What are they gonna do to me?

Question

OK. I can fly at my own since I was 14. So I buy a plane, I fly it, fly it for money, fly it in the night, fly it as I want :)
Who is gonna punish me for not having flight training, medical licenses and all this stuff. After all, I'm my own boss :P

BTW: This isn't about me. I was just wondering

Answer 1

Yeah, I heard of a guy who did this. Mind you, this was in the bush in Canada, around 1960. He bought a float plane even though he hadn't a clue how to fly. One day he was taxiing across the lake, looked down and realized he was 20 feet up. Eventually, he taught himself to fly.

For you, nowadays, sooner or later you'll come to the attention of the FAA. Eventually you fly somewhere and some guy at the airport will wonder why you hadn't filed a flight plan, or that you flew when weather was below spec, or you broke some rule - there's a lot of picky rules about approaching airports and using radio, if you don't do it right someone will be offended.

Then the FAA run the registration numbers on the side of the airplane into the computer and then the cops get real interested, especially in this day of small-plane-as-bomb worries. It's the same idea as that you can drive a car without registration or insurance - until you get caught.

Once caught, you're in deep doodoo. At the very least, you pay a hefty fine and lose your license, and all the FAA inspectors in the neighbourhood are watching for you. Worst, you spend time in jail. It depends just what offense brought you to the attention of the FAA.

There's a whole series of other issues; if you don't get NOTAMs and other material from the FAA, you will eventually violate some airspace rules. If you fly regularly into some airport, someone will eventually wonder where you get your regular 50 and 100-hour mechanical service done.

If you fly for money and take business from a legitimate operator, they may report you. Even if they don't know you ain't registered, they will guess you don't have a commercial registration - enough to get the FAA curious. You may try to hire out with someone safety-conscious enough to report too.

Try being a big rig trucker without a million pages of paperwork - same idea.

The small aircraft world is too heavily regulated and monitored to get away for very long. Unlike autos, there aren't millions of them, you don't just 'blend into the crowd". In any local airport everyone knows everyone else and their business, just like a small town.

Answer 2

Alright, here we go. I have been a military aircrewman and mechanic on aircraft for almost 10 years now, and a student pilot for 2. I have put in almost 210 hours of ground school, simulator time, and navigation and airspace familiarization, as well as 20 logged hours of pilot time, and 180 hours of crew time. Do you think grassroots common sense is a good replacement for that kind of investment? You might as well walk into a courtroom and call yourself an attorney, and then follow this blatant mistake by defending your best friend for capital murder against a federal prosecutor!

Ok. Here are some resources for you. First, look up a place called the FAA FSSDO. If you can find a VOR on a dashboard, you can find this on google. This is where you would get your cert and rating for aircraft operation, or maintenance, as well as some tasty light reading on the penalties for even LICENSED operator screw-ups, let alone functioning without a license. Second, look up unauthorized operation of an aircraft on FindLaw.com. The hefty penalties could definitely make for a couple of evenings of light reading.

If you are still equipped with the original DNA that caused you to make this decision to place you and all of US airspace in jeapordy, then just try this question on for size. You are entering class B airspace around Denver international, and your flight path is about to be crossed within 7 nM by American 341 heavy on approach to inbound 31 full stop. You are directed to enter pattern on SE radial 160 Inbound, right turns, and hold for ILS radial availability. What have they just told you to do, what are you going to do, and what is going on around you.......quick now, 230 passengers, 6 crewmembers, and an entire airport of embarkees are waiting on your decision......hurry..... No clue? That is why you should go to flight school. If you are good with a wrench, and willing to learn, some will even trade maintenance hours for flight instruction. That is how I got started.

So as a soldier, a current flight student, and a flight mechanic, please get your cert before I meet you at an EREC cleanup site somehwere. If you have been flying for as long as you say you have, you should have no problem passing practical flight, and all you will have problems with is your arrogance, um, ground school. Sorry.

Answer 3

If you are in the United States, you are guilty of a felony federal offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison and huge fines exceeding $500,000.

There are similar laws in most countries, though the enforcement is not as tight.

On the other hand, if you are in the US, it is not likely that you would have gotten away with this more than once or twice. There are too many inspectors around, and ramp checks are increasingly frequent. The FAA inspectors have the authority of Federal Marshalls, and would handcuff you and lock you up on contact.

So I suspect you are fantasizing or exaggerating. If you want to fly, go get your pilot's license. You can start training when you are seventeen years old.

Answer 4

I would say that the FAA, the Federal Government, State governments, and Local governments will punish you...

You dont have a license, so flying at all is illegal, regardless of weater conditions, the punishment will be the same... (I have a feeling that the penalty in this case will be self-induced death) meaning, you crash and kill yourself... not to mention the liability of not having insurance on the airplane, the lives you endanger by "landing" somewhere other than an airport... the lives of pilots you endanger by making unexpected moves...


DUMB!

Answer 5

First, let's talk liabilities here. First time you have an accident, you are going to be held royally liable for damages. Not to mention getting prosecuted in civil court.
What person in their right mind sells a plane to someone without the certificate - I don't know of anyone who would.
Pilots, as a general rule, have integrity, and would not do something so foolish.
And let's not even talk about registering the aircraft with the FAA, with no certificate..
If this is for real, go fond some other place to misbehave. I wouldn't want you anywhere near me in the air. I don't care how long you've flown....

Answer 6

There is no way that you live in the U.S. or Canada. Anyone with a moderate amount of gray matter knows exactly who would punish them for your "method" of flying. Identify where you are flying and maybe somebody from that country will give you a hint on who to look for the next time you land.

Answer 7

We frequently read about guys like you who think they can fly without training. Usually its the headlines about a plane crash and then in the obituaries. There's more to flying than knowing what control surfaces do. There are airspace restrictions, altitude restrictions, weather information and on and on.
If you want to try this, please go to South America or something. Try radio control. I hope your knowing how to fly doesn't mean MS Flight Simulator. Its not the same thing. Stay out of my airspace. Thanks.

Answer 8

Most likely, gravity is going to punish you. If you fly without proper training and have this kind of anti-authority attitude, a fatal crash is practically guaranteed.

Answer 9

That you crash and die is not the worst part. That because of your actions a father who takes his family out on his bonanza dies because you have a mid air with him is the true tragedy. That innocent people on the ground are at risk is unfair.

Answer 10

I used to investigate aircraft accidents. I would come out of retirement just for you.

Good luck, you are smoking hole looking for a place to happen.