flight also "was contrary" to a regulation that no one may operate an aircraft in a careless or reckless manner, according to a synopsis of the report.
Regulations for congested areas such as Downtown say a pilot must obtain authorization to fly as low as 1,000 feet above the tallest structure. The citys tallest structure is the 629-foot-high Rhodes Tower.
The agency has no jurisdiction to discipline a military pilot, FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory said. Instead, it turned its report over to the military.
Col. Mike Roberts, vice commander of the Guards 178 th Fighter Wing based in Springfield, where the flight started, said he had not seen the report. He said the pilot was disciplined based on the fighter wings own investigation.
"We found that the pilot did inadvertently go faster than FAA regulations allow," Roberts said. He would not describe the discipline, saying it was an internal matter.
The F-16 fighter jet roared north over Downtown on Aug. 17 at about 3,000 feet and between 422 and 550 mph, according to the FAA report. It flew over the Ohio State University campus between 2,100 and 2,300 feet and as fast as 497 mph before heading back Downtown for a final pass.
As the jet left Downtown, it was traveling at nearly 472 mph.
The Air National Guard said that day that the flight was "by the book" to show Johnson what the plane could do. One day later, though, the FAA announced it was investigating because it had received "a couple" of complaints."
Some people found the flyover unnerving; many called 911, and one woman was described as panicked by the sound and sight of a fighter jet over the city.
Mike Overly, spokesman for the Aviation Safety Institute, a nonprofit center based in Worthington, said he was not surprised the FAA took so long to reach a conclusion.
"I dont think this is really high on their priority list," he said, "because this is the military and a politician, a bad combination; and nothing happened except some people got scared."
mtullis@dispatch.com
I thought this was interesting.
http://p-38online.com/phantom.html
Are you talking about Al Gore???
You'll note that they couldn't bust him for flying below the 1000 AGL limit for populated areas, just for going too fast. If an F-16 pilot can't fly 1000 feet AGL, then he should be grounded.
I think I remember the ski tram incident, and I believe he wasn't "buzzing" the car, but was on a low altitude route and got lost. Such flying is normal fighter stuff, but he was in the wrong place.
Dangerous and immature was when Richard Bong flew between the buildings in downtown San Francisco while waving to the secretaries in the windows. Dangerous was when he looped his P-38 around the Golden Gate Bridge. Scaring the populace was when his propwash blew a ladies washing off the clothes line and he was ordered to go to her house and do her laundry the next week.
Oh, yes. He went on to be the top ace that the United States ever had, or probably ever will have.
#85 was for you....
LOL no, I wasn't talking about Algore. I was refering to the C-5. You know, that huge transport plane that looks like it is barely moving.
One of the earliest memories I have is seeing one of those planes flying over our house when we lived in Ft Knox, Kentucky. My Dad was in the Army and I must have been about 3 or so. It was during WW2.
Military aviation should be exempt from those rules. The FAA shouldn't have jack-shiite to say about this.
fso301, War Eagle :)
The pilot was just looking for a bridge to fly under.
"Time Magazine Monday, Apr. 18, 1949
Last fall Chuck Yeager was asked to help dedicate an airport in West Virginia, his home state. Flying down from Wright Field in an F-80 jet fighter, he found the Kanawha River at Charleston crowded with a motorboat regatta. Chuck roared down the river, 20 ft. above the boats, at almost 600 m.p.h., shot under a highway bridge, did two slow rolls, and zoomed out of sight."
I've seen the pictures of this event. If you have skills you use them.
One of the most comforting sounds I ever heard was when a pair of F-16's flying CAP flew low over my house on the morning of Sept. 12, 2001.
-ccm
Do all fighter pilots do this at some point? One of my high school friends nearly got a court-martial for doing the same thing to our hometown in an F-16.
My old man was a Spitfire and P-51 pilot in WW2. He once caused an air-raid alert by dropping empty pop bottles over fields at the edge of town on a night training flight. They nicely simulated the whistling of falling bombs. For sure he would have been cashiered if he'd been caught.
Another guy I know, who is now an airline pilot, nearly lost his $200k+ part-time job by buzzing his hometown airport in an MD-11 on a dead-head ferry trip. (He had the permission of the tower, but definitely not his boss).
I guess I'm glad we have you crazy guys out there defending our country, but you sure are a bunch of damn fools.
-ccm
In Chuck Yeager's autobiography, Yeager, he tells of a West Virginia friend who needed some trees topped; therefore, Yeager kindly obliged the man by roaring over the man's land and topping the trees with his prop. With every generation, it seems that the rules of correctness get more stringent.
Subject aircraft had a defective radar altimeter as well.
I know, just funnin' buddy. I remember many a summer driving down to Dover and seeing those magnificent freighters at Dover AFB
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