Float Rating and FAA Certificate Action

I waited a year to tell THIS story :-)

I had a great time getting my float rating.  I flew this Supercub out of Laughlin, NV/Bullhead City, AZ down the Colorado river, landing and taking off all day.  It really was fun, in shorts and Tevas, 85F with the door open, wading through the warm water... :-)


The reason (other than I'd always wanted one) that I got the rating is because the FiddleAssAssociation wanted me to redo the checkrides for my Commercial and my Multi. They had retroactively de-certified the examiner I took those rides with and sent re-ride (the so-called "709") letters for 559 certificates, affecting hundreds of students. My letter said I had to surrender my license or redo them within 30 days or the FAA would pursue legal action against my certificate. 
My certified letter did not say this, but I looked the actual action up in the Federal Register and it offered the option of obtaining another rating, from a different examiner, in lieu of the re-rides.  

I called the FAA every day for 4 days without a callback or being able to talk to the Inspector in charge.  Apparently I was on a deadline but they were not. On the fifth day I told the receptionist that I'd get a call back that day or I was going to my US Senator and the FAA Regional director, which did the trick.  In about 5 minutes the FAA guy in charge called me back and confirmed that a float rating would protect my Commercial license and my Multiengine rating from "legal action". 

The FAA Inspector in charge said he needed to know which examiner I would be riding with so I provided the FAA with his name, the ride date, etc., and was told that as soon as I emailed them a copy of my temporary certificate, they would issue a letter saying there would be no action against my license.  The FAA guy was really pleasant, helpful and seemed to be overworked and stuck in the middle of the entire mess - which originated at the District level, not with the local office.  There were only two guys assigned to managing 559 certificate actions on a 30 day deadline. 

The float rating was about 4 days faster and $5000 cheaper than taking the other rides. So... did the ride, got the rating, had a great time. :-)  

BUT...
1.  Coming out of Bullhead City at 0630, going 15 over the speed limit because I had a long way to go, I got pulled over. AZ has a crazy law: 
Officer "I can give you a 200 dollar 4 point ticket for speeding or an 80 dollar no point ticket for 'wasting finite resources'. " Me "Do I get to choose?" Officer "No, I get to choose but you HAVE been very cooperative."
2.  Subsequent to emailing a photo of my temp certificate to the FAA Officer in charge and being assured I would get a letter that said the entire thing had gone away... the FAA permanently suspended the examiner I'd taken the float ride with.  The same guy that they had pre-approved me to use.  Anecdotally, they suspended most of the Examiners at several big flight schools in AZ, NV and FL.

So I sweated that for about a month, and then received the letter saying this was all behind me. So it's all OK in the end.

But I'm still not a big fan of the FAA.  To put it mildly.

END

AK to AZ 2013

Since Jake does a much better job than I, I'll just defer to him again...

http://stcroiss.blogspot.com/2013/10/from-alaska-to-arizona-2013.html

Palmer Fire Season

I'm a little embarrassed by it, but I love when the firefighters show up. Lots of fires this year led to a banner crop of airplanes...

 Convair 580

 It's hard to see but in addition to the three Convair 580's there's an Electra in the back.

There were briefly a couple CL-215's.  I saw some video of them working the Chena Road fire by Fairbanks. When they stopped this one, the mechanic (or co-pilot) went up on the wing with FOUR GALLONS of oil to service the engines, lol

Not firefighting, but it was fun to see this Pawnee banner tow working out of PAAQ for a while.  He's got it made - basically tow banners pretty much wherever he wants in AK for the summer.

End

Sedona Day Trip

I'll just link to Jake's blog because he does a much better job than I...

When he says the plane is unbroken for the first time, that's a bit overstated but we have been "AOG" in AZ a lot - mostly TW problems but most recently a blown brake caliper. Hopefully we've got it all worked out and it will be back to it's old reliable self :-)
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/XYTj/~3/hkPd66bVXcw/lunch-in-sedona.html

Northbound 2012 Final Push Home

Day Six, Fly to Abbotsford

Coming out of Olympia we tried three different passes to get through the Cascades to the East and finally gave up.  A couple times I think we could have made it if I had known the way (had some local knowledge), but it was getting pretty low.  I wanted to get through because I had filed with Customs to leave the US just South of Penticton.  I was worried I would get in some sort of trouble, but there was no way to change the departure info.

We briefly considered going back to Oly (which was nice), but figured we'd find somewhere near the border to regroup and try to go to Abbotsford instead of Penticton.  I took a look at the nearest airports on the GPS and saw Arlington which sounded familiar.  It had gas so we headed in...

And found ourselves smack in the middle of a flyin!  They had gas AND a restaurant.  And they let us use their wi-fi to file more customs paperwork and all that big brother crap.  It was pretty fun, and the weather began to clear just as we had eaten and watched almost everyone else fly away. :-)

Day Seven, Fly to Watson Lake

We spent the night in Penticton, then blasted through Williams Lake on up the trench to Watson Lake.

I like Williams Lake.  Real mellow little terminal that has seen better days I think.  Easy to get gas, there are a couple ticket counters and waiting areas but all pretty much abandoned the two times we've been there and there are some tables so we've stopped for snacks a couple times.

Then we went up to Mackenzie to fuel up for the trench.  It was blowing over 20, but right down the runway so I didn't really notice until I got up on the wing to refuel and froze my ass off.  A Supercub taxied up and I waved to them that I would hurry (and I WAS!!!).  I walked over to them and it turned out to be Bob Breeden and Greg Swingle headed to Valdez for the STOL contest.  A couple (?) years ago the kids and I flew into Greg's wedding near the Knik Glacier behind my house in Palmer.  The Breeden's have had some Alaska adventures, including losing a Cub to a calving glacier.

Greg is a fun guy and makes great flying videos - search Vimeo or YouTube for "Ohio Bush Planes"

It was a smidge low coming out of Mackenzie but soon cleared up.  Pretty much.  We circled around near the pass in the trench for a while until we could see through a bit better, but it was wide open the rest of the way. This is the S end of Williston Lake.

They caught up to us at Watson Lake along with my friend John Payne who was ferrying a plane up from the states.  I didn't know John was around, but he recognized my plane (he's flown it) and texted me that they were spending the night at the Watson Lake terminal.  Jake and I had already had a restaurant dinner and were watching TV in a hotel room, so I told them to have a good time without us :-)

The next day was foggy and we waited around for it to clear up.  Following the road there are a couple high spots that weren't open so we had to backtrack a couple times to go around.  In my limited experience the lowest weather has always been between Watson Lake and Whitehorse.  The Canadian weather lady was really concerned - she kept trying to talk me out of going to take a look because I wasn't a local.  I finally told her "Look, I know what I'm doing. You might see me back in Watson Lake this afternoon, but you won't see me on the evening news."

Day Eight, Home!

We bought 600 dollars worth of gas in Whitehorse and filed with Customs for Northway.  I was in a hurry since it was late in the day and Northway Customs closes at 4PM I think so I got really frustrated using the Whitehorse terminals to file with US Customs.  Jake told me yelling "fucking government" probably wasn't such a good idea in a government building.  :-)

We had the nicest Customs guy in Northway. He told us "Your friends said they had to fly around a little to make it through, but there were here 6 hours ago".  John made it to Palmer via Fairbanks before we got home direct. In a plane that goes about 25% slower than mine :-)

The Customs guy waited until after he was supposed to be closed  for this Goose he knew was coming. He really was a good guy.

We wanted to get home so we just ran wide open the last 90 minutes or so and made it to Palmer.

END