I dont even know what to say..

Fast forwarded through it, looked like a guy having fun with an airplane. Bet it was stunning live, doesn't translate to craptube video all that spectacular. Yes the park service probably doesn't want him there, but the park service wants us all to stay home so they can destroy the parks without distractions.
 
I just jumped around on the video since 23 minutes is a little long for my taste. One snip I did here is the guy saying "nobody does this." So I'm guessing your lack of comment on it is in response to him clearly flying below the 2,000' limit over a national park?

Edit: I just heard him admit to his daughter that what they are doing isn't legal. That's a real ballsy move putting up a video or yourself in the act and being quite frank about the illegality of it publicly.
 
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Other than it looked like he was pushing some serious cloud clearance limits, which is hard to judge by the video, I'm not seeing what the issue is.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Other than it looked like he was pushing some serious cloud clearance limits, which is hard to judge by the video, I'm not seeing what the issue is.
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I think it was more about being lower than 2,000' AGL over a national park. :confused: But then, I don't work for the FAA and never wish to.
 
This is the same guy that does 100 AGL CTLs at Oakland.

He pushes limits A LOT. In this case, he flies through the clouds under 2000 AGL, an obvious 14 CFR 19.177 violation (Yosemite is very definitely a "designated mountainous area", and there does happen to be an airway through there -- with an MEA of 14300). That assumes he was even on a clearance.

Dec 23 was only a few days after two IMC accidents in California, one of them at Oakland, his home airport.
 
N659HB said:
Is it Class G airspace? If so, he's legal. Maybe not smart...
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Not even in class G. It is not the case that instrument flight rules don't exist in uncontrolled airspace, only that you do not need an instrument clearance. 91.177 requires him to be 2000' over the tallest terrain in 4 miles horizontally.
 
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MAKG1 said:
This is the same guy that does 100 AGL CTLs at Oakland.

He pushes limits A LOT. In this case, he flies through the clouds under 2000 AGL, an obvious 14 CFR 19.177 violation (Yosemite is very definitely a "designated mountainous area", and there does happen to be an airway through there -- with an MEA of 14300). That assumes he was even on a clearance.

Dec 23 was only a few days after two IMC accidents in California, one of them at Oakland, his home airport.
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He says in the video that he is VFR. I didn't watch the whole thing, but he didn't fly through any clouds in the part I watched. The clouds do look close, but it is very hard to tell with the super wide angle on these action cams.
 
rachelk.tailwinds said:
But it's a national park! You cannot fly below 2,000' agl.
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Yup, but that's "advisory" now. It used to be required over Yosemite and a few others.

Still, extremely rude and with all the cumulogranite around there, astonishingly stupid. I'm not looking forward to the day I have to search for his ELT. He's a local.

He likes to fly way too low. Another of his videos shows him skimming the surface of Folsom lake less than 100 feet off, buzzing boats and nearby houses, barely missing the dam, and having a hoot without realizing just how close very messy death is. One of them shows him busting an IFR altitude as well, too busy talking to the camera. So, he's not the Chuck Yeager he seems to think he is.
 
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Lindberg said:
He says in the video that he is VFR. I didn't watch the whole thing, but he didn't fly through any clouds in the part I watched. The clouds do look close, but it is very hard to tell with the super wide angle on these action cams.
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He very definitely at least "clipped" a few clouds. Nowhere near 2000 feet laterally.
 
Lindberg said:
What's a CTL?
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"Circle to land." It's an IFR procedure to land at a different runway than you approached. It's normal to fly them at the circling minimum or like a normal pattern, whichever is lower. The lowest circling minimum at Oakland is 550 AGL.

CTLs are arguably the most dangerous maneuvers in IFR, and some pilots don't do them in adverse weather or at night.

The problem with a 100 AGL CTL is that one 747 on a taxiway can ruin your whole day. Their tails are very nearly that tall. Some light poles are higher than that as well, and a lot of control towers are, including the one at Oakland.
 
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MAKG1 said:
Yup, but that's "advisory" now. It used to be required over Yosemite and a few others.

Still, extremely rude and with all the cumulogranite around there, astonishingly stupid. I'm not looking forward to the day I have to search for his ELT. He's a local.

He likes to fly way too low. Another of his videos shows him skimming the surface of Folsom lake less than 100 feet off, buzzing boats and nearby houses, barely missing the dam, and having a hoot without realizing just how close very messy death is. One of them shows him busting an IFR altitude as well, too busy talking to the camera. So, he's not the Chuck Yeager he seems to think he is.
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Oh man! Really?? I had no idea that changed. I'll have to look that up.
 
Sure, maybe it would be fun, but the whole video just seems foolish to me. His daughter is scared, he commands her to fly the airplane when she obviously does not want too, he is supposedly VFR but skimming the cloud tops and bottoms. I am interested though. Is this an an airspace where simply being "clear of clouds" is legal? I just cant believe someone would post this video publicly.
 
