Legal rights when landing on private property (USA)

I can tell of at least 2 instances where private airports have been sold,
torn up for farming and even after proper notification, they still remained
on the charts for very long periods of time! One for 3 years! When asked
about this, one official told me that he got no letter from the former
airport owner saying that it was closed and sold. When I told them that this
fellow had died and had NO LIVING heirs, I was told, sorry I can not remove
it without authorization. What a crock of sh-t!!!!!! I had to have several
letters written by the estate executor 3 years after the estate was settled,
to get this strip removed. By the way, a glider at a local contest landed in
the new farmers hayfield, he got out and thought "what a nice place for an
airstrip" He looked around and found the old hanger building with the
airport name still on it. We sent the trailer for him!!!!!!

"BTIZ" wrote in message
news:mDWde.9774$fI.2464@fed1read05...
I am not a lawyer or the police, but I remember reading a similar article,
maybe in the SSA Magazine.

I believe you are correct about the "Safe harbor" law... you are either
going to land safely on their runway or hayfield.. or crash land somewhere
else and risk personal injury.

I do not believe he can detain you.. If he detains you.. he can be charged
with false imprisonment. He can call the constabulary and request a charge
of trespass be made.. that charge may not hold up in court.

He can reasonably expect that costs will be covered for damaged crops
caused
by landing or retrieving the glider, or damage to a fence that may have
been
cut be properly repaired. If he demands to keep the glider as collateral
for
damages, then he assumes all responsibility for your $100,000 glider in
event it is damaged while in his care. Politely inform him of that and ask
if he is willing to sign a receipt for your $100,000 glider, on his
possible
$2000 crop damage.

You do not have to leave him your trailer to keep your glider in nor the
support or tie down. He needs to make room in his barn/garage/shed to
reasonably care for your glider as you would. Granted, the prudent owner
would want his glider in the glider box.

If he does chose to detain you or try to prevent you from retrieving your
glider to keep it safe, then you should call for the local constabulary.
Remember, barn animals: horses, cows, steers, sheep tend to like white
fiberglass gliders. Any time he prevents you from sheltering your
equipment,
he assumes responsibility for safe keeping of same.

Many pilots carry an extra chain lock in their trailer, so if a gate chain
needs to be cut to get a glider out of a field, cut a chain link, not the
lock, and put your new lock in the chain. The chain now has two locks, one
the owner can open. If you are able to contact the owner, send them the
key,
and offer to replace the chain.

As for old closed runways that are no longer serviceable still on charts
...
until someone tells the FAA chart makers that the runway is gone.. it
stays
on the charts. Some runways, even private ones, are there for
"navigational
purposes", especially in remote areas where the runway is the only major
man
made landmark.

Lets both do a search in SSA and "Google" and see what we can come up
with.

BT

"2NO" wrote in message
ps.com...
There was a discussion about this last year, and I'm sure it comes up
regularly, but I'd like to get some feedback from pilots with both
legal and practical experience regarding one's rights (if any) upon
making an emergency landing on private property in the USA.

My aroused curiosity stems from this quote from an FAA contact
regarding private airports on FAA sectionals: "Please note that private
use airports in the FAA's National Airspace System are for the use of
the owner only or with the permission of the owner only. Other users
are not authorized and should not be attempting to land at private use
airports." This made me wonder why the FAA even puts them on their
charts at all, and why they often remain there long after the "airport"
has turned into a landfill or housing development. But I digress ...

If I make an emergency landing on private property (regardless of
whether it's an airport), does the owner have the legal right to detain
me? I seem to recall in a previous discussion a reference to something
like a "safe harbor" law that permits persons, such as lost hikers, to
take refuge in private property in order to escape danger (bad weather,
etc), and that this law has been applied to aviators who had to put
down somewhere. If this is true, I'd like to learn the details, should
I ever end up in such a predicament...

TW

At 11:30 04 May 2005, Bruce Hoult wrote:
In article ,
'COLIN LAMB' wrote:

Years ago a large Canadian 4 engine jet used an abandoned
airfield to make a
successful landing after it ran out of fuel. Look
up 'Gimli Glider' for a
marvelous story.

That would be a twin engine jet :-)

--
Bruce | 41.1670S | \ spoken | -+-
Hoult | 174.8263E | /\ here. | ----------O----------

Erm, well, at the time it was a no engine glider
Sorry, couldn't resist.

There was another similar incident in 2001 where a
transatlantic flight ended up doing a 100k final glide
into a small island.

I landed a TG-3 in a prison farm in North Carolina
-- twice. The first person who approached me asked
how many people the glider would hold; then he asked
me if I had any money. He then said that he was a
trustee and that he wanted to sell me a wallet he had
made. The warden finally showed up and was extremely
cordial.

We were able to tow out and the next time I got low
in that area I hunted up the same field and went into
it. (This was back in 1964.)



At 16:30 04 May 2005, T O D D P A T T I S T wrote:
'BTIZ' wrote:

There was a thread or article at one time.. of Game
Wardens in Jackson
Wyoming ticketing hang gliders for landing within the
park.. or reserve.
Soaring from Driggs Idaho, Glider pilots have been
cautioned not to get
caught on the wrong side of the Grand Tetons and have
to land in the park..
unless you can make the runway at Jackson Hole..

At least one glider pilot renting the L-13 at Driggs
has
landed on the wrong side of the Grand Tetons and paid
the
fine.

Along time ago, during a National contest out of Odessa, TX,I landed a
1-23 in a cotton field on the grounds of the Texas State Hospital for
the mentally challenged -- my crew suggested that the hospital staff
should keep me -- made Sports Illustrated, as I recall.

YC

Nyal Williams wrote:
I landed a TG-3 in a prison farm in North Carolina
-- twice. The first person who approached me asked
how many people the glider would hold; then he asked
me if I had any money. He then said that he was a
trustee and that he wanted to sell me a wallet he had
made. The warden finally showed up and was extremely
cordial.

We were able to tow out and the next time I got low
in that area I hunted up the same field and went into
it. (This was back in 1964.)

I've retrieved gliders from both a military airfield and prison
grounds.

I picked up a Kestrel 17 from China Lake. The pilot told me that he
called the tower and was denied permission to land. Once the pilot
declared an emergency, he was cleared to land by the tower - just in
time as he was 5 feet over the runway!

The Tehachapi Prison retrieve was a hassle but only because of the
soggy terrain. The prison sent a guard over to watch over us and he
kept us entertained with "prison" stories. Good thing the pilot landed
in some outlying land and not within the bad guy compound. I
memorialized this retrieve in a webpage:



Cu skies,

Steve AM

Declaring an emergency seems to absolve you from a lot of potential
legal problems since the aviation regulations in most countries permit
any reasonable action to save the aircraft and persons on board.

There doesn't seem to be any strict legal test for what constitutes an
emergency. If the pilot thinks he has one, that's enough in most
cases. Inability to find lift on a cross-country flight is pretty much
akin to engine failure of an airplane and could constitute an
emergency.

This should also be the case with gliders landing in US National Parks.

If asked to state the nature of the emergency, just say "zero fuel!"

However, you are not absolved from having to explain the lack of
planning that led up to the "emergency", so be prepared for that.
Experienced pilots tend to push the limits as flight after flight, they
find lift in a particular area or circumstance, so arrive lower and
lower, with fewer options. One day this doesn't work, and now it's
oops!, gotta land in those trees, or that lake, or that military or
airport within class B/C airspace (without prior approval).

-Tom