WE NEED TO ACT - Let’s Save Backcountry Aviation

all right guys it's time that we have a talk about something that is fairly serious it's happening right now and it's something that we can do something about and that is the erosion of the freedoms we have in aviation and specifically in Backcountry Aviation now it's unfortunate that due to my you know runin with the FAA that I'm sure most of you guys are aware of there is a precedent being set that adds undue burden to Pilots to land even when they might not feel it safe now the FAA has intentionally left the regulation 91119 extra Broad and gray and open to interpretation it also requires or or puts the burden of proof on the pilot for proving that whatever they were doing was necessary for landing so effectively the pilot is not innocent until proven guilty they are guilty until they can prove their innocence and to anyone that flies we know that the pilot in command is the one that makes decisions for the safety of that flight so if at any point during a flight there is something that you feel is unsafe you have the authority and the obligation to make the safety call so that is where when we talk about misted approaches go around and inspection passes those are all necessary parts of what are a safe landing procedure and sometimes not Landing is the safest bet now again unfortunately because of this precedent set from my case a lot of times if you if any pilot were to decide to go around from any approach that might have put them within 500 ft of any vehicle vessel person or structure that is now in a direct violation of the regulations based on my ruling based on that it would be a uh suspension action on your pilot certificate now luckily I'm not the only one that has uh realized that this is wrong there's actually a lot of people out there wanting to support this and one in particular is Senator Ted bud and he's actually gone through and created a bill that he's trying to get pushed into the faa's remodern isation act that would effectively amend F 91119 which is the regulation that talks about flight at a safe altitude and he's actually written a bill called the backcountry Aviation protection act that aims to amend the 91119 verbiage to clarify and mention more directly go-arounds inspection passes and practice approaches now I was able to jump on a zoom call with Senator bud just now and I want to show you guys it so you can hear exactly from him what they are working on and what the benefit is to us and what we can do to support it Senator Bud yeah got you now hey Trent how you doing good how about you yeah great thanks for uh making some time today yeah absolutely I'm excited to hear about what you've been working on this bill that you've been I guess putting some time and energy into probably would have saved me from some of the troubles I'm I'm dealing with right now yeah well hopefully it will uh you know there's a lot of folks out there you got a lot of followers a lot of backcountry folks hopefully that your pain that you've been through will be redeemed and uh be clarified in the future we got Eric hagus on here uh Eric's on the team and uh love to hear kind of your story I know I've been reading about it for a while even before I was involved on the Senate side but um and so you're um outside of uh Reno somewhere you were doing an inspection pass on an RC field um my oldest brother so I'm the youngest of three aviators in the family and uh oldest brother fell in love with it starting with the remote controlled airplane on the string and then uh flight lessons by the time he was 15 um so soloed at 16 and on from there and U but you know certainly familiar with the RC Fields um tell me tell me kind of about your friend's RC field and uh what happened yeah so a friend of mine I actually met them through RC car racing back in the day but they live just north of where I live like 2 miles or three miles north um they had a a clearing that they'd fly their RC planes out of and the sun basically I'm friends with both of them the sun had helped me finish my house um when I was building this place place and uh he had been bugging me forever to come land at their place he knows I could do it I'd been out there and walked it I knew I could um and I'd flown over it higher up so I I knew I was familiar with the area and then that the day where ordeal started I basically made a practice approach I was offset a little bit just so I could see out the pilot side door um you know if I put the nose right over the strip it does nothing for me so it was unfortunate that how close the the landing area was to houses I knew I would be with within 500 ft but I also knew that the regulations States except when necessary for takeoff or Landing so I made an inspection pass didn't love it on on I didn't like the proximity to houses there were power lines um on the go around so it was kind of a a no-go around spot and then also I I it wasn't clear where I should touch down when I was on you know what would have been a short final so I just kind of combination of those things I said nah it's not worth it and carried on so was it was it one pass or multiple passes one pass yeah yeah and there I guess uh uh somebody reported it thinking it was buzzing rather than inspection pass and that's where things went wrong yeah unfortunately it's just it was one of those neighbors that uh doesn't doesn't get along with a lot of people and so he had uh he had complained to my friend uh who was flying RC planes saying you're dive bombing my house with drones and so that was why he had a security camera on his roof Eve aiming up in the air so he was looking to catch him saw my flight through there and that's what started the report with the backcountry Aviation protection act is what we're working on right now it really clarifies a lot of these inspection passes and puts one of the main things it puts the burden of proof on the FAA uh to prove that none of the exemptions uh apply to Any Given case um so we we want to clarify here and eliminate problems like this before people acting in good faith and in promotion of safety um and so we think that by the end of this month you know it's January now by the end of the month we could take up the FAA reauthorization act we want to put this in as an amendment and we're going to work hard we think presented to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle that this makes a lot of sense so I'm going to present the case and uh see if we can get a vote on this and hopefully pass and um we wish it was many months ago or a year or so ago so this wouldn't happen with you but uh for all those back Back Country pilots who want to be safe but again believe in inspection passes for safety then then this would uh eliminate these problems what what are