ORIGINAL: DavidR
JR,
I don't know is the "maiden flight issue" is as widespread as is being made out to be, it certainly is not any more of an issue than at any other events. I have at numerous times been at scale contests, local flyins, etc... that maiden flights have occurred and it has been no more of an issue. Why is it that the turbine community is all of the sudden the bad boys when accross the board this is an AMA rule that is being ignored by every facet of the hobby. If the maiden flight is flown at the event prior to or after the official event times is it an "illegal" flight? This has been debated ad nauseum in different forums.
You can make a case for event times as opposed to an sanctioned event date. What you can't make a case for is whether spectators are present. If there are spectators, it is the responsiblity of the CD to put the safety of the spectators first, and it should not be allowed regardless of time or date at a sanctioned event. This applies to all venues, not just to jets. Anything less is not an acceptable action by a CD. This item is the basic charge of a CD. More than enforcing rules or putting on a show, and such is stated in the documents CD are accountable for.
If the T/W is exceeded how do you propose the CD measure this? As I described I have been down this road and there is not a good method to accomplish this. To much variance between methods.
I would think that a self-declaration by the waiver holder, in writing, should be the very least that could be done.
The Best of the West incident just proves that there are people out there flying turbines that don't need to be flying them. Some CD signed the guy off at some point in time. When I got my waiver it was certainly a lot less diffucult as the TCD did not exsist at that time. FWIW I refused to sign a guy off for his waiver last summer because he crashed the plane that he was attempting to get his waiver with. His comment was it was too windy.... so what... it was a judgement call and he should have grounded himself prior to the crash.
So, should the CD have been determined and his TCD status reduced to that of a CD? In this case, there is due process. Did anyone pursue it? Where was the self-policing?
I don't think we need to carry on without rules, I support rules and feel like we need rules in place to govern the masses. Problem is the enforcement of those rules. I disagree with your comment about a small group of waiver holders deciding which rules they will abide by, the majority are following the rules or are attempting to follow the rules. There are some individuals that feel like some of the rules are not enforceable. Some of the rules, T/W for an example are not good rules they don't take into account the inherent aerodynamic differences in the airframes. So what might help to limit the speed of one airframe might not limit a second cleaner airframe at all.
The T/W rule was put forth by the experts. So is your position that when the experts propose a rule that is deemed by some to be uneforcable, that it is cause to ignore the rule?
I think you will find that the majority of legislators in this country that are charged with making the rules in society gravitate to the "experts" in the field to try and formulate a set of rules and guidelines that are reasonable and enforceable. You state that Dave Brown is faced with us not policing ourselves but yet has he spent the time finding out why? Could it be that we are not just a bunch of renegades with blatant and total disregard for the rules? Could it be that we can't find a good method for enforcing the rules so we are eliminating the unenforceable ones and trying to implement some that might be better rules. Rules that are more likely to focus on a solution to a greater issue, pilot competency? It will really be interesting to see how enforcement other than self policing would work. I'm ready for my speeding tickets.
The experts have put forth a 200 mph speed limit without any way to inforce it. The previous "unenforcable" rules, put forth by the experts, have been... well... unenforced, leaving the judgement of the experts in question. The powers that be, in the person of the EC led by Dave Brown, are now considering a way to enforce it. Speed limiters. As pointed out elsewhere, although an aftermarket unit that is reliable apparently does not exist, there is no technical reason that such a unit can not be built. As also posted elsewhere, when it was to the advantage of the turbine community, other technical improvements were made on the turbines that were every bit as technoligically challenging... if not more so.
Why is it that there is such resistance to the development of reliable speed limiters? That is my question and that of several members of the EC as well as Dave Brown.
JR