Small Aircraft Buzzing Houses - anybody else experiencing this?

VRWC_Member428 | VRWC_Memberr428

[VRWC_Member428]

This is not a news article yet because I haven't decided wether or not I should give the video to ABC yet.

We live in the outskirts of Spokane, WA. Houses here and there on 10 acre parcels.

For three days in a row (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) a small private aircraft has been flying around our area circling around, and even buzzing a house! The aircraft is a small red single-engine plane, with no visible markings. (There appears to be small numbers on the tail, but they are nowhere near the FAA required 12" size) When it buzzed the house, it couldn't have been more than 20 feet from the top of the house. The aircraft was always flying low, probably never climbing more than 1000 feet above ground level. On Saturday, I got a couple minutes worth of video, including video of the plane buzzing the house.

The fact that there has been a warning put out regarding possible terrorist attacks by way of private planes has really heightened our suspicion. Call the FBI, right?

The FBI gave us the run-around!

We called the FBI on Sunday. They told us to call the Spokane Airport Police. The Spokane Airport Police told us to call Airport Operations. Airport Operations told us to call FAA Flight Standards when they open on Tuesday.

So if you're remaining viligant, the FBI does NOT want to hear from you!

I checked up the FAA regulations today. The plane was in violation of at leats two rules:

Sec. 91.119

Minimum safe altitudes: General.

Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes:
(a) Anywhere. An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.
(b) Over congested areas. Over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons, an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.
(c) Over other than congested areas. An altitude of 500 feet above the surface, except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In those cases, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.
(d) Helicopters. Helicopters may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (b) or (c) of this section if the operation is conducted without hazard to persons or property on the surface. In addition, each person operating a helicopter shall comply with any routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the Administrator.

Sec. 45.29

Size of marks.

(a) Except as provided in paragraph (f) of this section, each operator of an aircraft shall display marks on the aircraft meeting the size requirements of this section.
(b) Height. Except as provided in paragraph (h) of this part, the nationality and registration marks must be of equal height and on--
(1) Fixed-wing aircraft, must be at least 12 inches high, except that:
(i) An aircraft displaying marks at least 2 inches high before November 1, 1981 and an aircraft manufactured after November 2, 1981, but before January 1, 1983, may display those marks until the aircraft is repainted or the marks are repainted, restored, or changed;
(ii) Marks at least 3 inches high may be displayed on a glider;
(iii) Marks at least 3 inches high may be displayed on an aircraft for which an experimental certificate has been issued under Sec. 21.191(d) or 21.191(g) for operating as an exhibition aircraft or as an amateur-built aircraft when the maximum cruising speed of the aircraft does not exceed 180 knots CAS; and
(iv) Marks may be displayed on an exhibition, antique, or other aircraft in accordance with Sec. 45.22.
(2) Airships, spherical balloons, and nonspherical balloons, must be at least 3 inches high; and
(3) Rotorcraft, must be at least 12 inches high, except that rotorcraft displaying before April 18, 1983, marks required by Sec. 45.29(b)(3) in effect on April 17, 1983, and rotorcraft manufactured on or after April 18, 1983, but before December 31, 1983, may display those marks until the aircraft is repainted or the marks are repainted, restored, or changed.
(c) Width. Characters must be two-thirds as wide as they are high, except the number "1", which must be one-sixth as wide as it is high, and the letters "M" and "W" which may be as wide as they are high.
(d) Thickness. Characters must be formed by solid lines one-sixth as thick as the character is high.
(e) Spacing. The space between each character may not be less than one-fourth of the character width.
(f) If either one of the surfaces authorized for displaying required marks under Sec. 45.25 is large enough for display of marks meeting the size requirements of this section and the other is not, full-size marks shall be placed on the larger surface. If neither surface is large enough for full- size marks, marks as large as practicable shall be displayed on the larger of the two surfaces. If any surface authorized to be marked by Sec. 45.27 is not large enough for full-size marks, marks as large as practicable shall be placed on the largest of the authorized surfaces.
(g) Uniformity. The marks required by this part for fixed-wing aircraft must have the same height, width, thickness, and spacing on both sides of the aircraft.
(h) After March 7, 1988, each operator of an aircraft penetrating an ADIZ or DEWIZ shall display on that aircraft temporary or permanent nationality and registration marks at least 12 inches high.

I fear that this is an example of why we will suffer further attacks. When you see something suspicious, you get the run-around.

I'm hoping the plane comes back today. I want to get more video of it. But if not, I'm considering wether or not I should give the local news channels my video and my story. I figure if the FBI doesn't want to investigate it now, perhaps they'll look into it once the entire country sees this video.

Probably, this guy isn't a terrorist, but rather an idiot out joy-riding. But even so, he needs to be fined or have his license revoked for rekless flying.

Think about it. If you saw somebody driving reclessly on the road, you can call the police, and they'll catch the guy as soon as they can find him. BUT, if you see somebody FLYING reklessly in an AIRPLANE, you have to wait till some beaurecratic office opens on Tuesday to do anything about it! (Considering they don't tell us to go somewhere else)

Does anybody else out there have any comments or suggestions on what we should do about this?

