Who do you call?

I have two questions about who do you call when ...

I was talking with a police officer the other day. We were talking about
planes and police work and blah blah blah. Then he says, "I saw some guy
buzzing the neighborhood the other day. I got the tail number and I would
have reported him but I didn't know who to call." I would think that all
police have a hotlist of phone numbers - FBI, DEA, etc. I would think that
the FAA would be on this list. But I guess not. My problem was, I didn't
know what to tell him. The only thing I could think of was FSS. I figured
they would at least be able to re-direct the call. Does the FAA have special
emergency contact numbers for this sort of thing?

My other question is related to my own problems. Let's say that I have
landing gear trouble at night, out in the middle of nowhere. There may be
country airports nearby but nothing that is open. Even if I could get Flight
Service or a center controller on the radio would they know who to call to
bring fire and rescue to airport lost-in-the-woods, Middle, America? Yes,
I'm sure the right answer is to head to a bigger airport that is open. Work
with me here. I'm just curious. Does Flight Service or controllers have
emergency contact numbers for all of the airports near their sectors?

--
Travis

FSDO is who you need to call.

Travis Marlatte wrote:
I have two questions about who do you call when ...

I was talking with a police officer the other day. We were talking about
planes and police work and blah blah blah. Then he says, "I saw some guy
buzzing the neighborhood the other day. I got the tail number and I would
have reported him but I didn't know who to call." I would think that all
police have a hotlist of phone numbers - FBI, DEA, etc. I would think that
the FAA would be on this list. But I guess not. My problem was, I didn't
know what to tell him. The only thing I could think of was FSS. I figured
they would at least be able to re-direct the call. Does the FAA have special
emergency contact numbers for this sort of thing?

My other question is related to my own problems. Let's say that I have
landing gear trouble at night, out in the middle of nowhere. There may be
country airports nearby but nothing that is open. Even if I could get Flight
Service or a center controller on the radio would they know who to call to
bring fire and rescue to airport lost-in-the-woods, Middle, America? Yes,
I'm sure the right answer is to head to a bigger airport that is open. Work
with me here. I'm just curious. Does Flight Service or controllers have
emergency contact numbers for all of the airports near their sectors?

--
Travis

as for the gear problem and you're landing out in no-where's ville.. the
local ATC (center/appch) will have contact with FSS who does (or did) have
contact numbers for all those local airports.. (they have to do a telephone
ground search for late aircraft before starting an air search and rescue),
most of the time they contact the local Airport manager or local constable.
They can get your crash-rescue rolling..

BT

"Newps" wrote in message
. net...
FSDO is who you need to call.

Travis Marlatte wrote:
I have two questions about who do you call when ...

I was talking with a police officer the other day. We were talking about
planes and police work and blah blah blah. Then he says, "I saw some guy
buzzing the neighborhood the other day. I got the tail number and I
would
have reported him but I didn't know who to call." I would think that all
police have a hotlist of phone numbers - FBI, DEA, etc. I would think
that
the FAA would be on this list. But I guess not. My problem was, I didn't
know what to tell him. The only thing I could think of was FSS. I
figured
they would at least be able to re-direct the call. Does the FAA have
special
emergency contact numbers for this sort of thing?

My other question is related to my own problems. Let's say that I have
landing gear trouble at night, out in the middle of nowhere. There may
be
country airports nearby but nothing that is open. Even if I could get
Flight
Service or a center controller on the radio would they know who to call
to
bring fire and rescue to airport lost-in-the-woods, Middle, America?
Yes,
I'm sure the right answer is to head to a bigger airport that is open.
Work
with me here. I'm just curious. Does Flight Service or controllers have
emergency contact numbers for all of the airports near their sectors?

--
Travis

"Travis Marlatte" wrote in message
nk.net...
I was talking with a police officer the other day. We were talking about
planes and police work and blah blah blah. Then he says, "I saw some guy
buzzing the neighborhood the other day. I got the tail number and I would
have reported him but I didn't know who to call."

The local FSDO. Since it's not an emergency, I'm not sure why you'd want a
special emergency contact number.

My other question is related to my own problems. Let's say that I have
landing gear trouble at night, out in the middle of nowhere.

I assume you are concerned no fire trucks will be at your destination
airport? I would call the FSS. I don't know that they have all the
appropriate phone numbers, but they are the people in the best position to
help you. However, most kinds of landing gear trouble should require little
more than some assistance in getting your airplane off the runway after you
land (so no one else lands on it).

Change your question to "if I have an engine fire, and have to land
immediately, who do I call", and then it's probably more important, assuming
you've got a spare moment (you may well not). I would tune to 121.5, call a
mayday, and activate my ELT. Then I'd get back to the business of trying to
get an airplane that's on fire down on the ground safely in the dark.

Pete

Travis,

Does the FAA have special
emergency contact numbers for this sort of thing?

Yes, the FAA does have a number. Here is the information from the FAA's
website:

"FAA Safety Hotline: 1-800-255-1111

"This hotline is primarily for those with specific knowledge of alleged
violations of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) or other safety issues
such as improper record keeping, unsafe aviation practices and failure to
comply with proper procedures. If the toll-free number is used for reporting,
caller identity or information can be protected under the Privacy Act but only
if the caller requests confidentiality. The identities of callers are protected
from disclosure.

"The toll-free number provides 24-hours, seven-days-a-week coverage. If callers
believe an issue is time-critical, an option on the after-hours voice recording
will connect them with FAA personnel who will take appropriate action."