your what are your thoughts on what you know about what we're working on here and anything that we can do to be helpful um yeah I'm I'm in full support of what I've read and what I've seen I guess just let me know how I can help because at this point you know I don't want to be any more part of a problem I want to be part of a solution and I think this is a good route to take so however I can be of of help I I would love to well you've got followers all around the country um some are um you know actual Pilots some are HED to be Pilots one day or in process is with their student ticket but if you would encourage them to call uh their Federal legislators uh legislators and their senators in particular as we take up this bill uh the reauthorization is due by early March but we want to begin taking it up at the end of the month so encourage them to call um ask to speak with staff that has the aviation portfolio and if they could walk through um the backcountry Aviation protection act and ask them to support it I guarantee it's not a call that they're going to be getting every day so it will stand out uh you know it requires the FAA to add exemptions for inspection passes to the LT of Maneuvers uh the list of Maneuvers that are Exempted from the minimum altitude regulation um things like go-arounds practice approaches instrument approaches U things like that so we think it makes sense and we'll put some things up on our website you know which would help explain this if you'll post some of those things as well absolutely and um if they would call their their Senator it would be a huge help you know my biggest fear with this whole thing um that I'm going through is the the wake I could potentially leave behind with the president set from all this so anything I can do to try to help ensure that it doesn't erode our freedoms I'm I'm all for thank you and to be clear are you back flying again uh yeah so since I'm still in the process of appealing um they haven't uh enacted the suspension yet they've uh you know granted me a stay on the suspension up until now so still fineing Eric uh any questions or thoughts that you want to weigh in Eric's done a lot of work on this um he's great as U as an attorney and somebody on the staff here and an aviator as well so I appreciate what he brings to the team just wanted to um bring up the point that you just mentioned about the precedent this sets the way that the FAA and the NTS described this regulation was very broad it was broader than I've seen in any other precedent before and so that's why in the backcountry Aviation protection act we not only cover inspection passes which is what your case was about but the way the precedent is written it could affect go-arounds it could affect M approaches practice approaches all of these Downstream effects that FAA probably wasn't thinking about um they were just they were just uh wanted to make sure that they uh won your case and in that uh in that process came up with a way broader precedent that was necessary so this is meant as a comprehensive solution to um to that precedent yeah and that that that was the uh I think the scariest part of all this was that yeah based on this decision uh any goar around that you would come within 500 ft of any vehicle vessel person or structure is now uh a violation of the regulations and you should get a suspension for it and again that just puts so much undue stress or burden on the pilot to push through at the Landing that he might not feel as safe so and we've spoken with the FAA about this uh saying you know what do you think you know doesn't this precedent um effect go arounds and all these other Maneuvers and they said well we have these other precedents from the 70s and 80s that says um those are exempt because they're considered a takeoff or Landing um but funny enough going through the case law there's never been a time where a pilot has used that defense saying I was doing a go around or a practice approach that it has actually gotten them off the hook so FAA says these exemptions exist but um they have never actually been successfully used as a defense wow that's interesting so um yeah hopefully you know with some of my audience hopefully we can reach out and and try to make enough of an impact to help get this pushed through well we're going to be working on it um across the aisle and again I know your viewers and um listeners they live um they're represented by Republicans and Democrats alike so uh regardless of party uh reach out to their Senator their legislature let let them know what we're doing here and uh that there's um there's something that needs to be corrected and clarified at the FAA and we can certainly do it through through this amendment awesome well I appreciate what you guys are doing and uh thank you for the time uh to jump on this call with me I'm sure you've got a very busy schedule so I really appreciate it well you as well I appreciate you uh you being in the fight uh for safety and for Back Country uh flying and if you fly all the way across the country in North Carolina I'd love to see it probably a lot more grass uh in North Carolina than you see out in Nevada yeah absolutely anything else anything else Eric or Trent no that that that covered it for me well if something else pops up um it's a topic of interest for me and certainly for Eric so um want to make ourselves Available to You fantastic all right uh BL safe and uh we will talk soon yeah you as well thanks again that one well so I guess the takeaway from this is now it's time that we all need to get involved because um this is one of those times and places where our freedoms are being eroded and we have a chance to stop it to anyone that is interested or available I'm urging you please do do as uh Senator Bud had mentioned and reach out to your local Congressman or Senator and uh bring up this bill and I will put a link below to all the information that we'd need to do this but honestly we have power in numbers and uh this is our chance to you know fight to to maintain our freedoms in Backcountry Aviation so thank you again to Senator Bud for uh having this conversation with me and for going through so much effort to try to protect um you know our freedoms thank you guys again for uh tuning in and taking an interest in this I'll be sure to keep you guys appraised as to how this all pans out hopefully we can make a difference hopefully we can continue to uh exercise these awesome freedoms we have in Back Country Aviation [Music] [Applause] [Music] he

Channel: Trent Palmer

Views: 148,264

Keywords: trent palmer, bush plane, bush pilot, aviation, airplane, pilot, flight, FAA, backcountry, backcountry aviation

Id: pzgTSRgBhx0

Length: 14min 19sec (859 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 31 2024