Microlighters

Hi all,
Last weekend there were 4 gyro's flying in the area of the Witbank dam. One of them, a red one, and possibly a ELA or
MT-03, (described by the kink in the tail boom), flew low over a group of people on the side of the dam. One of those persons at the side of the dam was a member of the SACAA!
Result:- Could not quite read the registration of the gyro although it was ZU-RO? and this has now resulted in the SACAA looking at us to change the size of our registration letters to the standard minimum sizes and "plakked" on the side of the canopy.
Well done to these clowns! You have just buggered up our sport and got the authorities down on us!
If you need to show off, try playing in the bloody traffic but stay out of the air, because you would obviously not have the guts to come forward and confess to this!

From:-
Eric

Hi

I was phones a couple of weeks ago by the Upington and Noeniput Police station, asking for information regarding a couple of gyros flying very low over the farmers game and that some game had ran into fencing.

Please guy's when flying, please keep a save alt. over animals especially game and farm housing and so on.

Just a request...

Regards

SARAF.

I could not agree more with you there. The guys are now simply getting out of hand with the way they fly and this needs to be stopped.
I am begging you guys to stop putting gyros in a bad light. The alternative is to simply report bad flying and let the law take it's course.
Eric

What became of good responsible Airmanship?

I think we should "Name and Shame" these people

It also raises a few questions about their training... Competent instructors hammer all aspects of airmanship (which includes consideration for people and animals at all times) into their students and make it clear that they expect the students to comply [even after qualifying] or shame themselves and their instructors.

Where are we as the gyro fraternity going wrong?

Len

Sad to say Len, I've already investigated and there was an instructor in the group!!!!
Yes I agree with you that they should be named and shamed, but I would like a pole on this. What do the other forum users think about the idea and how should we go about it. I would hate this thing to get out hand and shame someone wrongfully simply because of personal or other issues.
Eric

Airing people's names on a forum such as this is not very professional I would think. This would amount to Crimen Injuria. A phone call to the person concerned would more than suffice.

Sometimes when flying on a cross country, at low level, pilots are not always aware of the noise they are creating. I myself was on a cross country once, flying with some trikes, and when overflying some paddocks of sorts, a lot of the buck got a fright and panicked at the sound of a gyro, and proceeded to all run at high speed straight into the fence. I felt bad at the time, but wasn't intentionally flying low, and wasn't even that low at the time.

Aviation law in Part 91 also states that ..."no aircraft shall be flown at a height less than 500 feet above ground or water, unless the flight can be made without hazard or nuisance to persons or property on the ground or water..." I do think gyro pilots should be more considerate to the fact that gyro's are not as quiet as fixed wings, and should be aware of this. Unfortunately, this becomes subjective. How does the pilot know if he is being a nuisance or not.

Personally, I have seen some exteme low flying on long cross country's, that I think is dangerous. There is no need to fly below bush height! It's a matter of time before someone smacks an aerial or telephone line that they didn't see.

Hi Glen, A phone call or even a meeting with this particular person will not cut it!!! I agree with the Crimen Injuria bit, which is why I did state that some sort of agreement must be made as to how this may be done. Believe me, no one would like to be shamed, therefore his name will only appear once on low flying - thereafter he will be up at service ceiling all the time!!!
Eric

Hi guys

Some of my passengers often ask me why fly so high? You know the old saying - "what's the use of fuel in the hangar, runway behind you and height above you..." My personal feeling is that we should just keep discouraging those we see do irresponsible things - normally best coming from a friend than some agro email. If we stop doing it (I am sometime guilty to runway behind me - pure laziness!!) and ecourage others not to it WILL get better!

Regards,

Hi Eric

I can see that you are quite upset about the incident.

Do you always fly per the rules ?
- Never land on public roads ?
- Never fly in the dark ?
- Never do low flying ?

I don’t and you have to answer for yourself.

Why the big issue ?
I agree with Glen that low flying is allowed if they were not a nuisance or repeatable fly over a crowd of people.
Did the guys fly repeatedly over the crowd ?
Did they do wing overs, 360 and 180 ?

Invite the CAA official to this forum let’s hear his side of the story.


Cheers

Callie JNR

Eric I hear you. If this guy is a problem, maybe we need one of the commitee members of SAGPA to phone him, and issue him a warning, or even CAA themselves (if they have the time). This guy would have to be very thick skinned to not get the message.

One can't ban a guy like this from low flying (since the law allows it, only if he's not a "nuisance", Part 91), but rather get him to avoid the area that is causing problems. Maybe that would be a better angle. If he won't listen to this, maybe SAGPA need to draw up some discliplinary guidelines to follow in the case of an all out hooligan that just won't get the message. This could ultimately result in CAA/RAASA cancelling his licence and get him to re-write his air law exams again, with a flight test. This is normally the path CAA follows when a pilot had demonstated blatant disregard for the law.

I think this should be pasted in a new topic. I would never think to look for this info here and the person involved probably hasn't even seen it. Can our moderators do this, please, then everyone will be aware of the problem and be reminded of what good airmanship is?

For future POSTS in connection with Low Flying, please post under a New Subject, as I think it is of general concern.

Thanks

I have split this thread under it's new topic called "Low Flying".

FO Gyro wrote:I have split this thread under it's new topic called "Low Flying".

Thanks for that !!!

Now surely you can use you Avatar name to sort out the guilty party

We all fly low from time to time, I agree Callie, but we should 'high-level recce' the area first, make sure there are no surprises like "foofie-slides" that were put up since we were last there, no people or animals to scare/intimidate, then by all means, have fun. I love flying low and fast but do it out in the countryside, away from game farms where there are less likely to be people and animals. Nothing like a 3D high performance bike!

Ok, and over the beach sometimes (again, I try to find a secluded stretch if possible and fly around or away from the odd walker)

On a lighter note, first time pax always ask me how high this thing can fly? My standard response is that its operating ceiling is 14 000ft but that I will fly with the angels when I am dead. This is invariably followed by the next question... "and how low can it fly?" My standard response to that is "the low flying record still stands and no survivors have ever beaten it!"

Fly safe and be happy

Len