The FAA called me! Did I bust class A airspace in my glider?
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- Опубликовано: 9 дек 2023
- I got a call from the FAA about one of my gliding videos. They said it looked like I illegally flew my glider above 18,000 feet, in class A airspace. Hit play to find out what happened next.
The video in question: • Two gliders race head-...
WeGlide flight trace: www.weglide.org/flight/307879
3D visualization: www.sportstracklive.com/en/sc...
#glider #gliding #soaring #sailplane #FAA 
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I wonder how many PureGlide videos have been reported to the FAA, when I'm in New Zealand...
Probably more than zero :)
The problem is not with the FAA call, it is with the guy who reported you!
It's a weird thing, the FAA. Normally, you shouldn't say much to law enforcement, but because the FAA can take your license without due process, right or wrong, they, in a way, coerce you into talking with them... They kinda bypass your 5th amendment protected rights. I get why... We all want air travel to be safe, but rights matter too. It's a balancing act that needs oversight.
What sort of a nether orifice makes a report on something like this?
The life of a hardened criminal
I would push back on the claim that gps altitude is inaccurate, and say that it might actually be more accurate in some cases then barometric altitude, but the reality is that they are measuring different things. Either way the rules are based on Barometric altitude not GPS so you are in the clear.
Agree. It's an incredibly popular misconception among pilots (including professionals) that GPS inaccuracy is the reason for the discrepancy between the altimeter and GPS. I've had an intense many on one argument in a flying forum about this. GPS always gives a real height with errors while altimeters start off fudged to the correct height at the weather station then assume an atmopshere profile and get worse at any height and position that isn't the station the Kollsman window was set to. Still, it's a useful common standard.
Thanks for open discussion. Surely the key take-away is to always complete the pre-flight checklist in full … so all instruments are correctly set.
Altimeter can be re-adjusted in flight as many times as you like if you need to. We learn to fly without altimeters as well. Just look up any altimeter and you will find that there is barometric pressure reading on it so we can change inflight between QFE, QNH and standard pressure.
@@Blodsukkerskolen
Sure you can and should adjust to ensure you are using local QNH (as per METAR or ATC) if below transition altitude but not QFE for airspace altitudes!
That depends on what and where you fly. I fly 50/50 QFE/QNH The point is that altimeters have readings on it for adjusting settings on the fly and that we are trained to fly without it when needed. Remember we are talking about gliders her. @@geraintbermingham4383
Come to NZ, you can get a clearance to fly a glider VFR to almost any altitude with a transponder. We even have an area over Mt Cook, where there is NO controlled airspace, from ground up to space! The only place in New Zealand. It's designed to keep commercial aircraft out of the area to keep the sky clear for astronomy... Interesting video, thanks!
That's fascinating. Thanks for sharing that.
@@BenHirashimawhen you get your altimeter back from winter, will it be calibrated to > FL99999?
paradise!
FAA has to be seen to be doing their job. It sounds like they did it well and fairly.
Sky Karens
LMAO!
Sad that some people don't have a life and get their kicks snitching in others.
Some people...
There is always that one person that seems to be compelled to tattle-tale on someone to get them in trouble. It's got to be some kind of mental illness really.
I agree, getting out of your way to report a glider busting class A
Ben, that can include cloud clearance, as well. FYI!
At some point, there’s gonna be nobody left to cancel
Great explanation! Thanks for sharing about the Karen🙄 Safe flying!!
thanks for sharing this story!
Sadly aviation needs more promotion but also sadly people feel the need to try and jam people up like they are gonna get a plack or something from the FAA at the end of the year people need to get a life at what point was anything you were doing effecting their day that they felt i gotta get this guy he is a menace
Thank you Ben for sharing this experience. It is very illustrative of the complexities we’re dealing with. I’d like to highlight an additional complication when flying further afield from home. The pressure altitude at take off can vary substantially from the pressure altitude one or two mountain ranges away. This means that even if you set your barometric altimeter correctly before takeoff and it shows you below 18,000 feet at all times during the flight, this does not mean that you in fact below 18,000 at the location where you’re flying. We frequently have such conditions in Boulder where the pressure is quite different between Boulder (east of the Continental Divide) and the “Western Slope”, I.e. west of the Continental Divide, with variations of up to 500 feet in barometric altitude not uncommon. The proper way to deal with this is to tune into AWOS of the nearest airport, get their pressure reading and reset the altimeter accordingly. When this feels like too much hassle (I hate doing things that take away attention from the actual flight) I deal with it by staying below 17,500 as this usually affords a sufficient margin.
Thanks for this contribution, Clemens. I don't like fiddling with the radio in flight either, but keeping a good margin below 18,000 is a good workaround.
