Flying without license

Usually the first step is a "civil penalty" of a few thousand dollars. Jail time is normally reserved for those that a monetary punishment doesn't seem to deter -- like the second offender in the story in post #1.
 
SkyHog said:
Every time I flew, I flew without a license.
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Unless Nick did what Mr. Cate did, Nick is just playing word games without regard to the legal definitions involved. He is appears to be suggesting that because his FAA pilot certificate doesn't have the word "license" on it, he does not have a license to fly. In fact, that pilot certificate documents his license by the FAA to pilot an aircraft. He (like Jimmy Buffett says in his song) does indeed have "a license to fly". For details, look up the word "license" in any legal dictionary.
 
Ron Levy said:
Usually the first step is a "civil penalty" of a few thousand dollars. Jail time is normally reserved for those that a monetary punishment doesn't seem to deter -- like the second offender in the story in post #1.
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Notice the story said this was the second time he was "convicted." Assuming the DOT knows the difference between a criminal conviction and a civil penalty, this guy might be on his third time.
 
More to the story, bet the guy flies dope or bangs the sheriffs daughter. The ladies so love the bad guys.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Notice the story said this was the second time he was "convicted." Assuming the DOT knows the difference between a criminal conviction and a civil penalty, this guy might be on his third time.
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Good point. And if you look back to the 2004 item linked in the DoT announcement, you'll see he has priors for falsification on FAA medical and airman applications, too, so it could be even more than his third bite of the FAA's apple.
 
As long as he doesn't crash I don't see what the problem is.
 
Nothing till they get caught.then the civil actions begin.,
 
It will be interesting to see if the feds start doing this in Alaska.
 
hook_dupin said:
I'm curious how he got caught....
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On April 1, 2013, air traffic controllers identified an unregistered aircraft that was being flown from Daytona Beach, Florida, to Morristown,

Omni-state is not that competent. For some reason someone was looking for him specifically. Remember the police get to lie to you and reporters. I'd bet ATC had nothing to do with picking this guy off. The whole jail for no pilot's license is simply a consolation prize for the cops cause there was no dope/guns/benghazi documents/dead hookers on board.
 
Ron Levy said:
Unless Nick did what Mr. Cate did, Nick is just playing word games without regard to the legal definitions involved. He is appears to be suggesting that because his FAA pilot certificate doesn't have the word "license" on it, he does not have a license to fly. In fact, that pilot certificate documents his license by the FAA to pilot an aircraft. He (like Jimmy Buffett says in his song) does indeed have "a license to fly". For details, look up the word "license" in any legal dictionary.
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Well 14CFR61 and 91 only refer to US pilot certificates as certificates, unless there's something I'm missing.
 
EdFred said:
Well 14CFR61 and 91 only refer to US pilot certificates as certificates, unless there's something I'm missing.
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Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. Toe MAY toe, toe MAH toe. This is another subject that just isn't worth arguing about.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. Toe MAY toe, toe MAH toe. This is another subject that just isn't worth arguing about.
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Well, I just figure as supremely anal as Ron is about everything that comes from the FAA, I'm surprised this isn't included in his list.
 
EdFred said:
Well 14CFR61 and 91 only refer to US pilot certificates as certificates, unless there's something I'm missing.
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I never said otherwise, and I don't think you're missing anything. As I said, the regulations require that you have the certificate documenting your license from the FAA to exercise those privileges.

And I'm no playing any further word games with Nick or EdFred.
 
ClimbnSink said:
On April 1, 2013, air traffic controllers identified an unregistered aircraft that was being flown from Daytona Beach, Florida, to Morristown,

Omni-state is not that competent. For some reason someone was looking for him specifically. Remember the police get to lie to you and reporters. I'd bet ATC had nothing to do with picking this guy off. The whole jail for no pilot's license is simply a consolation prize for the cops cause there was no dope/guns/benghazi documents/dead hookers on board.
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Exactly. :yes:.
 
Concorde said:
Don't think so .
They will have to put half the population in jail .
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I was at a fly in breakfast in central NE a few years ago and asked how many people flew in that were sitting at my table. All raised their hands. Then someone asked how many had medicals, less than 1/2 raised their hands. This was before sport pilot. ;)
 
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FWIW, it seems to me that virtually all cases where someone is nailed for flying without a valid pilot certificate (i.e., without a license to fly), there was an accident, incident, or reported pilot deviation involved to bring the situation to the FAA's attention. There are no doubt many people flying illegally around the country (and not just Alaska) for years without bringing themselves to the FAA's attention. In this particular case, the pilot was flying an unregistered aircraft, which must have somehow triggered ATC's attention (although I have no idea how), and was clearly on the FAA's radar already anyway (and I ain't talking about the radar ATC uses).

