Parachutes in Citabrias and Decathlons

[Bob Turner]

If the feds start running alongside us checking seat belts, we may have bigger problems . . .

My students cannot get out of the habit of putting on helmets and noise-canceling headsets prior to hollering "clear prop" for engine start. No regulation at all there, but that has to be more hazardous than taxiing with seatbelts off.

My students are older, and show up with lots of nosewheel time. Some even taxi with excess power and brakes on - wanna know how difficult it is to break old habits? Especially when dealing with wealthy, accomplished folk?

 

[darrell whitley]

The FAA doesn’t have enough people as it is. Never saw them in the J/S after Rona. Mebbe it’s changed, I doubt it though…

 

[darrell whitley]

Old habits are hard to break. But it can be done. I know.

 

[Big Ed]

Bizarrely, I have been ramp checked twice since COVID started. Never in 30 years of flying, then twice in the same year. Go figure.

 

[darrell whitley]

Hummm what airport??

 

[Big Ed]

Hummm what airport??

2 rural airports in the middle of nowhere. MEB and I think maybe MQW. One on a Saturday morning.

 

[darrell whitley]

Unbelievable, it was a weekend. They must’ve been after somebody or making quota.

 

[Bob Turner]

Or a new guy. We rarely see them on the ramp here. When we do, it is usually friendly, and not a full-on ramp check.

 

[Big Ed]

The guy on a Saturday was on a road trip. He was based in coastal NC and was coming home from a trip to the western part of the state. I suspect he just stopped in to justify his miles, since it was right off the Interstate. He was a maintenance inspector on a tour of maintenance facilities. I caught his eye because I was charging my Decathlon due to a failed alternator. Had he not stopped in, I would have jumped it and flown NORDO on a CAVU day back home. After his helpful input, I determined the strictly legal thing to do was to stay in a hotel for 4 days waiting on a new alternator to get shipped to me.

The other one was mostly just a target of opportunity. I landed at an airport in the middle of nowhere because it had cheap gas. No hangars, no aircraft, just a runway, a one room shack, and a fuel tank. While I was there, a medevac chopper showed up, along with a small crowd of family, ambulance crew, etc. One of the crowd moseyed over and asked if he could look at my plane. I said sure. After he was done, he waved his FAA badge and asked to see my PPL. I guess he was observing the medevac and saw a chance to meet his quota.

Both were friendly and neither looked hard. Just a quick glance at the interior for anything obviously amiss, a check of necessary documents (PPL, ARROW minus OW), and a minute of chitchat.