RE: Do you think the FAA should be sticking its nose into our hobby?
I agree, my point was that there is really only one penalty... kicking the flier out of the club. There are a lot of reasons for a crash, loosing an engine or an obvious mechanical failure might not be a reason to count the crash. At the same time, if a flier is consistently flying rags and they are crashing regularly... that might be a preventable crash and countable. The requirement for re-certification might end some willful reckless actions. The potential of monetary penalties might further reduce willful disregard of rules.
Nobody wants to be the "Fed" and enforce club rules is my experience. Some times it needs to be done and it is usually an ugly affair. Usually it pits guys that don't generally like each other to begin with. If one of the regular crashers puts a plane down on top of my vehicle, it is not going to be a pretty sight. Hopefully, rules will prevent a careless flier from continuing without additional training. If the additional training does not correct the problem... then the choice is obvious... kicking the flier out.
The thing that I like about the FAA rules is that when something serious does happen, there are rules and established penalties to resolve a problem.
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An excessive number of crashes might bring everyone's focus on a pilot but I would think that the club's course of action would best be determined by whether the crashes were due to the pilot's inexperience or willful disregard of the rules. Correcting such disrespect is rarely rectified by additional training. That requires an attitude change and is usually better corrected through counselling(sp), probation/punishment, or outright banning the individual from the property. (Especially if his actions brought injury to others!)
Harvey
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