Trappy's NYC flight under FAA investigation

Gary at sUAS News reports:

"sUAS News recently asked FAA Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety, Peggy Gilligan about the First Person View flight undertaken in New York by Austrian Raphael Pirker.

As Associate Administrator, Ms. Gilligan leads the organization responsible for setting, overseeing, and enforcing safety standards for all parts of the aviation industry – airlines, manufacturers, repair stations, pilots, mechanics, air traffic controllers, and any person or product that operates in aviation. These programs have a direct impact on every facet of domestic and international civil aviation safety.

We are very grateful that Ms Gilligan took the time to answer, heres what she said.

“This event remains under investigation by FAA as well as by some law enforcement organizations in the NYC area. We do intend to notify the operator of the investigation — although I understand he is not a US citizen and we believe he is not in the US”

It will be interesting to see which particular rules may or may not have been broken during Trappys flight."

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Comments

Duane Brocious February 10, 2011 at 3:35pm

Nor here. Our cops will call the BATF and it will be Ruby Ridge all over again... and mine is an Airsoft. Good thing they will have my "drones" to justify it.
Brad Smith February 10, 2011 at 12:38pm

just stick the SKS in the gun rack and nobody will even ask about the plane ...works for me
Drol Vlieger February 10, 2011 at 5:50am

It's a good thing I live in a real land of the free. There are too many uptight people and there's too much bureaucracy in the land of the not-so-free. Trappy deserves to have a bronze statue of him holding a Zephyr placed in his town square for all the enjoyable videos he has posted.
Marco Glattfelder February 9, 2011 at 11:27pm

I respect trappy. Honestly I'm not impressed by the "did he brake the rules" discussion. He prepared his flights well and IMHO is an awesome pilot. The best part of this discussion are the information about his setup.

Everyone (I someone says that he doesn't is simply a lier) that drives a car brakes much more rules and produces much more potential dangerous situation than the one that trappy may have produced.
Duane Brocious February 9, 2011 at 10:19pm

Recreational sUAS do not require an AoC or anything else. My mistake, they "require" that no pilot be on board and no commercial activity or use for monetary gain other than competition prizes.
Andrew Rabbitt February 9, 2011 at 9:50pm

Do R/C "aircraft" require an Airworthiness Certificate? If not, then it could be construed not to be an aircraft, legally speaking.
Duane Brocious February 9, 2011 at 4:37pm

So true.

Maybe get back into gun collecting, hunting and target shooting, not as controversial or regulated.
john bero February 9, 2011 at 4:28pm

And worth more at the end.
Duane Brocious February 9, 2011 at 4:26pm

If the NPRM in July is really bad and doesn't get changed, it will still be a while before it goes into effect. Hopefully long enough to sell all my stuff (there seem to be lot of easily conned people in this hobby (semi-kidding)) and get into a different hobby. Maybe get a 'Vette to restore.. probobly cheaper in the long run. : 0
john bero February 9, 2011 at 4:17pm

Sadly, its comming.

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