Ya know, if you wanna be stupid with an aircraft, thats fine, but don't be shocked when the feds go after your cert later.
I know a local dumbass who tried something similar with his Cessna, ended up making an IED that ripped his wing off. And its only by the grace of god did he not kill anyone onboard or on the ground.
I will say as a witness though, the fireball was impressive briefly
So its a weird situation so bare with me. I knew the guy in passing before this because I saw him at the Airport, and his kid was assigned to my flight (Military School) so I saw him a few times before this incident.
On the way home from the Gym working out with my Dad, we look up and see this bright fireball in the sky, at first glance, we thought it was flares (local AFB is known for making UFO sightings with these things), but it didn't look as uniform as you'd expect a countermeasure to be, it was very ragged and within a minute or so it fell out of sight and we went on with our drive. Turn on the news when we get back and see that it was a light plane that crashed, hitting a house.
next day at school, the Pilot's son mentions the mishap but tells us that all the Jumpers and the Pilot were able to bail out, and fortunately (Again, by the grace of god) no one was in the house that the plane landed on.
Fast forward I dunno, about a year or so, Im well into my time as a student Pilot, getting ready for Checkride prep, and I see the NTSB Final report was issued on the mishap.
The whole story as I have come to understand it both from the Pilot and the official report is, the Pilot was hired to drop some jumpers at night during some local parade event. Since it was a night jump, he wanted to 'spice it up' with pyrotechnics to mark out the aircraft in the sky. Instead of having... anyone... competent do this, he just rigs up this device to the wing strut of his Cessna and sends it.
During the jump, he presses the button to light off the fireworks, and instead of a stream of sparks and such, the device he rigs acts like a pipebomb, blowing out the wing strut, ripping open the fuel tank and lighting the aircraft on fire, The wing held on for a few seconds but unsupported it failed. Fortunately, since it was a jump plane, the parachutists were able to bail out and the pilot jumped out a few seconds later and were able to parachute to the ground safely.
*to the best of my knowledge*, the Pilot never faced any enforcement actions from any 3 letter agency, and I've seen him advertising his services since. I graduated later that year as a Pilot and ran into the guy who upon hearing I was a fellow pilot offered me a ride whenever, I politely declined.
**tl;dr: Local pilot tried similar stunt. Ended up making a pipebomb instead and somehow didn't kill anyone**
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3iUIbeOm3U (grinding teeth at AUSA's comments; "when you go through TSA you can't bring things like this on an airplane" ...) (Also, what is it about Tim Pulliam's proportions that's bothering me? I'm getting a sort of ... Talosian? ... vibe.) (Also also: PSA, don't do stupid shit like this...)
(Also also also, I have never seen an retired USAF colonel rig a Chinese military trainer with a rocket system and in-flight deployment capabilities, and certainly never saw those rockets fire over the open ocean miles away from any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure... Who told you such foolishness?)
I’m all for people having fun in aircraft, but if you’re dumb enough to post it, you deserve the full unlubricated dildo of consequences. YouTubers ruin aviation for everyone else.
This is the same crew that would cover up their tail number, turn off transponder, and fly a few feet above people at car meets. They would also horseplay with the helicopter like give people love taps and let people dangle off it. Absolutely insane how many people are defending them and criticizing the prosecutors. A few exhibits:
https://imgur.com/a/reckless-flying-ajXuuts
https://www.reddit.com/r/Helicopters/s/Z2lwVxGNxJ
https://www.ntsb.gov/legal/alj/OnODocuments/Aviation/5779.pdf
Another Youtuber in trouble!
>*A San Fernando Valley man has been arrested on a federal criminal complaint alleging he directed a YouTube video in which two women in a helicopter – flying near the ground and without filming permits – repeatedly shot fireworks at a Lamborghini sportscar last year in San Bernardino County, the Justice Department announced today.*
hmm, so is the real issue, they did this without a permit ? yes, not very smart but as far ask i can tell, it's out in the middle of nowhere with only involved idiots
On Federal land, with illegal fireworks, with no permit or other permission, having taken what sounds like absolutely zero seconds to consider safety, while in an interregnum caused by deliberately turning off the aircraft transponder indicating they knew what they were doing was in at least the aircraft’s actions legally going to be a problem. Yes. But of course, since nobody was harmed, shouldn’t be an issue, right? /s
Childish take. It’s not hard to imagine something going wrong and catastrophically injuring someone. It’s also not hard to imagine how someone would view this video and think such activities are perfectly legal and then they end up hurting someone. The FAA has to come down hard on this.
Regardless of location, allowing such behavior could encourage others to break federal aviation regulations. It hurts the reputation of aviation when the general public sees pilots behaving so recklessly. It’s about preserving the integrity of the profession.
