New FAA regulations require towers under 200′ to be marked

How does unvetted stuff like this continue to be posted as "news"? The news forum on QRZ is a joke...

 

...let go with a volley from the paint gun. He'll get the message.

 

Well, not exactly:

91.119 Minimum safe altitudes; general Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes:

(a) Anywhere – An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.

(b) Over congested areas – Over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open-air assembly of persons, an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.

(c) Over other than congested areas – An altitude of 500 feet above the surface except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In that case, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure. ...
​

https://www.faa.gov/about/office_or...re/media/FAA_Guide_to_Low-Flying_Aircraft.pdf

 

Well, not exactly...

§ 137.49
Operations over other than congested areas.
Notwithstanding part 91 of this chapter, during the actual dispensing operation, including approaches, departures, and turnarounds reasonably necessary for the operation, an aircraft may be operated over other than congested areas below 500 feet above the surface and closer than 500 feet to persons, vessels, vehicles, and structures, if the operations are conducted without creating a hazard to persons or property on the surface.

 

From https://www.agaviation.org/towerqanda

When will the database be up and running?

The 2018 FAA Reauthorization requires the database be accessible to aerial applicators by October 2019. NAAA is working closely with the FAA to ensure they meet this deadline, and to ensure the database will be a practical and user-friendly tool.

 

... way past time for human piloted crop dusters to be replaced by autonomous multicopters or such.

(I dislike the misused word drone)

 

Coming next week will be a multilevel authentication system so each story can be "verified" as news or not for our protection.

 

You ever see Mt. Rushmore?

 

Pay more attention to aircraft manufacturers, dear F.A.A, and their methodology of releasing un-airworthy hardware for commercial flights.

 

THANKS A HEAP GARY!

Spit my coffee out all over my 30lb cat I LOL so hard!

He will get me back, I'm sure!

 

Oh, sure. Threaten violence and make all of us look bad. Thanks so much. Do us all a favour? Get out of ham radio and into aviation.

 

not medivac and other ems aircraft ... think about it

 

A pretty good apropos story to go with this POST...

My loyalty remains divided between Aviators desiring to not be swatted from the sky by a giant earth stick and a Radio Aficionado who's owned giant earth sticks able to swat Aviators from the sky. This is pretty serious business... You guys living in Metropolis have very little to fear... HOWEVER how many $$$$ is your liability TO the family of an aviator killed or damage inflicted by hitting your tower, guy wire, or antenna during legal performance of his business or job. Either way you'll be in court a LONG TIME and a gaggle of lawyers are going to make money off your situation. I HAVE EXPERIENCE with this subject.

Circa about 1987-8 or so we had a vary nice shiny 125' worth of tower, mast with fullsized 40 meter beam atop located on our farm... off the tower was an 80 meter VEE at the top about 120' stretched out to the ladder of our Silo and a very long nylon rope at the same angle pulled out across our FRP land to a 125# truck tire and rim... as a dipole support that tire in the tall grass was next to an immovable object. One Sunday Morning we were awaken to the sounds of a crop duster spraying the field on the other side of our farmstead's fence. We were surround by OUR Cropland who was Leased to a neighboring farmer to increase his tillable acres. It made sense to spray the 25 acres of FRP also as they were harboring a full load of crickets also and it was a really bad year for crop damage.

THE MISTAKE was the Farmer made was NOT coordinating with the landowner informing them that SUNDAY AM at daybreak the crops were to be sprayed... It was an emergency spraying... He didn't think it was important. Or needed to be done...

The Arial Applicator failed to ring us also, but did a low fly by. He knew about the towers for a few years, however had no idea there was a 300' rope out there stretching from ZERO to about 60' over the farmsteads fence. where it was connected to the end of the 80...

We were FAT and Happy knowing the farmer wasn't going to disrupt the FRP Acres and our tire was safe and sound out there. Laying in bed 6:30 Sunday morn, we heard about three passes and then silence... that was quick, roll over and sleep...

WELL !!! on one of his passes the Applicator hooked his spray boom on that rope... Not as strong as a USS Nimitz catch wire, it eventually broke. We found out about the incident at 8 AM firing up for our Sunday AM 80 meter group with full reflected. A brisk walk to see what was UP or in this case DOWN found the 80 meter wrapped all around the 40 meter beam... what a mess, a several hour repair... AND A MISSING 125# truck tire!!!!! It was later found drug a couple hundred feet with about 200 feet of white nylon 3/8th rope still attached...

Then the Poopie hit the blower Kids... A really upset phone call from the Farmer who had leased the land... He wasn't that nice of a guy anyway... Saying "HIS" field really his crops weren't getting sprayed because of US... and he was sure EVERYBODY was going to sue us for damage to his aircraft that had the very expensive boom tore off.... and the lost crops .... The farmer was quickly dealt with, but it wasn't a very pleasant situation. I also made a call to the applicator I knew... He called back later that day as he was flying saying oh no it wasn't him but it was so-in-so... OK well give him our number in case he needs to discuss this further...

"How this situation was settled. After a quick consult with our Lawyer DREAM TEAM...." The AG applicator had lost his spray boom. And was down until he could get another one installed about $1500 with him replacing and any lost revenue. We agreed if we ever found the boom we'd return it... Our antenna was broke and had to be repaired at the balun and some high wire act needed to be performed to unwind the dipole at 125 feet wrapped three times around the big yagi and remaining 5' of mast above.... What a mess...

We sort of agreed that everybody should have communicated, and the applicator was reasonable in this case and knew he should have looked things over beforehand he'd never sprayed our place before. and our damages were about "equal" by the time we'd done all our repairs...

The third party... That farmer was DONE... He'd even attempted to get us in trouble federally for using the FRP land... His Uncle was the county inspector for the USDA.... Really nice guy He said the kid was a bum, poor farmer, reefer addict hahahaha, and a useless idiot... The next season our land was going to be farmed by our other neighbors across the way. We got along great with them. Our nearest neighbor and ended up buying that land from us for a very nice price a few years later when we sold-out and moved to DETROIT flying...

The new land lease spelled out every issue we'd had with the previous farmer (which was significant) and all was well... 2 years later the new farmer walked up to the house carrying that spray boom he found on the far side of the land... with a lot of damage. The applicator said never mind with returning it. OK.

(The tower Rohn 45G. unimportant sidebar: a year later that tower was increase with 6 layers of guys to 198' note under the FAA rules that tower need not be marked.) it supported a phased dipole array for 40 meters, the big gun for 80 way up high and a 160 dipole briefly to give us a band opener before the big vertical got cooking during the 160 contests. ALL 4 antennas to heavy tire anchors way out there...

Things could have gone a LOT WORSE The pilot had some really serious flying to do dragging that truck tire... For several seconds he really thought he was going to die. Boom broke and he flew home.

What turned out to be a freebee with our attorney, could have been a dead pilot litigation dragging on for years ending up costing millions... The liability was pretty fairly spread between the three parties.

SO.... If you're out in the country where AG applicators MIGHT hit your Big Earth Stick or associated guys or antennas no matter how stupid you think it is to add yourself to a database, take the time to make sure you do as much as you can to make sure YOUR butt is covered... and if a neighbor could call in the airforce, that they'll have an issue regarding a secret surprise that sprouted up over night. TALK TALK TALK.... Especially when you don't get along with that neighbor!!!!! Because he's the one who will STIR THE POT for someone try to take you for everything you own or at least badmouth you to everybody he knows in 4 counties...

This is very serious business.

Erika DD

 

hmm