JasonM said:
Sure, maybe it would be fun, but the whole video just seems foolish to me. His daughter is scared, he commands her to fly the airplane when she obviously does not want too, he is supposedly VFR but skimming the cloud tops and bottoms. I am interested though. Is this an an airspace where simply being "clear of clouds" is legal? I just cant believe someone would post this video publicly.
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No, it's Class E. There is an airway through there, and much of the high Sierra Class G has gone away with better radar coverage. There still is a big Class G zone further south, near Mt. Whitney.
 
If you want to take unnecessary risk,why would you bring along your daughter?
 
frfly172 said:
If you want to take unnecessary risk,why would you bring along your daughter?
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And when she is saying stop, no I don't want to fly it, Time to go home, it is probably good to go ahead and listen to her.
 
how does he not show her in the video?!?! she must be hot.
 
Man, I see he deleted all his good ones. Great training vids. I like the one where he reports tops to ATC of 2,800 ft, cancels and levels off at 3,500 VFR above a solid layer. Good stuff!
 
It seems as if he's on flight following so ATC knows he's there. At one point he says he might need to pick up an IFR to get to wherever he's going next. Of course ATC can't tell how close he is to clouds. But other than a few times when he may have flown through a few wisps, I can't either.
 
He may have been legal but the flight didn't conform to the requested ground clearance over a national park. Personally I think the ground clearance request over national parks and wilderness areas is reasonable (for the most part) and try to honor the request.

Was the flying reasonably safe? I didn't see anything that bothered me other than the fact that the flight was only for sight-seeing in somewhat difficult conditions for cloud clearance. I didn't see any safety-of-flight terrain clearance problems. In particular, winds aloft didn't seem to be a concern.

It's also clear that several folks on POA need to brush up on VFR airspace rules.
 
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We could also debate whether the 1,200 AGL (or the 2,000 AGL) starts at the valley floor which is approximately 4,000' or over the peaks which are up in the 8-9,000' range. Or is it where the airplane is located at any one instant? :stirpot:
 
If he has his IFR rating, then he can fly through the clouds without an IFR flight plan or ATC clearance while in class G airspace. But the problem is that class G in this area is only 1200 AGL, while 14 CFR 91.177 mandates flying above 2000 AGL in this designated mountainous area except when necessary for take off and landing. So he either violated VFR cloud separation limits by flying in controlled airspace when not an IFR flight plan and ATC clearance OR he violated 91.177 by flying less than 2000 feet over a designated mountainous area.
 
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eman1200 said:
before I look (and regret what I said), is she underage?
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Don't think so. The pics aren't great, and she is wearing a bulky coat, but she definitely looks like she has some potential.
 
Everskyward said:
We could also debate whether the 1,200 AGL (or the 2,000 AGL) starts at the valley floor which is approximately 4,000' or over the peaks which are up in the 8-9,000' range. Or is it where the airplane is located at any one instant? :stirpot:
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There isn't wiggle room for the 2000 AGL IFR rule. AGL means altitude above the highest obstacle within four nautical miles laterally. Anywhere over Yosemite Valley is within 4 miles of one of the valley cliffs. For the national park rule, it's 2000 feet above the highest point on the valley rim, which is Glacier Point (el. 7200).

Before someone says it, he was not taking off nor landing. The nearest airport is over a ridge and down a canyon, about 20 miles away. It's a helluva nice flight, but he's going to eat granite at that altitude if he tries to go there.
 
MAKG1 said:
There isn't wiggle room for the 2000 AGL IFR rule. AGL means altitude above the highest obstacle within four nautical miles laterally. Anywhere over Yosemite Valley is within 4 miles of one of the valley cliffs. For the national park rule, it's 2000 feet above the highest point on the valley rim, which is Glacier Point (el. 7200).

Before someone says it, he was not taking off nor landing. The nearest airport is over a ridge and down a canyon, about 20 miles away. It's a helluva nice flight, but he's going to eat granite at that altitude if he tries to go there.
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He wasn't IFR. He was just on flight following AFAIK. He told ATC he might need to pick up an IFR to get to his destination.
 
He scared the **** out of his daughter. What a total epic badass! :rolleyes2:

Yes he did bust clouds at least once - very briefly as he was diving to remain clear.
 
I'm fascinated by his videos. Watched this one recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgEQw4RsAk8

Noticed his IFR departure from Auburn was RH 2600 then LT to 210. Meanwhile, the ODP for Auburn runway 25 is climbing right turn to 5000. It sparked a review on my part as to whether ODP's are required for part 91 (they are not).
 
JCranford said:
^^that. Even totally legal he's an ahole because you shouldn't scare your passengers who don't want to be scared
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Plus he thinks it's funny. Hearing what sounded like someone being tortured for 20 minutes was not, as he put it, "entertaining."
 
hmm...let's see...whats that Sacramento FSDO phone number again? Oh, they have an email form on their website?
 
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