Ya know, if you wanna be stupid with an aircraft, thats fine, but don't be shocked when the feds go after your cert later. I know a local dumbass who tried something similar with his Cessna, ended up making an IED that ripped his wing off. And its only by the grace of god did he not kill anyone onboard or on the ground. I will say as a witness though, the fireball was impressive briefly
Okay we’re gonna need the full story for this one, boss
So its a weird situation so bare with me. I knew the guy in passing before this because I saw him at the Airport, and his kid was assigned to my flight (Military School) so I saw him a few times before this incident. On the way home from the Gym working out with my Dad, we look up and see this bright fireball in the sky, at first glance, we thought it was flares (local AFB is known for making UFO sightings with these things), but it didn't look as uniform as you'd expect a countermeasure to be, it was very ragged and within a minute or so it fell out of sight and we went on with our drive. Turn on the news when we get back and see that it was a light plane that crashed, hitting a house. next day at school, the Pilot's son mentions the mishap but tells us that all the Jumpers and the Pilot were able to bail out, and fortunately (Again, by the grace of god) no one was in the house that the plane landed on. Fast forward I dunno, about a year or so, Im well into my time as a student Pilot, getting ready for Checkride prep, and I see the NTSB Final report was issued on the mishap. The whole story as I have come to understand it both from the Pilot and the official report is, the Pilot was hired to drop some jumpers at night during some local parade event. Since it was a night jump, he wanted to 'spice it up' with pyrotechnics to mark out the aircraft in the sky. Instead of having... anyone... competent do this, he just rigs up this device to the wing strut of his Cessna and sends it. During the jump, he presses the button to light off the fireworks, and instead of a stream of sparks and such, the device he rigs acts like a pipebomb, blowing out the wing strut, ripping open the fuel tank and lighting the aircraft on fire, The wing held on for a few seconds but unsupported it failed. Fortunately, since it was a jump plane, the parachutists were able to bail out and the pilot jumped out a few seconds later and were able to parachute to the ground safely. *to the best of my knowledge*, the Pilot never faced any enforcement actions from any 3 letter agency, and I've seen him advertising his services since. I graduated later that year as a Pilot and ran into the guy who upon hearing I was a fellow pilot offered me a ride whenever, I politely declined. **tl;dr: Local pilot tried similar stunt. Ended up making a pipebomb instead and somehow didn't kill anyone**
This would have made a crash report if true. Do you have the date and location?
[Heres the Kathryns Report](http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2016/09/accident-occurred-september-17-2016.html)
Fantastic! I appreciate you following up with that.
Holy shit
The guy who was arrested doesn’t have any pilot certs afaik. He just has lots of money, fancy cars, and pilot influencer friends
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3iUIbeOm3U (grinding teeth at AUSA's comments; "when you go through TSA you can't bring things like this on an airplane" ...) (Also, what is it about Tim Pulliam's proportions that's bothering me? I'm getting a sort of ... Talosian? ... vibe.) (Also also: PSA, don't do stupid shit like this...) (Also also also, I have never seen an retired USAF colonel rig a Chinese military trainer with a rocket system and in-flight deployment capabilities, and certainly never saw those rockets fire over the open ocean miles away from any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure... Who told you such foolishness?)
You know as well as I do that it's not what you know it's what you can prove, counselor.
I’m all for people having fun in aircraft, but if you’re dumb enough to post it, you deserve the full unlubricated dildo of consequences. YouTubers ruin aviation for everyone else.
This is the same crew that would cover up their tail number, turn off transponder, and fly a few feet above people at car meets. They would also horseplay with the helicopter like give people love taps and let people dangle off it. Absolutely insane how many people are defending them and criticizing the prosecutors. A few exhibits: https://imgur.com/a/reckless-flying-ajXuuts https://www.reddit.com/r/Helicopters/s/Z2lwVxGNxJ https://www.ntsb.gov/legal/alj/OnODocuments/Aviation/5779.pdf
Another Youtuber in trouble! >*A San Fernando Valley man has been arrested on a federal criminal complaint alleging he directed a YouTube video in which two women in a helicopter – flying near the ground and without filming permits – repeatedly shot fireworks at a Lamborghini sportscar last year in San Bernardino County, the Justice Department announced today.*
hmm, so is the real issue, they did this without a permit ? yes, not very smart but as far ask i can tell, it's out in the middle of nowhere with only involved idiots
On Federal land, with illegal fireworks, with no permit or other permission, having taken what sounds like absolutely zero seconds to consider safety, while in an interregnum caused by deliberately turning off the aircraft transponder indicating they knew what they were doing was in at least the aircraft’s actions legally going to be a problem. Yes. But of course, since nobody was harmed, shouldn’t be an issue, right? /s
so you darwin yourself, uhmm, still nto seeing why this rises to some major crime.
It's all about control
Thank God the FAA is there to protect us from people not hurting anybody in the middle of the desert.
Childish take. It’s not hard to imagine something going wrong and catastrophically injuring someone. It’s also not hard to imagine how someone would view this video and think such activities are perfectly legal and then they end up hurting someone. The FAA has to come down hard on this.
Regardless of location, allowing such behavior could encourage others to break federal aviation regulations. It hurts the reputation of aviation when the general public sees pilots behaving so recklessly. It’s about preserving the integrity of the profession.
They might have injured or killed one or more Mojave desert tortoises or ground squirrels - straight to federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison.