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The FAA somehow managed to lose the original video, apparently? Mind-boggling incompetence or Jedi mind trick, who can say? They had a video of the video, but the judge said that that couldn't be used under the doctrine of best evidence and so everything from the video was excluded.

His defense was embarrassingly bad. He managed to get the video evidence thrown out but basically admitted to everything it showed anyway so it didn't matter. He referenced an off airport landing guide by the FAA saying that low passes should be done... after multiple higher passes, which he...

As in a cow that eats cash instead of grass? Sounds about right.

The decision in Palmer's case makes a distinction between capability to land in a spot and the suitability of that spot: "Additionally, we have no reason to overturn the law judge’s finding that the intended landing site was unsuitable. The law judge made the determination based on the credible...

I feel like there has to be something more to the story. How did the pilot even come to the FSDO's attention if he was just flying approaches normally? Did he make any effort to defend himself? There's an interpretation from the chief counsel that very clearly states that practice approaches are...

Everyone, including the FAA, agrees that this is legal. All practice approaches are exceptions to 91.119 as long as they are practice approaches to a landing spot that is reasonable under the circumstances and the approach and departure procedures themselves are reasonable. There is zero...

I was in "final review" for many months. When I called the regional flight surgeon, they told me the air surgeon who had been assigned to make a final decision had not yet opened my file. From that my impression is that your file is in the inbox of the one responsible for making a final decision.

Your private medical information is no business of the DPEs. Make sure you understand the limitations of your certificate and your duty to ground yourself in the case of medical deficiency so you can answer general questions about being medically qualified to fly. You should refuse to answer any...

I was in final review for much longer than that. A call to my regional flight surgeon revealed that the flight surgeon responsible for the final review had not even opened my file yet! You might try calling your regional flight surgeon. In my experience they're much more helpful than the DJW...

I suppose. That's basically the training you'd need to do to get the required solo XC endorsement required for sport pilot so it's not really extra compared to the sport ticket.

Depending on how many hours you have when you're ready to solo, recreational pilot could be less effort than sport pilot since it doesn't require a solo cross-country. And it comes with all the privileges of sport pilot and more. With how much DPEs are charging around here it's probably cheaper...

The displaced threshold was much smaller at the time. Betcha this incident made them rethink having reduced it.

If you walked out of the office with a medical, you're good to go for now. Be on the lookout for mail from the FAA. If they ask you for any more information you will need to provide it to keep your medical.

It's common on stopwatches. HH:MM'SS".

We don't know for sure yet, sentencing hearing is scheduled for November 6

Seems the answer is no. § 61.303(b)(2) seems to say no: [the pilot must] have been found eligible for the issuance of at least a third-class airman medical certificate at the time of his or her most recent application (if the person has applied for a medical certificate) The FAA has cited the...

There are automated converters, but in my experience they don't work terribly well.

Well in this particular case the FAA certainly considered the landing to be unsafe. Of course, they never said he should have landed so it's kind of a moot point.

The House version of the FAA reauthorization bill contains "The Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall not apply section 91.119 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, in any manner that requires a pilot to continue a landing that is unsafe." So if this goes through all of...

Just call the flaps spoilers. The "clean" position is down and when you raise them up they destroy your lift!