[pttttt]

Two things:

1. Listening to citizen input is not part of the FBI's culture. That's been their problem for years. Heck, in the Hansen case they didn't heed the warning from their own agent.

2. In some parts of the country. they're spraying for gypsy moths, hotdogging right off the treetops. Not necessarily a good idea, especially with terrorist warnings. To paraphrase our leadership, one of these days a low-flying sprayer will crash into a neighborhood.

[ErnBatavia]

Find a bird sanrauary or wildlife area, live next to it.

Funny! Here in the Santa Clarita, CA area, there's a guy who's made local news; the fire department has told him to clear brush from his property, but the Game Wardens won't let him....something to do with his property being a POTENTIAL habitat for an unusual frog. The picture in the paper yesterday showed him by a sign he'd put up: "Frog Legs $4.99 a pound"

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

I heard people in Afghanistan were also experiencing a lot of low flying aircraft buzzing them and dropping stuff on them.

[C210N]

A few days after 9/11, a small aircraft was doing touch-n-goes at my local airport. This was at a time when no General Aviation flights were allowed (I Know, as I'm a pilot - see my username), but commercial ops were in the process of being restored. Not one to have a bad apple spoil it for the rest of us in the barrel, I called this in. I used the FAA (from anywhere in the US: 1-800-Wx-Brief), told them of the info, what I knew, etc. They had me give this info to a supervisor. It wasn't required, but I gave my personal info too. This is a plane that I've seen shortly after, at my local airport... although not recently! There has been no subsequent followup on my side of things, but I'd imagine this guy got into alot of hot water...

[razorback-bert]

Any pipelines or other underground structures in the area.

With my tinfoil in place, in the last two weeks, I have watched three different aircraft flying pipeline patrol in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. The odd thing is the planes were lower(50 feet) and faster than normal pipeline patrols and not following the lines into the desert.

Since I had my tinfoil hat on tight, I figured there was an unannounced threat to pipelines and they were looking for people near the pipelines, where there is road access.Because I didn't have my gold interliner on, I didn't figure in the odd landing strips they were operating from.

Could your plane be a WOD fly by.

[Crowcreek]

"Do you have any nude sunbathing neighbors?"

Maybe some guy will show up at your door selling arial photographs of your nude neighbors.

[Clive]

Call the Fibbies back.

Tell them you plan to shoot it down and bring them the tail numbers.

Somebody ought to pay attention then.

[fnord]

with full topographic markings, no doubt

[Free Vulcan]

I remember I was at my dad's place about two weeks after 911. Some guy in a bi-plane of all things was going round the countryside at real low altitudes and practicing various maneuvers. I told my dad someone was likely to put a couple of holes in him doing what he was doing. Some people just don't think.

[Jay W]

That looks like a hubcap being used like a frisbee.

[Squawk 8888]

I heard of a better one in the UK. Seems this fellow living not far from a flying club didn't like planes buzzing his house, so whenever they did he jotted down the ident and wrote a letter of complaint to the CAA about the noise. In one of those "noise complaints" he cited an aircraft reg that belonged to a glider, so the CAA paid him a visit. Turned out the man was deaf as a post but complained about the noise whenever he SAW a plane.

[Squawk 8888]

Definitely a cowboy who should be grounded, and I think the FAA guys should be fired for not taking it seriously. From your description it could be the sort of aircraft we classify as "Advanced Ultralight", there's one on the market that's a dead ringer for a Cessna 150 and usually comes out of the factory painted bright red. If so, I think the regs let him use smaller numbers for his ident.

[Elsie]

I wondered if the terrorists would use carrier pigeons

---

I called the FBI with just this exact info right after 911. Some fellow back east has a website telling about how he raises the birds for fun.

(It would sure be hard to pick up on THIS method of data transmission with a scanner!)

[Thinkin' Gal]

Look at the bright side. There are power lines in his future.

[IFly4Him]

From your description I would guess that a flight instructor or student pilot has found a reference point somewhere on or near your property that he/she could use to do ground reference maneuvers - turns around a point, lazy 8s, etc.

Flying 20 ft over a building should be reported though....

[bootless]

Hey y'all, watch this!

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

[Tennessee_Bob]

The folks I used to work with at Nellis are going to be v e r y interested in where you got this picture.....

[5by5]

Most lay-people underestimate the altitude of aircraft. The more annoyed they are, the worse their estimate. Now, I wasn't there of course, but in the absence of any tangible evidence you come across as someone with a bad case of "not in my back yard" attempting to turn your annoyance into a national security issue. Sorry, but that's what it looks like to me. I'm guessing the FBI feels the same.

Just to keep things in perspective, that annoying punk flying "dangerously" today may very well be putting his life on the line in an F-16 to protect you tomorrow.

Sure I'm speculating, but then, so are you.