Anyone here follow Trent Palmer? Kitfox pilot. His certificate is suspended (well not officially case closed, it’s on appeal) and it’s an interesting case. Even Juan Browne/blancolirio is in support of Trent.
Reminds me of the time a couple years ago when someone reported Premier 1 Driver to the FAA (over nothing).
Yeah, i enjoy his videos. Whats the short version?
The TLDR is: a friend of Trent’s asked him to land on his large lot property (off airport). Trent made an inspection pass (per the FAA’s Off Airport Guide) and initially came in to land. On short final, he didn’t feel comfortable with the terrain, surroundings, etc and abandoned the landing and flew home.
A neighbor was apparently upset with the pass, took a cellphone recording of a low quality security recording and turned it in to the local FAA office.
In short, he’s been found in violation of flying less than 500 feet within property, persons, vehicles, etc and careless/reckless operation. The meat of his video above covers the first violation. It’s an interesting listen and deep dive. But if the case is closed, it could set a dangerous/unfavorable precedent for future cases.
The times we live in…I was just ‘reported’ to the neighborhood watch because I tried to deliver some fish I’d caught to a neighbor. There’s a picture of me standing there, in front of the door, holding a bag of frozen (free-range, non-farm-raised, fresh BTW) fish, waiting for someone to answer the doorbell. With the caption: “Someone is trying to break into our house!”.
I just don’t know what to say to this kind of thing anymore.
Clearly you were going to fish slap them. Be nicer.
Abalone! They’re just being shellfish. 
I’ll need to watch it, but 500ft isn’t a terribly great distance. Unless he was landing in the middle of a housing development, I think he might be able to argue out of the first part of that one.
The FAA is tricky and doesn’t operate as you or I
might. As an oversight organization, they always have to be seen as doing their due diligence. So, it’s far easier for them (in the abstract, in any real sense it costs them a fortune) to infer the worst case in any particular situation and let the wheels of administrative justice do their slow and grisly work.
In all likelihood, if this guy can show that he made a good faith effort to adhere to all applicable safety rules (inflight and especially in the preflight prep), he will likely have that letter withdrawn.
Of course, it’s going to come down to the mood of the Fed assigned to the case and, if appropriate, the judge involved.
I haven’t watched this guy’s videos, but I know there’s some dude in the GA Branch in Washington who’s cursing the guy who invented the Go Pro, that’s for sure! 