The solution is tougher laws and mandatory jail time (at least 6 months)for your first offense.
By your 3rd dui you probably ought to be looking at 10 years in jail.
Experimental Aircraft are experimental, obviously.
They do not carry the same certifications that are earned by proven safety records of general aviation aircraft.
I could be wrong (what are the chances of that, eh?), but I believe that any aircraft that is designated âexperimentalâ is allowed to be piloted by one individual and cannot carry passengers.
If that is correct (as Iâve always understood it) then why would that be?
I also have always believed that experimental aircraft have more crashes than certified general aviation machines.
Also, many people who build an aircraft are not extremely accomplished pilots, but rather have limited flying experience.
When an experimental aircraft goes down, my first instinct is to suspect the aircraft.
This speculation is based on my several year work experience at a fixed base airplane operation and from flight training I received and hours in the log book.
I might go for a spin in an experimental car or boat, but you wouldnât get me in an experimental aircraft.
CSA
Depends on the individual certificate which will vary based on the plane, but the general rule is that youâre not allowed to carry passengers for hire. Wanna bring your friend along for that $100 hamburger, thatâs fine, as long as he doesnât pay you for the privilege.
Thatâs such a broad range of aircraft Iâm surprised you would exclude all of them. It comes down to the builder/owner/pilot for me. I have no qualms about flying in an experimental as long as I trust the person that maintains and flies it. That being said, there is one notable exception. I was offered a ride on this ultralight once. Basically a long tube with two plastic bucket seats at the front and a glorified weed whacker pushing from behindâŠno thanks! Been on quite a few ultralights and smaller single engine experimental planes. My brother owns an RV-6A. Youâd be hard pressed to find a safer pilot/plane to ride inâŠ
Just be patient. The investigators will weed this one out quickly.
Along the lines of what asemaster talked about, in my younger days I got pretty cranked up with liquor and quite often.
The last couple of times I can say that I was flat intoxicated was back in the mid 80s; once at a benefit to raise money for a friend who needed major heart work and the other at my last visit to the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, SD.
In both of those cases I hit the Tequila and that stuff gets me 10 feet tall and bulletproof.
So in 30ish or so years Iâve never been intoxicated again although I still drink a few beers or a couple of glasses of wine now and then. Thatâs not done to develop any kind of a buzz; itâs to try and settle the pain from serious back issues down a little bit so I can sleep.
So based on my history I donât think that past instances of intoxication necessarily means that Iâm guilty of it today.
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'round these parts, When someone gets a dui, it does NOT spur them to stop . . but only to attempt a different means so as to not get caught.
Like so many busts for other things the truth is ;
Theyâre not sorry they did it . . theyâre sorry the got caught !
Iâm with @ok4450 and @asemaster
Years ago, I used to party until the wee hours and get sloshed, but good
I never hit anybody, never wrecked my car, never got a dui. But I that doesnât change the fact that I shouldnât have driven myself home. I drove home drunk so many times, I couldnât even count it on both of my hands
As I said, itâs been YEARS ago, and I donât even finish a 6-pack in a monthâs time
I guess that makes me EXTREMELY likely to cause a dui accident and kill a bunch of people 
Lock me up right now, before I hurt anybody
Because according to Rick, if somebody messed up in the past, then statistically, theyâll keep messing up for the rest of their lives
Back in the old days a guy with whom I ran around a lot with would often go out with me and get liquored up pretty badly so to speak. He even naively started dabbling short term in some hard drugs; a habit which I managed to help him kick very quickly. Heâs a great guy and quite often he ended up passed out in the passenger seat while I was driving home.
Back in the mid 70s he met this girl, fell in love, and even though there was no pressure from her he just said he wasnât touching another drop of alcohol. Heâs been strictly on the wagon ever since then.
So he doesnât fit the mold of repeat offender either.
Thereâs a hilarious story about this guy one night when a state trooper stopped us and jail was a 100% certainty.
You are taking personally and looking at it emotionally instead of logically.
There are plenty of guys in prison our age that were in there since there 20s that didnât intend on killing or hurting someone. They might have made a youthful indiscretion and robbed someone and the gun went off and they hurt someone killed someone and they are in prison for 30 years. Many of these folks wised up and are completely different people, however when they get out they will be looked at with their past behavior in mind always.
When someone is convicted of a felony they are no longer able to posses a firearm legally. If they serve their time and are a changed person has no effect on that. Its because of logic and statistics, not because they are a bad person.
The alcoholic balloon operator has shown a pattern of being convicted of breaking laws due to extremely irresponsible behavior over 20 years. As soon as he had a wreck, even if alcohol or drugs had no bearing on the incident, he will have suspicion cast upon him until proven innocent.
