I’m a controller, and I’m a big believer that ATC should be turning far more pilots over to the FSDO folks. We see guys bust clearances or do things wrong (say, flying approaches incorrectly) far more frequently than we actually refer things to FSDO.

The tendency, at least at my facility, is for ATC people to think “well, we’re not skycops, so it’s not our job to see to it that these pilots are punished.”

My point is that they’re exactly correct- so we should turn what happened over to the FSDO folks, who ARE in charge of that kind of thing, and let them deal with the issue.

The answer back is “well if some pilot loses his license for that, does he deserve it?” Or if it’s a professional pilot, he’ll get in trouble and maybe lose his job over it. “It was just this one little thing…” people tell me.

Well, fine- right now. But what if this pilot has been screwing stuff up once a month, but since it’s on a Tuesday swing shift in Seattle Center this time, and next time it’s on a Monday day shift in Salt Lake Center, and another time it’s at Portland Approach?

Suddenly it becomes obvious that it might well be a big problem, that this is a pilot who’s going to wind up killing him/herself and probably some passengers, but to each of the ATC facilities involved it was that “one time thing” so they never turned it in…

My stepmom was a FSDO inspector for several years. I asked her about the “big bad inspector that just wants to cause trouble for pilots” image that many people have. She admitted that sure, there’s some FSDO inspectors who can be like that- but that in her experience, the majority are like anyone else. They’re just folks who want to do a good job.

Her emphasis was always on increasing safety. If that meant telling a guy to review the procedures for proper course reversal into an approach and then get back to her for a verbal quiz, and that would suffice to educate him and get him flying right, that’s fine.

On the other hand, if she had to throw the book at a guy who flew (for example) after 9/11 when the airspace shutdown had been going for some time and he was specifically told “no, you cannot fly”, she would do that, too.

The point is that I 100% agree with you, Rob; we need to quit hesitating to turn crummy pilots in. If it’s truly “just a one-time”, not very serious thing, great; the pilot can learn and move onward. But if it’s what it takes to keep guys like the one in the video (which is unfortunately no longer available) from flying, it’s definitely what we need to start doing.

Sounds like that’s what the bonanza’s pilot should have done.

What happened to the L-39? I mean this guy is beating the weeds and theres a jet trainer somewhere nearby in formation?