As young kids with siblings who could sometimes annoy or anger us, there was a threat many of us employed with great vigor. “I’m telling mom” was the trump card we could pull at any time. And we did, too.
Maybe Sally snuck a candy bar out of your Halloween stash. Or perhaps Billy broke your favorite toy. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that an older sibling simply hurt your feelings or beat you at a board game. All these slights could be resolved it seemed by simply blurting out the big threat: “I’m telling mom.”
In the adult world that approach isn’t quite as effective. Truthfully, it wasn’t exactly a slam-dunk under the best of circumstances back then, either.
Mom might have been busy, or tired, or disinterested.
Maybe, and I’m not saying I have first-hand knowledge of this, but maybe mom knew our game well enough to think it was possible the complainant was the real problem, not the child on defense.
It is unreasonable to think that any of us will travel far through life without being offended, irritated, annoyed, or possibly even endangered by others. Most of those issues simply fall under the suck-it-up category of grown-up life. Moving on and letting go is the best we can do.
Occasionally however, the issue is severe enough that the authorities have to be brought into the discussion. That’s why we have law enforcement at multiple levels of government.
Most of us will have some involvement with a local, county, or state cop at some point in our lives, possibly for a traffic infraction. In that case, the police find you.
There are times, however, when we have to reach out to law enforcement to request assistance. Those are not happy moments.
But having an organization dedicated to protecting and serving the public is important. Under ideal conditions we can trust in those folks to keep us safe or to wrangle those who endanger us into a version of captivity that isolates them from the wider population.
It saddens me to acknowledge this reality, but there are a small number of pilots who are unsafe enough to deserve the attention of the authorities, too. What they may consider nothing more than having fun, others might recognize as dangerous behavior that needs correction.
Thankfully, there are multiple levels of remediation worth considering.
The first — and by far the least damaging to the reputations and pocketbooks of the perpetrators — is simply to accept honest criticism and work with a CFI to correct their errant ways. We all make mistakes. It is just good practice to accept input from others, especially when those folks have references like Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations on their side.
Not all are willing, though. That’s unfortunate.
Recently, I witnessed roughly an hour of the most dangerous flying I’ve ever seen.
The single pilot was erratic and questionable in their airspeed, descent rate, takeoff procedures, and communication skills. The Cessna 150 was piloted by an individual who took off from two different runways and landed on a third with apparently no regard for the other aircraft in the traffic pattern all using a single runway.
This guy was bold enough to force multiple aircraft to go-around while he dawdled on the runway, over and over again. He’d take off on one runway, then land on an intersecting runway. He even took off, climbed a few hundred feet, then turned 180° and landed on the same stretch of pavement, headed in the opposite direction with a 12 knot tailwind — and he did it with power! He then back-taxied the full length of the runway, ignoring the taxiways completely.
What’s a safety conscious general aviation aficionado to do when they witness such a blatant disregard for 91.13 (careless and reckless) and 91.126 (operating in the vicinity of a non-towered airport in Class G airspace)?
Well, there are options. Let’s consider a few.
Given the opportunity, you might approach the pilot on the ramp and explain your concern. There’s no need to get personal or abusive, but if the errant pilot is open to instruction, or if they seem to be impaired in some way, you may be able to facilitate a process that prevents a repeat performance.
If a search of the FAA Aircraft Registry suggests the N-number belongs to a commercial operator, the airplane may be flown by a renter. You could write a polite but specific letter to the owner making them aware of the antics you’ve witnessed.
Be sure to include the date, time, place, and the events you witnessed that were dangerous or potential violations of the FARs. This is not a letter intended to vent your ire. Simply explain the situation and trust in the owner to follow up with the pilot.
If the airplane belongs to a flight school you may be able to call the outfit and speak to the chief instructor. They have a vested interest in protecting the school’s reputation while producing the best pilots possible. Stick to the facts and you may well find satisfaction from that call.
If you can use an app like FlightAware to determine the aircraft’s destination or home base, and if that home base has a tower, you might contact ATC to explain what you’ve seen. The controller may be willing to request a phone call from the pilot to discuss a possible pilot deviation.
This is not a punitive measure, it’s an educational opportunity. Our goal is not to tattle, it’s to correct a safety issue.
If all else fails, you might consider filing a report with the FAA via its Hotline.
A simple web-search for “FAA Hotline” will bring you to a page that includes a link to the FAA Hotline Web Form. Or you can mail a report to the FAA via the United States Postal Service. Again, be specific. Who (N-number), what (happened), where (location), when (date/time), why (what brings this to the level that you feel it needs to be reported).
The FAA is not our mom, but it is tasked to oversee certification standards and the enforcement of the limitations that inherently accompany the privileges we enjoy.
I hope you never encounter a truly unsafe pilot as I recently did. But if you do, I hope you safely and appropriately make an effort to address the situation. Our collective safety depends on it.
You never know, that potentially uncomfortable phone call or filed report just might save a life or two.
Speaking of “telling mom” I’m calling your mom. Not directly related to this article but I’ve had two “comments” not publish for some unknown reason. Says they are under review but never published or explained. Did you hire Jim Baker from Twitters legal team?
