Just curious, thought we might share some stories.

Leonard,
It has always seemed to me that everyone that got as far as first solo in a 150 thinks they are an expert in accident investigation.

I am not, but have worked with some pilots that got notices from the FAA that they will get a 709 ride. In most cases it was like most cases, they were ok pilots that got themselves in a pickle and could not get out. Crosswind and taildraggers, skis and overflow seem to keep cropping up.

Lots of stall/spin/crash/die accidents up here, too. Usually from turns about a moose. Had one this summer where they were dropping KFC to a church group.

Congrats on retirement.

Doug

Here one afew years back an Outfitter friend
in Icey Bay near Yakatat was delivering a loaf of Bread to his spike camp and nosed the plane in the sand. The client happened to be a FAA
investigator on vaction . That one cost him
Alot for a loaf of Bread.

Hi Leonard, First, Thank you for your service and congradulations on your retirement.

Though not an investatigator I had an "off airport landing?" (well we did walk away from it.) The NTSB in incidents like mine send out the FAA to investigate and after reading the FAA investigator's report, (He and I never got along too well) I filed a complaint with the NTSB as the FAA report was totally bogus. All the physical facts and evidence were wrong and it really smeared me and my actions to the emergency. The NTSB reopened the case and after their investigations exonerated me and sent a letter to the FSDO to not send that inspector out again.

I soloed on 1967 and have been flying professionally since 1976 and don't have a very cordial relationship with the FAA. I've had violations filed against me and won all of those, one went to court and that ruling led to a change in the FAR's. I've only known 3 inspectors that were good pilots and knew what they were doing. The rest couldn't find their belly-buttons.

How about mishap instigators ??

I was the obligatory weather officer on quiate a few accidents.....biggest problem I saw was quite a few pilots died from "got to get home tonight-itis".

I told them not to let Tony Blair land the plane.

I was a trained investigator in the Air Force and did two mishap investigations on crashed F-15E aircraft. One in Oman in '90 and one in AZ in '92. They're a lot of work but very interesting work.