Low level flying

[Guy]

As I understand it, it's not supposed to be able to, because when piloting a military aircraft, you are in no way acting on the priviliges of your civilian ticket. I have seen guys have the FAA attempt to come after them though when their identity was somehow discovered, or they (stupidly) identified themselves. Now, how far that went or how it went I wasn't privy to, but it's ass pain nonetheless.

I think you are right on target. There could be a couple different things happening that cause those stories to get into the unwritten book of common wisdom.

(1) It could be people at the FSDO level who just didn't understand that aspect and proceeded with something that fizzled about as soon as it hit the FAA Region level. In the mean time, the pilot is worried, in fact he may very likely have received a Letter of Investigation (LOI) from the FSDO.

(2) The FAA was just trying to get the facts straight and in the process of questioning the pilot, erroneously left the impression that the FAA was going to take some action against them.

(3) A situation was so egregious that the FAA felt a reexamination of the pilot's FAA certificate was in order. That, they can do, and from the pilot's perspective, it feels like punishment even though that is not the intention. It is almost certainly an aggravation and quite likely involves spending some money to rent an airplane to do the reexamination, so it isn't anything anyone would enjoy.

Then, there is always possibility number 4; I don't know what the heck I'm talking about and there has been an enforcement done on a military aviator. Believe me, over my life time I've had a lot of "number 4's" and one more won't shock me.

Regardless of the origin of the story, there is nothing to be gained by providing information that isn't required and I would certainly concur with the common wisdom of doing everything possible to enhance safety without putting one's self at risk.

 

[///AMG]

I guess what I was getting at, is just that if you violate a FAR in civilian airspace, more than likely you have your head just as far up your *** as your civilian counterparts would have to have theirs to get traditionally violated. In other words, while the law may not technically be able to touch us (if people keep their traps shut anyway), one's good judgement as an aviator comes into question. When that happens, you can bet that your command will take action, regardless of what the FSDO is able to do. Like I said, most violations I have seen on the mil side haven't been grey area blunders where our exemptions apply.