Federal authorities are slowly whittling away our right to access the US civil airspace system. We need to fight this with knowledge and help from our elected officials, and if they choose not to resist this taking of airspace, we need to vote them out of office. We also need to fight this in the courts and by electing a president who will rein in the power of the federal bureaucracies that have slowly been usurping our freedom.
Nice vid. Block your altimeter from future vids. That way the idiots with nothing better to do....will not be able to report you.
I feel like tattling has become a sport. Why cant these people find a life instead of trying to ruin others.
Ben!
You did a great job and excellent video for all of us.
Thank you!
On the other hand: there is nothing worse than a snitch.
It's below any contempt...
I wish a FAA Report would cost like 100$ and in case your report is successful you receive the Money back and in case your report is false, the reported pilot receives 50% of this Money and the other 50% goes to the FAA to deal with those... in Germany we say... Meldemuschis! 😂😂
Der größte Schuft im ganzen Land das ist und bleibt der Denunziant.
Come on out to Ohio and fly... Class A isn't an issue. ;)
Seems like YT is causing significant extra workload for the FAA
Further to "pureglide's message'. Surely if you are carrying a transponder (transmitting altitude) can radio in and ask permission. I'm trying to think who you can radio? If for example you wanted to do your flight again, but this time go into Class A, could you apply for temporary permission? Could you do it in flight?
NO. The pilot and aircraft would have to meet IFR requirements first. Just getting a clearance doesn’t mean it’s legal to get the clearance.
The glider would have to be certified to IFR standards, complete with pitot-static check (few are), and the pilot would have to be IFR current as well.
What you should get is don't post YOU Tube videos that are in the edge.
This kind of thing reminds me of the babuskas from the time of Stalinism in the old Soviet Union. The old ladies indiscriminately denounced all types of enemies of the state. I wonder if these ladies had something like the Internet and AI...
It's all fun and games until you collide with a jet in class A. The rules are in place for a reason.
@@christopheblanchi4777 I get that. But an honest mistake, especially a situation like this where you don't know the whole story--no harm, no foul.
@@christopheblanchi4777 and have you actually worked out the statistical liklihood of that? It's minimal........
So what if you do bust class A?
The FAA could take some disciplinary action, such as suspending your license for a period of time.
The enforcement options are certificate action and/or fines. The Enforcement Division initiates civil penalty actions under the statutory authority cited in 14 C.F.R. § 13.14 or § 13.18. The FAA has authority to issue orders assessing a civil penalty of up to …$50,000 against individuals and small business concerns. Generally, the penalty for each violation ranges from $1,100 to $27,500, depending on the provision violated and the category of the alleged violator: individual serving as an airman, individual not serving as an airman, small business concern, or someone other than an individual or small business concern
@@BillPalmer so what is the procedure if I want to fly higher than 18000?
@@excellenceinanimation960 go to a site with an established wave window. These are soaring sites that specialize in wave flying and getting your diamond altitude completed. Minden, Boulder are ones that come to mind.
Good coherent explanation
I try to take a hard look at my RUclips vids before posting
Don’t need any FAA interface
there is a vid from a German pilot eho makes his vid some adventure story , but basically he didn,t do any preperations or pre flight planning...and then " showed off" in the Alps, close calls and such ...he claimed...well, that is stupid, but not 15.500 to 18.000... 🤷♀️
Informant identity should be disclosed upon initial contact.
There is another, more important lesson here: The fact FAA treated this as a counseling call, with a veiled future threat, means they didn't accept your explanation of your altimeter being solely for backup. Unfortunately, despite your civil right of presumption of innocence, FAA and NTSB turn the Constitution on its head by making the presumption of guilt. The Pilot's bill of rights was supposed to give us back our constitutional rights taken by these two federal agencies, instead this civil rights violation continues unchecked. False accusations against Trent Palmer is another example government overreach. I hope viewers are supporting Ben and Trent, I do.
Do the FAA not have some duty to actually investigate? They totally failed to do they homework on this one which they could have done from the WeGlide trace. Total embarrassment for the FAA there.
They're probably not familiar with WeGlide, or where the data there comes from. Gliders are a tiny niche in the aviation world, so we can't expect the FAA to know everything about them.
Extremely disappointing if they dont. Total waste of taxpayers money to investigate without any due diligence and without any actual evidence, and have no clue about altimeter settings.
so they didn,t know about air density variations and just wanted to pin someone down? 🤣an altimeter is no proof, bcs as a pilot once told me: that,s so inconcrete, rather a suggestion than an axtual value...and same for windspeed indicators...well, ill never go that high anyways, ...thnaks ror showing,.!
How many pilots know where you can fly in the USA with no wave window, no clearance and no transponder or radio in your glider above 18,000'? Not real smart but very legal.
I have no idea. Where is it not class A?
A strong informant system helped the Gestapo maintain control over specific populations of Germans. An informant in the camps was known as a “Kapo”.