Arthur_Foyt
The kite was perfectly legal and expected on a spring day in DC.
The rules say to give way to the kite.
The kite was perfectly legal and expected on a spring day in DC.
The rules say to give way to the kite.
Agree, except ignorance keeps showing up too.
They were looking for helicopters.
Many years ago, after some 15-20 minutes of aerobatics in a Super Decathalon I peeled off and dove to a lower altitude over farmland near Cockranville PA. As I leveled off I saw a white streak pass over my right wing. I had snagged some kid’s kite. It was caught on my wing and swinging wildly behind the plane. When I landed, a dog followed the kite barking all the way to the hanger. It cut the fabric of the leading edge of the wing. It wrapped around the tail several times but I didn’t know that until I landed as I didn’t feel any effect on the control surfaces. I told the FBO that they might get a call…hoping that no one lost a finger. No one called.
The FAA just announced that the ADS-B mandate for DCA will now be extended to kites, Frisbees and birthday balloons.
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I used to go by Gravelly Point everyday and, as much as I Iove watching planes take off and land, I was always amazed at people’s willingness to repeatedly be deafened and doused with Jet-A exhaust. Never saw a kite.
I learned to fly at LGB (Long Beach) in Southern California in the late 70’s.
Flying a 150 and returning with a friend from a lunch run to Big Bear Lake in San Bernadino, I called LGB for a ‘Straight-In’ approach while over Anaheim. I got my approval but right after that a ‘Mickey’ balloon flew by my starboard side! My friend yelled to ‘turn around and pop it!’. I thought for a moment about a hard 180 and what it’d be like to pop it, then logic took over figuring it’s best to just continue my approach! I can still see that blue balloon goin’ by and wish I could try that someday – only over a not-so-populated area!
Enjoy your flights you guys….
…they have thrown frozen chickens into an engine just to see what will happen
The “chicken cannon” is a classic uban legend - see The Chicken Cannon | Snopes.com or https://www.lse.ac.uk/accounting/assets/Documents/Media/Epistemological-Chicken for more info.
Ha! With ADS-B data on birthday balloons, they could at least enforce existing regulations: § 29.1-556.1. Release of certain balloons prohibited; civil penalty; community service
You are mixing up real testing and stupid stories. The real testing is unfrozen chickens. The stupid story is that NASA loaned their air gun to the stupid British who needed to be told to thaw the chicken. I worked at RAE Bedford, we had an indoor air gun, in 115 Building, for cockpit testing and an outdoor one for more damaging tests, over near ‘The Domestic Site’. The ARA in Bedford had one. Hunting Engineering had one (In The Bovril, if any Hunting alumni read this). That’s all within ten miles of where I lived, and only the ones I know about. We did sometimes fire frozen chickens to break the canopies out of the rig when testing was complete, if they were still intact. So much easier than cutting them up to remove them. Nobody loans someone an air gun, they buy the few parts required and build their own. I could make one in a week, once the compressor, pipe, reservoir and fittings arrived.
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Not frozen not " to see t\what happen" it is a REQUIREMENT>here is a test standard…Redirect Noticehttps://cdn.standards.iteh.ai/samples/109097/e5f63ad08a50470fa8d6f4ac6f1d8168/ASTM-F330-21.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiVsKjr1rSMAxXoLEQIHeG3BtwQFnoECBoQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1h-YI9-mmIF0zUcwHkzjzT
To fly anything now days in any metro areas requires knowledge of airspace and man made objects and where the nearest airport runway is located. If the runway is visible, the ground operator of a kite or any other flying object must not be on the approach path of a runway. To fly anything on a runway approach path is unlawful. Heavier aircraft always have the right of way, as written in the FARs. And anyone flying a man made object is required to know this. Or, ignorance of any applicable law that causes a potential accident or has the capability to cause an accident is also unlawful. Ignorance of what should be common sense, is very unlawful.
I cannot believe that the only open areas anywhere near Washington D.C. is under an active runway path. I live in LA. I am a pilot. My children enjoy flying their kites at one of the many open municipal parks, schoolyards or beaches nearby our house that invite this activity. To fly anything near an active runway is simply irresponsible and possibly homicidal.
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I’m with you, surely, the wind exist in other places besides the end of runways? Although, from my experience the gust at the end of the runways are always the worst and the cause of my bounced landings. 
What a not-Notstupid post. They shoot un-frozen chickens into engines as part of engine certification testing, since as you surely know, once in while a bird or two will take out an engine. Think miracle on the Hudson. A fan blade liberating the fan disk will take out the other blades, rendering the engine less than in ideal running condition.
As for the kite, I’m sure you couldn’t wrap your head around the concept of the kite being ingested into an engine oil cooler duct. Yes, the incident was during landing but could have been during takeoff too.
Not arrested?
What motivation is there to not do it again?
What is the strength of publicity that warns others of the hazard?
100 feet AGL?
If you mean clearance from the park surface, that is very low.
Not a place to do many things.
(Your sentence structure is awkward.)
Hell, you can hit a baseball 100’ in the air too. Point is that baseball and kites are normal in parks and 100’ is too low for a plane over populated areas.
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Thanks.
The purpose is testing resistance to birds thus frozen would make no sense, if want stronger bird-like hit try duck or Canada Goose (heftier that eagle and buzzard) like an airliner .inadvertently tested in New York.
Good point about baseball, but keep in mind where the ‘park’ is - fight under final flight path, solution is to stop calling airport property a park.
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The approach for 19 at Regan shows planes should be at 365’ above the ground. Why the plane was down to 100’ even before the runway environment is the problem.