A glider pilot has updated a popular YouTube video on his channel with a cautionary tale of how a little flattery can turn into a seven-month certificate suspension and thousands of dollars in legal fees. Bruno Vassel was showing off his ASW27 high-performance glider on the ramp at an air and car show at Spanish Fork Airport in Utah last August when one of the organizers asked him if he’d like to show the crowd what the soaring plane could do. “Why not? What could I do in the ASW27 that would be interesting and wouldn't likely kill me?” he mused in his original post of the cockpit video from what became his impromptu airshow performance.
Airshow acts are supposed to be well-practiced, well-briefed and judged to make sure that they do not endanger anyone else. Without knowing the specifics of course, this impromptu act may well have strayed away from the regular display line, may well have ended up in a conflict with other traffic. The basics of the story is of course that this pilot was not authorised to do what he did.
OK the pilot is definitely at fault,but the show organisers should be taken to task as well for encouraging him to break the law and carry out unsafe (un-authorised, un-briefed) flight!
Looking at sectional there’s no controlled surface area at Spanish fork so lateral boundary may not apply but it’s definitely also within 4nm of V134 centerline
It’s a glider doing a few loops, not a modified antique 2000hp warbird doing low level aerobatics just second away from people. The world has now officially lost its ability to reason.
Greg, the only thing he did at pattern altitude or near people were a few low passes over the runway. Heck, I do that all the time at my airport. His only sin was calling that NORMAL flying as aerobatics once on frequency…
Get hit by a glider at 100 knots or a warbird at 300 knots. You are dead either way. Laws are enacted to protect people from those like you who believe they are the sole determinant of what is safe and what is unsafe. As a pilot, do you think it is up to you to decide what FARs to obey? Are you above the law? The world has not lost its ability to reason. People like you have lost your respect for the rule of law and regard for others.
He did loops which are unusual attitude and verboten in controlled airspace without a waiver. The low passes are legal.
I agree he did not put anyone at undue risk and in a perfect world he should have been thanked for the fun and pat on the back with a smile.
This however is a nanny state and he did break the regulations so I can see that he was justly reprimanded based on those facts. He could have lost his ticket so this could have been worse than it was.
Arthur, as stated elsewhere the loops are not permitted at that location at any altitude per 91.303 as they are not necessary for normal flight. Hence aerobatic. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/91.303
And low passes at non-towered fields are also verboten. Here’s a nice piece by Bruce Landsberg a few years back linking to a John Yodice article discussing the same. Do people ignore this frequently? Sure. Doesn’t make it legal. And putting it on youTube just makes FAA enforcement easier. https://blog.aopa.org/aopa/2011/07/13/permission-to-buzz-the-airport/
Other than bing within 4 miles of the airway, he did not break any rules. IF there was any low level traffic on a VOR airway in VFR, only then would there be any issue with safety. Again, there was no danger, close call, or safety concern with anyone present. A 7 month suspension not called for.
What could go wrong here? I glider pilot with unknown credentials, no planning, no definition of where the aerobatic box was supposed to be, multiple low passes over an industrial park, shopping centers, occasional over the crowd. Parachute?..maybe, maybe not, the pilot saying several times he is doing an aerobatic routine, and a helicopter flying somewhere near all this. The only thing missing was the phrase…“hold my beer”. He is lucky he only got sanctioned for seven months. But like so many immortalized on YouTube by willingly breaking the rules of safety…he went viral. And that is an ego aphrodisiac.
Low passes are not always legal. Minimum altitudes still apply unless you are performing normal takeoff and landing maneuvers, or you are otherwise authorized. We will have to disagree as to what would be allowed in our respective perfect worlds.