Pilot Takes His Piper Surfing

A 24 year old pilot was flying low along the beach near the Kennedy International Airport and was in contact with Air Traffic Control when he asked the controller if it would be OK to land the plane on the beach.  The controller essentially told him NO as it was a public beach and it would only be acceptable under emergency conditions.  The pilot then mentions that his engine may be running a "a little teensy bit rough" and he would be doing a precautionary landing on the beach - but it's not an emergency.  The controller responds by informing the dim whittled pilot that his request actually constituted an emergency and the controller began alerting the authorities of an emergency beach landing.

Listen to the ATC audio here:
http://www.avweb.com/other/piper-32nd_beachlanding_LiveATC-net.mp3

This guy seems so arrogant in his communication with ATC using language that is completely inappropriate especially in the congested airspace near Kennedy International "I'll get off your grill."  Once on the ground, this pilot refers to the Flying Wild Alaska TV show on the Discovery Channel and says that he was inspired by the off airport landings depicted on that show and thought he'd try is own off airport landing on the beach.  Does this guy realize that the bush pilots spend years training in backcountry flying, only slowly working their way up to making well planned off airport landings, they didn't just one day think, "it would be a great idea to land in the ocean."  What this kid has done, is make both young general aviation pilots as well as highly trained backcountry bush pilots look bad in an act that can be described as both brash and childish.  I hope the general public understands that the aviation community is embarrassed by this pilot and most pilots would never dream of doing something like this.

While most pilots are working hard each flight to ensure they are flying safely and within the limits of their ability and knowledge, this kid is out there practically cracking jokes to the controller by saying "what if I want to hide from you" and seems to think that flying is just a game. Look, I think a lot about how we can get more young pilots involved in aviation as fewer and fewer youth are taking to the skies, but this is not the type of person we need in the sky.  He endangered himself as well as his two passengers and clearly didn't consider the possibility that people could be out on a public beach and decided to land in-spite of the ATC warning that landing on a public beach was not legal.  I hope for the sake of this young pilot, that he had enough with flying and was simply looking for an opportunity to have his certificate taken away - because I doubt he will ever fly again after a stunt like that.

I guess this is similar to the issues involved with video games and guns.  It can be fun to play a video game with guns, as it is fun to watch a bush pilot land on a river bed, but most people can tell the difference between what is happening on the screen, and the actions that are OK in normal life.  Using guns is an acceptable practice if the person using the gun is being responsible and using common sense, and also has practiced using the gun in a controlled environment.  Just because you see it happen on a screen doesn't mean you should try it yourself and I seriously hope that people don't criticize the show as being a bad influence on pilots.  I've watched the show but would never think it would be a good idea to just land on the banks of Folsom Lake for instance.  Just stupid.  Stupid kid.

Here's a tip for anyone interested in trying their first off airport operations, go take some bush lessons before you "try this at home," here are some options:

http://www.abovealaska.com/bush.htm

http://www.andoverflight.com/information_bushpilot.html

This way, you can be like a Flying Wild Alaska pilot but not endanger people in the process.

"There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old - bold pilots"