If they were willing, I think it would be of great benefit for a magazine
like AOPA's Flight Training to interview both of them and ask them questions
from the pilots, students, and instructors point of view, rather than just
the news media interviewing them from the talking head "you almost got shot
down and could have killed the President" point of view.

One question that I'd have is whether they had a current Washington terminal
chart aboard.

Maybe both pilots did everything they were capable of. Shaeffer has already
said he did.

Jim

"Gary Drescher" wrote in message
...
"Jim Burns" wrote in message
...
That was when the flight became MY responsibility, even though I was not
PIC
and was just a passenger, I became PIC and relieved him of his
"responsibility". I called center, filed IFR, flew the rest of the way
home, shot the approach down to about 800 ft AGL. Everybody agreed that
was
better than flying 300 miles following the interstate at 800 agl.

Sometimes it pays to do what you can instead of just what is required.
The
concept of PIC does not relinquish another person from the
responsibility
they have to themselves and their family. The PIC is in charge of the
flight, no doubt, but I'm still in charge of me and when my
responsibilities
to myself and my family conflict with another persons responsibilities
as
PIC, I'd rather be prepared to offer the PIC alternatives.

Cool story! Good thing you were prepared and capable!

I certainly agree that it's a great idea for any passenger to provide
redundancy to the best of his or her ability. I just don't think it's
warranted to criticize a passenger for choosing not to on a particular
flight. Evem a pilot passenger might just choose to take a nap instead.

And (as I elaborated in another post just now), I don't think there's much
evidence that this student *wasn't* taking full interest in the flight. He
was doing all the flying; and he and the PIC have stated that they both
did
pre-flight planning of their route (between the Camp David ADIZ and the DC
ADIZ). But they somehow got extremely lost while trying to follow that
route.

--Gary