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I have another perspective on Elon/trumps hate for the FAA. In my experience as a pilot, sometimes the FAA makes rules that are frustrating, and sets limitatio
by K0balt 2y ago
I have another perspective on Elon/trumps hate for the FAA.
In my experience as a pilot, sometimes the FAA makes rules that are frustrating, and sets limitations that for one reason or another you might want to circumvent in one specific case or another. Mostly, those are bad ideas, but it does limit your ability to fly to different places sometimes.
As a user/passenger of private luxury aviation, this sometimes makes for considerable frustration and people are always trying to talk their pilots into doing stupid things like overloading their aircraft, not requiring people to stay in the seats where the wieght and balance of the aircraft is safe, flying into airports below weather minimums, things in general that are somewhat likely to get you killed.
Pilots often deflect judgment on this by saying “it’s FAA regulations” so they don’t seem like “the bad guy”. Ultimately, in many cases, the relationship of the pilot to the client is a lot like a waiter in food service.
Consequently, many wealthy private flying people that are used to getting whatever they want in life end up feeling like the FAA is this overbearing, freedom hating bureaucracy that enforces ridiculous rules for specious reasons and makes their lives more difficult for no reason.
This impression may be true in very narrow cases with very specific individual FAA employees, just like with some traffic cops. But by and large, the FAA, when left to its own devices, does an admirable job of keeping people safe and alive despite some very vexing physics, as well as human nature, colluding to make that improbable… while facilitating the safe travels of millions of passengers per day.
Also, the FAA sometimes makes life a little harder for musk because they don’t want metal falling out of the sky on peoples heads around launch sites.
I believe this is behind the hate. It’s spite.
- toss1 2y agoAnd those regs really DO keep people alive. Kobe Bryant's pilot had to get special permission to fly that day [0]. Too bad it was granted. If he'd been grounded for the fog, all nine people would have missed their morning's scheduled events but would still be alive. All take-offs are optional; landings are not optional. [0] https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/28/us/kobe-bryant-crash-timeline/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/28/us/kobe-bryant-crash-timeline...
- rogerrogerr 2y agoEh, I mean, kinda. “Special” VFR isn’t special in that sense. It’s not something that anyone really reviews in the sense non-aviation people would assume by the words “special permission”. It’s much closer to some magic words you can say to fly VFR in what would otherwise be technically “too close to clouds”. You’re usually required to be hundreds or thousands of feet from clouds; SVFR trims that down to “don’t touch them”. Going into the clouds was still illegal. CNN framing it as “special permission” is… kinda true, but misleading in sentiment. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a controller turn down SVFR.
- RandomBacon 2y agoI've only been asked for and thus issued SFVR once in my career. SVFR cannot be solicited by the controller (same with cancelling IFR). I did have to turn down the SVFR request initially though, because it is a lower priority than IFR traffic, but once the IFR traffic was clear, I gave the SVFR clearance.
- rogerrogerr 2y agoDoes SVFR make traffic require IFR separation on your side? Can you still use visual separation? Curious about the details.
- RandomBacon 2y agoYes and Yes. FAA Order 7110.65 section 7-5-3 There are notes here: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/atc_html/chap7_section_5.html https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/atc_html...
- K0balt 2y agoIn some places SVFR is very common. In Alaska, for example, or at least it was quite common to get SVFR clearances 20 years ago.
- ryandrake 2y agoIt's hard to generalize about pilots and private jet passengers, but there is definitely over-representation from the "wealthy and unaccustomed to being told NO" crowd. One of the "5 Hazardous Attitudes" that we all learn is Anti-authority[1]. If you want to live, but don't like people telling you what to do, please do not become a pilot. On the other hand, the Federal Aviation Regulations are vast and detailed, and as pilots, we are forced to become mini-lawyers as a side job so that we can know and understand them all. Go to any online pilot forum, and half the posts are pilots quoting 14 CFR at each other and micro-analyzing each word from the holy text. 1: https://www.faasafety.gov/gslac/ALC/course_content.aspx?cID=723&sID=1448&preview=true https://www.faasafety.gov/gslac/ALC/course_content.aspx?cID=...