Why are ramp checks allowed when random traffic stops are not?

bflynn said:
Whatever. It costs you nothing to agree with something that is true. The fact that you're stubborn makes me question the rest of everything you've said.
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Stubborn? No. I just try not to agree or disagree with statements when I don't have enough information to feel confident that they're true. I honestly don't know what 'so you agree a private citizen in a car isn't valid' means so I'm not inclined to agree with it. If that makes you not want to believe me well I guess I'll just have to find a way to recover and learn to somehow find happiness again. :dunno:
 
So you're posting about things you don't know about...classic POA.

Out. plonk.
 
bflynn said:
So you're posting about things you don't know about...classic POA.

Out. plonk.
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iu
 
bflynn said:
So you're posting about things you don't know about...classic POA.
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Quite the opposite. I'm limiting my comments to things I know about i.e. that class 8 vehicles are subject to random inspections while legally parked. Likewise I'm refraining from commenting on aspects of the conversation that I either have no opinion on or do not have enough knowledge to form an opinion on. You should try it.

And I love the 'classic POA' comment coming from someone who has more than twice as many posts as me. Industrial amounts of irony there. :thumbsup:
 
This thread is locked while the MC discusses what, if any, action to take regarding the political commentary.

Edit: Political posts have been deleted along with posts that quoted them. Thread is open again, and thanks to those who tried to steer it back in bounds.
 
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When I lived in Connecticut, there were Motor Vehicle checkpoints set up to check for safety violations. They couldn't write you a ticket for a moving violation, but with enough equipment deficiencies they could revoke your registration on the spot.
 
Doc Holliday said:
That’s a “depends” type question.

If just a routine ramp inspection, and the pilot says “sorry, I’m running late and I have to go” probably nothing from there.

If the ramp is being done from a complaint, and the pilot leaves, then the FAA will send the pilot a letter of investigation and request a date and time to examine whatever it is they want to see.
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I got ramp checked once and it didn't go bad. I was picking up a plane many states away and accidentally left my medical in another plane. I told him it was current and he told me he wouldn't ground me, but would check it later. Not a bad interaction.

The second time, an FAA guy walked up to me as I locked my plane and said he needed to conduct a ramp check. I said no and walked away. I fully expected to be contacted later, but I wasn't. I had nothing to hide, but several of us had previous issues with the guy and I wasn't going to give him the time of day. Luckily he's retired now.
 
As a retired LEO, I say that requiring documents like registration, medical, and pilot certificates to be personally carried is a relic from the last century and should be repealed. It literally takes seconds for the FAA guy to check your certificate status. Much as I was able to check vehicle registration and driver’s license status. And even not having DL in possession was not much of a problem, as we could have the DMV photo in no more than a few minutes, and that was eight years ago. I’m sure it’s quicker now.
 
ateamer said:
As a retired LEO, I say that requiring documents like registration, medical, and pilot certificates to be personally carried is a relic from the last century and should be repealed. It literally takes seconds for the FAA guy to check your certificate status. Much as I was able to check vehicle registration and driver’s license status. And even not having DL in possession was not much of a problem, as we could have the DMV photo in no more than a few minutes, and that was eight years ago. I’m sure it’s quicker now.
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I have been stopped a couple of times without the current registration in the car. No big deal, they looked it up.
 
I think I got a guy ramp checked once, completely by accident. After my forced landing at a restricted field, the local FSDO guys needed to come talk to me and look at my plane because--during the post-event follow-up--they incidentally discovered that my transponder check was a couple months out of date (and I was reminded to read the damned regs, because it turns out that 500ft AGL sunny-day VFR flying still requires a 24-month transponder check, not IFR flying as I had misremembered). To complete the compliance program action, I had to sit down with them to basically review the FAR and how I was going to fix the issue.

The FSDO inspectors couldn't have been nicer and the entire process took probably five minutes (during which they offered me a job, weirdly). Unfortunately, they decided that "since we're here" they would do a walk-around of the airplanes in the shade-hangars and, it turned out, a ramp-check of one poor elderly guy who had the bad timing to show up to fly his Tomahawk (without his pilot's license on his person, they discovered to his chagrin).

The whole time I was kicking myself that I didn't tell the airport manager that I was scheduled to meet with FSDO guys at the airport so he could have perhaps flagged people down or activated the bat-signal or something. It genuinely didn't occur to me that they might start ramp-checking other people because I had never seen it happen in real life.
sansoneservices said:
I own a plane so I'll never have money again.. More accurate
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This is so very, very true. I burst out laughing when I read threads in which someone has "done the math" and decided that it's cheaper to buy and train than rent and train. If only.
 
Doc Holliday said:
Ramp checks are a very tiny part of surveillance of GA. In reality, air carriers get more ramp inspections annually.
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Well they do carry the majority of passengers. Never been or seen a ramp check.
 
Funny thing is, the only time I have been ramp checked, so far, I had a friend's T-34 at an airshow and not carrying any passengers to fly in the show.

It was not a bad experience.
 
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