We flew with a fellow who owned a Cherokee at our home airport. We’d talked to him often, and he seemed a nice enough guy. Final approach at night nearly was OUR final approach. My husband, sitting in the right seat, noticed that the plane was well to the right of the centerline of our rather tight runway. I was sitting in the back seat, and was rather horrified to see the green wingtip light reflecting off the trees! We never flew with him again.
Even as a part-time CFI, I’m witnessing an increasing sense of entitlement and disregard of regulations — particularly by male students in their 50s. I don’t know if this is due to lack of enforcement or just an indication of societal demeanors today. A couple guys in particular: the first was a former cop I discontinued instruction for several reasons. He was caught a year later flying solo having forged my endorsements in his log book. The other dude decided he was ready to become a Private pilot on his own by going to the DPE without my endorsements. The first of these two “students” crashed and died after taking off late one evening in ice fog. The other guy found another instructor and eventually attained Private. I do hope he is flying more respectfully. Looking back, I’m glad I dropped both, but wonder what more I could have done, particularly in the loss of life. Yeah, I know — “can’t fix stupid.” Or maybe charge a thousand bucks for each endorsement?
Recently, I was flying (for fun) to a $100 dollar hamburger joint with a buddy.
As we approached, I heard an area flight school airplane…a flight school for which I do a lot of check rides…report their intentions of making a right base entry to the pattern. The airport has left traffic. As we got closer, the pilot reported entering right traffic.
I keyed the mic and gently advised the pilot of left traffic. He did not reply.
We both landed without incident and he continued in the pattern following a touch and go.
As we rolled out, I heard the pilot make his radio call announcing left traffic in a rather sparky way.
I didn’t want to “run to mom” but if there was a CFI on board, then he was telling the student its ok to bust a reg. A fellow, and much more experienced DPE, strongly encouraged me to call the flight school OWNER (not the chief CFI b/c they come and go) and explain the situation.
I did so, and followed up with the FlightAware track.
The owner assured me he would talk to the CFI. The owner understood I wasn’t looking for the instructor to be terminated.
He did, in fact, counsel the CFI (for the record, I never knew…or cared…who the CFI was).
Sometimes you have to speak up.
LOL…that should be “snarky”. Than you autocorrect.
I actually thought “sparky”was very descriptive and conveyed the message as well or better than snarky! I may use that!
I am a 200+ hour pilot presently. Flying around and doing touch and goes at airports is a fair portion of my flying in western Colorado. Flying into North Fork from KGJT is usually pretty cool. It’s a narrow runway with slight bends in it and challenging crosswinds make it an interesting exercise. Nearby, in the adjoining “flight room” is KMTJ (Montrose) featuring two great runways not quite intersecting. This airport with no control tower is often busier than KGJT (Grand Junction). Too many times after calling all my intentions, I have been down wind and calling base and someone calls short final. I can understand flying the instrument approach, but buzzing around in VFR following your magenta line in Foreflight? The commercial guys are great. After playing with similar commuter aircraft in my simulator I can judge their calls and make my moves right. For the VFR folks, traffic patterns are a pain, but they help resolve disputes and worse. Please use them.
I flew with a good friend shortly after he got his instrument rating. I was acting safety pilot. His initial check ride ended with a pink slip. He returned and flew the procedures he failed in accordance to FAA standards and got the rating. The day I flew with him he was no way within FAA standards, and in fact, was so far out of standards the flight was dangerous. We were in VFR conditions at the time but it was obvious to me this guy had no idea what he was doing. This concerned me to the point of making a call the governing FISDO to discuss the situation. I know the guy well enough to know down deep he knows he is not wholly competent in IMC conditions such that I truly believed he would not allow himself to get in over his head. I appreciated the conversation with the FISDO, and left it that I would get back to them if I thought we really needed to push the button. So far, my hunch about this guy has been right. What’s really concerning is that he got the rating at all. Not long after, the examiner was investigated, and had his certificates pulled. I was hoping my friend would be called back for another ride but that hasn’t happened.
The closest I have ever come to an accident or incident in the 50 years I have flown GA happened with a friend who owned a Cherokee Arrow. I asked him if would fly me to Burlington, WI where my float plane was undergoing an annual. I was sitting right seat and another friend/CFI was sitting in the back. The moment he started the takeoff roll he began to veer off to the left. The deviation from the centerline ended between the center line and left edge of the runway. I saw no reason at the point to do anything. But when he started to lift off he veered more to the left just barely clearing the runway lights in the air. We were now over the grass and no longer over the runway. It all happened fast. I first looked at his airspeed and noted we had a positive rate of climb. As close as we were to ground I was hesitant to take the controls for fear if would cause confusion and make the situation worse. I was confident we would continue to climb, which we did and he eventually maneuvered back over the runway. Nothing was said by anyone. Since the pilot in the back seat was a close friend of his I asked him to sit down with this guy to discuss what happened. When I got back from Burlington I called the pilot of the Arrow and asked him to meet me at the airport to discuss what happened. He never returned my call.
CFII