1988-12 · NASA ASRS report 99783
FLYBY AT AIRSHOW WITH TWR CLRNC QUESTIONED BY THE FAA. PLT ACCUSED OF PERFORMING ILLEGAL UNAUTH AEROBATIC MANEUVER.
DEPARTED CENTENNIAL ARPT; DENVER; CO; IN SMA FOR PLATTE VALLEY ARPT; HUDSON; CO. AT A POINT 12 SM S OF BUCKLEY AIR NATL GUARD BASE I REMEMBERED THE NOTAM RE: BUCKLEY'S AIR SHOW; SO AS A MORE DIRECT ROUTE TO PLATTE VALLEY ARPT I CALLED BUCKLEY TWR AND REQUESTED A NBOUND TRANSITION AND ASKED IF THEY WOULD LIKE A FLY BY. BOTH REQUESTS WERE APPROVED BY BUCKLEY TWR AND I WAS TOLD TO RPT A RIGHT BASE TO RWY 8. I ACKNOWLEDGED AND PROCEEDED. AT ABOUT A 3 MI RIGHT BASE TO RWY 8 I REQUESTED TO BUCKLEY TWR 2 FLY-BYS WITH RIGHT HAND TFC AND AFTER COMPLETION A DEP TO THE NE. BUCKLEY TWR REPLIED 'APPROVED AS REQUESTED!' I BEGAN MY RIGHT HAND DSCNT FROM 800' AGL TO THE CENTERLINE OF RWY 8. I LEVELED OFF AT APPROX 100' AGL ON CENTERLINE RWY 8. AT ABOUT MID RWY LENGTH I PULLED THE ACFT UP INTO A STRAIGHT MAX PERFORMANCE CLB AT VX (68 IAS) AND AT 800' AGL (PATTERN ALT) BEGAN A TURN TO THE RIGHT FOR A RIGHT DOWNWIND LEG FOR MY SECOND PASS. AFTER A RIGHT DOWNWIND APCH I MADE MY SECOND PASS LIKE THE FIRST. AT MIDFIELD AGAIN I PULLED THE AIRPLANE INTO A MAX PERFORMANCE CLB TO 800' AGL APPROX; THIS TIME TURNING THE ACFT TO THE LEFT FOR MY NE DEP. BUCKLEY TWR THEN THANKED ME FOR MY HELP AND APPROVED FREQ CHANGE FOR FURTHER ATC HELP. ON 12/WED/88 I BECAME AWARE THAT THE DENVER OFFICE OF THE FAA WAS TRYING TO REACH ME. I CALLED THE FAA AT XA30 HRS APPROX ONLY TO FIND OUT THAT I WAS UNDER INVESTIGATION BY THAT OFFICE FOR MY FLY BY IN 12/88. THE INVESTIGATOR WAS CONCERNED ABOUT 2 THINGS: MY REASON AND APPROVAL FOR BEING THERE; AND MY MAX PERFORMANCE CLBS DURING THE FLY-BYS WHICH HE ALLEGED WERE INTENTIONAL AEROBATICS. HE FIRST CLAIMED I HAD EXECUTED A HAMMERHEAD AEROBATIC MANEUVER; AFTER I EXPLAINED WHAT A HAMMERHEAD WAS HE BECAME CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT HAD APPEARED TO HIM AS A NEAR VERT CLB. I EXPLAINED WHY I MADE THE FLY-BYS TO HELP THE SHOW; AND THAT AS A MEMBER OF THE AIR SHOW COMMUNITY AND PLT IN THE SOUTHERN MIL FLYING CLUB THAT THIS KIND OF FLY-BY IS DONE ROUTINELY AT ALL AIR SHOW THAT WE ATTEND. HE ASKED IF I POSSESSED A LOW ALT AEROBATIC PROFICIENCY CARD. I TOLD HIM THAT I DO NOT AND TO MY KNOWLEDGE NO ONE ELSE DOES IN OUR LCL WING AS PLTS WHO PARTICIPATE IN FLY-BYS. HE LEFT THE CONVERSATION SAYING THAT THE MATTER IS UNDER INVESTIGATION. THE QUESTION I WAS LEFT WITH WAS WHY WERE THEY NOW INVESTIGATION FOR POSSIBLE VIOLATION OF AEROBATIC RULES WHEN AT SO MANY OTHER AIR SHOW AND EVENTS THE SAME AND SIMILAR MANEUVERS GO UNNOTICED AND APPROVED BY OTHER FAA REPS IN ATTENDANCE? CALLBACK CONVERSATION WITH RPTR REVEALED THE FOLLOWING: FAA ADVISED THEY ARE INVESTIGATING THE INCIDENT. A RPT GIVING THE SAME INFO AS FILED WITH ASRS HAS BEEN SUBMITTED TO FAA. DOES NOT FEEL THE PULL UP IN THE ACFT WAS AEROBATIC IN ANY WAY. SUSPECTS THE BASE COMMANDER WAS UPSET BECAUSE HE WAS NOT ON THE PROGRAM AND PUSHED THE FAA TO INVESTIGATE.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.