ORIGINAL: Gooseman240
I feel the RC pilot and ''Air boss'' is to blame.
FS pilots have the right of way ''period'' at any air field or private airport, end of story. FAA will rule this.
The reason why is what if the pilot had radio issues, mechanical issues, etc he must land. In this case the pilot stated his intentions by flying over the air field that he needed to land, the first pass was ignored by the air boss and RC pilot whom should have landed not knowing why that plane flew over. FS has right of way.
Here is an example of plain stupidity in my own back yard regarding water bombers and leasure crafts on lakes. There was a forrest fire on crown land. This lake is populated, and in plain sight on the horrizon was smoke. The news did say firebans were in place and all.
The water bomber was cabable of scooping from the lake, but the boaters stopped dead in the water to admire the site, and also just kept skit skatting across the lake where the bomber wanted to go. So the bomber called off the run due to stupidity and had to make the 1 hr trip back to base to reload.
very sad, 2 examples of classic stupidity on part of the human race, always what if's and why me, why not do that wa wa wa crap.
vent done. I hope the RC pilot and air boss are both sued in this case.
BTW, it would have cost the FS pilot a load of dough to land else where... bet alot of you don't know that. It is called a landing fee...
Not only that, but the FS never had to think about it, he always had the rights to that air.
We as RCers simply do not have any rights to that air...we are at all times interlopers and there only by permission.... and when we sign up for our AMA number we clearly agree to that. And that is as it should be. Any aircraft with humans onboard ALWAYS and INSTANTLY takes preference. No amount of money spent on an RC plane changes that.
It would be crazy to say the RC pilot didn't do anything wrong staying in the air and trying to save his plane, yet a few here are saying exactly that.
And that makes my point exactly. That's human nature. We follow urges. Rules are in place to keep those very human human-nature urges in check, and keep people alive. That's why the airboss should be in trouble, he didn't do his job, and there was also a failing at the planning stages. The RC pilot should be in lots of trouble as well. He knew there was a plane in the area, and he knew he was still flying. He knew he was breaking rules. Doing so with the blessings of the Air Boss who is not doing his job is still no excuse. Though ultimately, I believe the Air Boss is where the buck will stop, due to his being in charge and making really bad choices right then.
Unfortunately, since it was not an AMA-sanctioned event, we won't have the benefit of AMA involvement, other than for AMA to make a very pointed statement that they were at no time involved in this unfortunate series of events that lead up to this collision. So our information is going to have to come to us through other sources.
I think we know enough to know that lots of things happened that should not have happened. And that most of them were done by RCers, unfortunately.
~ Jim ~ [
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