Sorry Rick, but this is the result of special interest groups not logic and statistics. Thatâs why if you are a vet and get treated for PTSD you are no longer qualified. Or if you need help processing your Social Security payments. Or if you were involved in a domestic dispute for some reason or circumstance, and the list is getting longer, not due to logic at all. Forget pheasant hunting under any of these circumstances.
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I actually figure you are extremely unlikely to drive drunk now. I seem to remember that you have a good job that you would probably loose if you lost your license. I am in the same boat.
Iâm no saint, back in my younger days I would get all hopped up on Goofballs sometimes. I would never do this now because it would be putting my livelihood at risk due to drug testing. I would sure like to pop a few of them right now so I could have some energy for a change.
Its amazing when there are severe repercussions to our actions how our behaviors change.
Iâm extremely unlikely to drive drunk nowadays, as you said
It took me years to get this job, and Iâm not about to jeopardize it now
I could probably count the number of beers I consume in one year . . . on both hands
And I donât do wine or hard liquor, anyways
Not any time in the recent past, FWIW
I donât even do any kind of prescription medication, for fear it would show up during a random drug test, and it might raise a few questions
speaking of prescription medications, at least one of the guys at work takes POWERFUL pain pills, and I know that some of them can really impair you. When he mentions it, I just listen and have no comments.
Let me get this straight. Youâve been insisting that people who have a DWI are likely to do it again. Now you admit that you blasted yourself on barbituates when you were younger, and you acknowledge that @db4690 drove drunk without getting caught, and you say neither of you are likely to drive impaired today.
The only reasonable conclusion is that you think the act of getting caught is the only thing that causes repeat-drunk-driving behavior. If DB had gotten caught, then heâd be very likely to drive drunk again whereas weâre all fortunate that he did not get caught because this means heâll never do it again?
Are you seeing why weâre all questioning your logic? DB isnât going to drive drunk again because heâs grown up since then and is a responsible member of society, not because he didnât get caught. I think you really need to sit down and think very carefully about the things you think you believe before you tell the world about them, because at least with this topic, they donât make any sense and have needlessly insulted people who did not deserve it.
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I read it all. When I started on his first posting, I thought Rick was out of balance. By the bottom, I tend to agree with him.Those DUI convictions were not in his 20âs, but not that long ago. He did NOT change his behavior as he matured, as the rest of you did.
Also, the same disregard that made him have DUI into his 40âs, may well have contributed to his poor operating practices. This was not Christopher Reeves.
One of my favorite sayings is: Leopards do not change their spots.
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Actually, I believe the news reports said four DUIs.
That said, until an autopsy is conducted, there is no proof that he was even slightly impaired. For all we know, he had been dry for some time. The craft may have suffered a mechanical failure, like a broken control cable, that caused it to go out of control in a manner that couldnât be compensated.
I know that balloon pilots prefer early flights because of less chance of wind gusts and up- or down-drafts, but those are also possibilities for the tragedy.
The investigation will ultimately explain the incident, no matter what we all speculate.
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At any rate, I have had no desire to go up in a balloon. I prefer things with motors in them. But yeah, wind gusts, currents off the warm ground, changes in terrain, etc. who knows what happened to cause him to hit the power line. The weather has been kind of bazaar down there. Maybe equipment, maybe just inexperience. I remember Bruce Williams saying he quit flying because you just had to do it all the time to stay competent.
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I got hopped up on goofballs which around here are pep pills. They speed you up, Its an amphetamine like they used to give fighter pilots in ww2 to keep them sharp, they actual help your reaction time. I took them to stay up all night, I admit I have driven a dirt bike while amped up on these
Not saying it was right, but we would ride around our county back roads like a bat out of hell. At Night. One night we were out and I had been up since 6am and it was 1am the next day and we stopped on a road to take a break, I remarked that I was tired and one of the guys in our group told me if i was tired it was my own fault, I asked what he meant and he introduced me to the wonderful world of Pep pills. We rode a few more hours to get back and I felt like I was so aware to what was going on it wasnât even funny. No keep in mind were talking rural gravel and dirt roads.
The fact that DB didnât get caught means nothing, he made the comment that I think he should be thrown in jail now for his past offenses. This is not true, he got away with it, so the past is the past.
Well it was worse than I ever imagined, this guy was really hopped up.
The FAA weather hotline even was recorded telling him not to fly, but in typical alcoholic fashion he said it was ok, he would fly around the clouds.
One dui may not indicate that a person will be irresponsible in the future. There is a good chance that the offender will have to attend alcohol classes and the cost of the ticket may âscare them straightâ.
But two duiâs Iâd say is a sure indicator of general irresponsibility probably for the rest of their life.