www.PSFmagazine.com | February 2019 | 41 40 | February 2019 | Powered Sport Flying What Rules? As the president of the United States Ultralight Association, I will occasionally have to help answer some of the more unusual questions. Here is one that is worth sharing. Names have been removed to protect the guilty. “Are operators of ultralights required to follow fars other than 103? e.g. 8 hours bottle to throttle rule” First of all, wow. If there is a rule all pilots should pay attention to, it is the rule against flying under the influence. Part 91 covers it pretty well. OK, I meant really well. §91.17 has 447 words organized into six paragraphs, six sub-paragraphs, and two sub-sub-paragraphs telling us that flying under the influence is not a good idea. And when I say, “Not a good idea” I mean “NO!” But wait. There may be an out. The very beginning of Part 91 says that it does not apply to ultralights. Take a look: "§ 91.1 (e) This part does not apply to any aircraft or vehicle governed by part 103 of this chapter, or subparts B, C, or D of part 101 of this chapter." That seems to say that the faa is cool with us getting our drink on before we take to the skies in an ultralight! Well, maybe, and probably not. Let’s look at the operating rules of 14 cfr Part 103–Ultralight Vehicles: § 103.9 Hazardous operations. (a)No person may operate any ultralight vehicle in a manner that creates a hazard to other persons or property. That is just one paragraph with nineteen words. And you notice it doesn’t say anything about drinking. But the small phrase “creates a hazard” is a pretty loaded phrase. And it begs the question, how is an faa inspector going to determine if something creates a hazard or not? Well, the answer is that they are going to go to some kind of documented standard for a particular hazardous operation. And what might the gold standard be for hazardous operations when it comes to the topic of drinking and flying? My guess would be all of those words in “§91.17– Alcohol or Drugs.” So what we have here is one example. There are other examples, of course. The larger point is that for ultralight pilots, the regulatory requirements are in Part 103 of the regulations. Part 103 is incredibly short. But pilots also need to use common sense and behave like good neighbors. Learning the rules that other pilots fly under makes good sense, especially if they don’t cost anything and improve relations with other pilots and those on the ground. Sometimes we recreational pilots can be our own worst enemies. Failing to fly safely at airports by violating normal traffic patterns or doing other things that are viewed dimly by other pilots messes up relationships and makes it difficult for all ultralight pilots. Sometimes entire categories of aircraft find themselves banned for the misdeeds of one or two people who have long gotten out of the sport or moved away. For example, powered parachutes for a long time were not welcome at many airports in Ohio because of the activities of some regionally notorious pilots in the 90’s. Powered paragliders have lost access to entire states’ worth of public beaches because of the poor flying by one or two bad apples who don’t even live in affected states. Yet other pilots have lost access to airports because they constantly flew over neighbors’ property. (A two-stroke engine at 100 feet or less every morning can become tedious.) It doesn’t help anyone when an ultralight pilot points to Part 103 and says that those are the only rules that apply to him. Being wrong is bad enough. But being ignorant, rude and refusing to fly safely according to standard practices hurts the pilot and everyone else who flies something that looks even remotely like what that pilot flies. Fortunately, I believe that the people who get magazines like this also are the good apples at an airport. Or if anyone accidentally does something improper, they will correct their ways if a better practice is pointed out. Unfortunately, in aviation it is sometimes the worst of us who leave the lasting impression. We need to constantly police our own for safety’s sake and to help increase access for our kind of flying. Whatever it is we individually fly, we should build bridges and not burn them!
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