.04 BAC legal limit for flying? Does that strike anyone else as odd? I figured it was somewhere around..0.00

FAA rule is 8 hours from bottle to throttle, but we're advised not to drink for 24 hours before taking a plane up. Anyone who does otherwise is simply an asshat!

24 hours??? Um, I know "a guy" who flies the next day after having a couple pops with dinner.

With respect to this article, I was curious whether flipping over in a plane crash might have affected his ability to pass a field sobriety test? Just wonderin

ps allenmwhite how were you "advised" to wait 24 hours? FAR/AIM?

52? Wow, that's old.

Flying a plane isn't really any more difficult than driving. Why would a .00 be required.

When I learned to fly, I solod after 12 hours of instruction. It took a bunch more than 12 hours to drive solo and be anywhere near safe.

I don't know that I could do a sobriety test after crash landing a plane upside down on the freeway.

Something about that being in a crash and all...

I fell on my ass skating once and I had to sit for a while before I felt like I had the nerves in the right place to drive. Nothing like flipping a plane over after thinking you're going to die for maybe 5 minutes.

WTF! 52! He should be in a nursing home or something. Shouldn't they exterminate anyone over 30?

I suspect the headline writer was drunk when he wrote a van was landing on California freeway.

Was the driver of the flying van drunk too?

"I'm thirty-seven! I'm not old!"

I just saw Logan's Run last night Zuma - I don't think I could take a society where we wore that type of clothing and hairstyles... oh wait, I have that hair already...

doh

52 years old? Jiminy! I'm suprised they let people that old be pilots. I mean, I can understand letting people that old command horseless carriages, but aeroplanes? That's just darn nuts!

why was a van landing on a freeway?

/obligatory

The headline and story confuse me, so I'll just Weeners thing I thought of reading it.

/I thought it was pretty good

That's a story the van driver can tell until the day he dies.

FARK. Despite months of tedious care to avoid doing so, the filter has finally gotten me.

"farmer's market"

enough already.

Armed and Delerious Is that the one where the grandma flips the guy off?

yep

The pic is a link too.

The reason it's 8 hours wait after a drink, or a BAC of 0.00 is because at altitude alcohol affects you a lot more. Get a pilot friend to take you up to 12000' and see how many beers you can get through.

Also, yeah you can solo at 12 hours. Thinking you're safe enough to do anything more than fly circles around your home airport at that point is ignorant.

farqew - 24 hrs. is the recommendation of the flying club I belong to, and since I'd like to continue renting their planes I go along with that recommendation. (I've had a few nights where I wouldn't want me at the yoke the next morning!)

Agnosto - Just because you can solo in 12 hours doesn't mean you're ready to be Pilot-In-Command! There's a heck of a lot more to being responsible for the lives of yourself, your passengers and anyone unlucky enough to be on the ground when your plane makes terminal impact than just being able to fly pattern work around an airfield. Driving is extremely simple compared to safely flying an airplane.

Fox has video of the scene (no doubt curtesy of one of the local stations). There's a closeup of a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20... Maybe he thought it would help his vision.

you got a link to that Golden_Eternity?

Hey, I know... I'll post a comment about the van flying. I bet I'm the first one, too...

I've got nearly 400 hours and I know there's still a lot I can learn. Any pilot at any experience level who thinks otherwise is fooling himself.

Obligatory "I submitted this with a better headline"...

Why is it every time general aviation makes headlines, it's some idiot making all pilots look bad?

When you go up, you not only carry responsibility for yourself, your passengers, and your aircraft, you are contributing one way or another to the reputation of aviation as a whole. Never forget that. 8-hours-bottle-to-throttle is the FAR, but I'd advise not drinking at all. Screw up, and you give the government one more reason to ban General Aviation, and the armchair pilots one more example to show the rest of us must be idiots.

I soloed at 8.1 hours, been flying longer than the majority of you have been alive. Anyone who says flying is as easy as driving either has not really flown anywhere or will be showing up with a 'dumbass' tag on Fark soon. The variables that come with flying are astounding. GIS 'nc19008' for my trainer.

Re: previous post 'N19008'

There are an amazing number of dumbass pilots. Private flying is dangerous, but not so dangerous such as to wipe them all out. Pity really, but at least a good number of innocent passengers luck out every year.

Flying is to driving as brain surgery is to flushing a radiator. Please don't fly anywhere near me.

I solo'd after doing a tutorial. /Flight simulator!

The planed landed 4 minutes from my house. Wish I'd seen it actually hit.

There were about five sources I was going to submit but none had photos or video. That was odd as I saw video on TV on at least two different networks ( FOX and NBC ). But strangely not one website had any video or even a measley photo, so I didn't bother. However, if you do happen upon some videos or photos, it's flippin' hilarious.

wyohome, maybe you should GIS that yourself? It returns pictures of an (Ercoupe? Or is that a V-tail bonanza?) and a Piper Cub. In any case, either aircraft would fit through one of the engines on my aircraft, so there.

Flying is not more difficult, it just requires more work. Anyone who can be trained to drive can be trained to fly SAFELY, provided the person has the proper attitude toward safety and procedures. The attitude and motivation of the student are the deciding factors.

Airplanes are a tool, just like a tractor or an automobile. They move people from one place to another. They are not inherently dangerous unless used incorrectly or carelessly, and anyone can learn to use one in a safe and orderly manner. Tools are to be respected, but never feared. Those who fear their tools have no place using them.

The legal limit for alcohol in the blood while flying is .04.

My step brother is/was (was laid off) a pilot for American. He said the last thing you need while flying is a buzz. He flew jets, not two seaters.

Airbus-Driver- I would have bought the Airbus but it wouldn't fit in my hanger. You sure must be rich to own one of those!! The photo of NC19008, if you click the link, is not a Piper Cub, but a 1937 Taylorcraft "A", so there.

Well, I don't OWN the aircraft, but I do get to fly it. As a sidenote, A319s go
pretty cheap reasonably equipped, if you look hard enough used ones can be
had for under a mil. Airbus Industrie is talking about putting the Airbus
avionics package into RJ and bizjet size aircraft, so maybe someday you can
have an Airbus in your hangar. The real problem is getting an ATP and a type
so you can fly one, and finding a non-busy airport to fly from. It's not exactly your VFR puddle-jumper, but it's great if you have a continent you want to cross.