So if you're going to break the law, please do it very safely so you don't come to the FAA's attention. :wink2:
 
Ron Levy said:
FWIW, it seems to me that virtually all cases where someone is nailed for flying without a valid pilot certificate (i.e., without a license to fly), there was an accident, incident, or reported pilot deviation involved to bring the situation to the FAA's attention. There are no doubt many people flying illegally around the country (and not just Alaska) for years without bringing themselves to the FAA's attention. In this particular case, the pilot was flying an unregistered aircraft, which must have somehow triggered ATC's attention (although I have no idea how), and was clearly on the FAA's radar already anyway (and I ain't talking about the radar ATC uses).

So if you're going to break the law, please do it very safely so you don't come to the FAA's attention. :wink2:
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What is an unregistered aircraft? One without a current registration? Or one without an N number at all?
 
DavidWhite said:
What is an unregistered aircraft? One without a current registration? Or one without an N number at all?
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One which does not have a valid registration, so it could be either. If you read the DoT press release, you'd see it referred to the aircraft by an N-number. Beyond that, I can't say, but can only guess that either its registration had expired without renewal, or it hand changed owners without the new ownership being registered.
 
Ron Levy said:
So if you're going to break the law, please do it very safely so you don't come to the FAA's attention. :wink2:
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You're such a hypocrite. You practically have a tantrum when I suggest bending the rules to have a little fun, then you come up with this gem.
 
BobThePilot said:
You're such a hypocrite. You practically have a tantrum when I suggest bending the rules to have a little fun, then you come up with this gem.
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I put in a smiley and you still don't get the joke? :( And bending the rules just "to have a little fun"? :no:
 
Talk to me when I'm 75, live on a ranch in the desert and have a Cub on the driveway and go for little hops around local area, but no medical. Who's gonna know? Who does it hurt? :wink2:

By that time the class 3 medical will be gone anyway, so it's all moot.
 
BobThePilot said:
You're such a hypocrite. You practically have a tantrum when I suggest bending the rules to have a little fun, then you come up with this gem.
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Don't be so harsh on Ron. I'm impressed he's willing to joke about breaking rules. Besides joke or not that was some solid advice. Best part joking about busting rules is gateway mental practice for busting rules. The future is bright.
 
stratobee said:
Talk to me when I'm 75, live on a ranch in the desert and have a Cub on the driveway and go for little hops around local area, but no medical. Who's gonna know? Who does it hurt? :wink2:

By that time the class 3 medical will be gone anyway, so it's all moot.
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Well, if it's a Cub, you don't need a med anyway to be legal, so hop away. :yes:
 
Ron Levy said:
FWIW, it seems to me that virtually all cases where someone is nailed for flying without a valid pilot certificate (i.e., without a license to fly), there was an accident, incident, or reported pilot deviation involved to bring the situation to the FAA's attention. There are no doubt many people flying illegally around the country (and not just Alaska) for years without bringing themselves to the FAA's attention. In this particular case, the pilot was flying an unregistered aircraft, which must have somehow triggered ATC's attention (although I have no idea how), and was clearly on the FAA's radar already anyway (and I ain't talking about the radar ATC uses).

So if you're going to break the law, please do it very safely so you don't come to the FAA's attention. :wink2:
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:rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
I've written about it before, but my first enforcement was on a guy flying without a license. We found out when he ran his plane out of fuel and crashed in a pine thicket.

Like anything else in life, do what you want, just be ready for the consequences when caught.

Wasn't it a TV character that said "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time"?
 
If you plug the N-number in the database, you get a registration issuance of 5/20/13 which is obviously after the incident on april 1st.

With the 'great N-number purge', there have been plenty of aircraft with expired registrations, I can't believe that the FAA has been sending the local cops after anyone who forgot to turn in the postcard and whose n-number somehow showed up in the ATC computer. The cases I did hear about, they were simply contacted by the FAA and threatened with sanctions. This guy must have done something else to get them that riled up.
The clue is in the 2004 press release: owner of two aircraft parts/salvage businesses in Johnson City, TN

He may have made it a habit to fly unairworthy salvage aircraft to his facility without obtaining ferry permits. After that deadly crash of a salvage operators son in a light twin (310/Baron ?), the FAAs patience for that kind of behaviour may have run out.
 
Ron Levy said:
In this particular case, the pilot was flying an unregistered aircraft, which must have somehow triggered ATC's attention (although I have no idea how), and was clearly on the FAA's radar already anyway (and I ain't talking about the radar ATC uses).
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My guess is, the Feds were tipped off to the flight by someone who doesn't like this guy very much, or strongly believes he is an accident waiting to happen. Lots of drug dealers are caught this way. Somebody is ****ed and rats on them.

I know the registration was not current, but was it registered in this guy's name? Was he stupid enough to actually use ATC services?
 
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