Heavy hand again?

On Monday, July 15, 2013 12:20:04 PM UTC-4, rlovinggood wrote:

I once landed at a former county airport that is now used for "first responder" driver training. They set out a course on the runway with traffic cones. The runway does have "X"s painted on it. The day I landed there, no traffic was on the runway and I found a length clear of cones. No problems. I walked to the former FBO, now a classroom. It was full of policemen. Soon, I had about five squad cars surrounding my glider. But they didn't give me the treatment that Vitek received. They were all just wondering what the glider was and why I was there.


I've been personally associated with about a dozen landouts where the cops got involved in one way shape or form. All but one was painless.

I think the secret is to start by realizing these guys and gals are people, like anyone else. If the first thing they get from a pilot is a ration of attitude, that's probably not a good start. Conversely, if they start out hardass, I view it as my job to start by defusing the situation. Hey, I'm a reasonable guy. You guys obviously have a lot of important things to do. How can we make this work? Sure, there's the hard case that's just out to make your life miserable. In that situation, maybe a cool (but not cold) shoulder is the only solution.

Example. Came up about 20 miles short on final glide and landed uneventfully in a cut hay field adjoining a small recreation area over a hedgerow (baseball fields and a playground). After securing the glider, I went looking for the farmhouse and field owner.

When I got back 20 minutes later, there were two cop cars and the associated cops standing there looking around. I walked up and said something to the effect "I'm guessing you're looking for me?" The first cop came out strong. We were looking for a body. How can you not call in a crash? Endangering public. etc. The other cop obviously wanted to be the proverbial "good cop" but wasn't opening his mouth.

My response was to be apologetic without admitting any wrong doing. "I totally understand - didn't realize the protocol here. When this happens in other jurisdictions (sowing some seeds of doubt), they've specifically asked to not be bothered unless there's an injury or damage. I was actually out looking for the farmer to make sure I wasn't in his way. I had no idea anyone was out looking for me. etc. " Just wanted to tone things down a little and see the reaction.

This made it possible for the second cop to step in and, as they say, cooler heads prevailed. Where we ended up was that "the next time I land in Washington township, I'll be sure to call the non-emergency number son they know what's up if calls start coming in about a plane crash."

By the end of it, the good cop was driving me around looking for the farmer and stopping by the quickie-mart grabbing a cold soda.

Not in anyway implying that Vitek had "good cop" options. Just suggesting that immediately going on the offensive and quoting only name/rank/serial number may be the moral high ground, but it may not be the practical solution to de-escalating.

My. 0.02
Erik Mann (P3)