FSDO's and their varying intepretations...

(Michael) wrote:

when two MEI's
take a 1-hour XC flight somewhere and each one comes back with a BFR
endorsement from the other, that's bull****,

OK, there's some grey area there. snip
but it still totally fails to conform to the spirit of the
regulation.

Exactly. It's clearly a violation if they came back after a
half hour, but when each pilot clearly flew with a CFI for
an hour, and met all the explicit regs, I'd want the FSDO to
keep its "spirit of the rule" and regional interpretations
to itself.

Ther was a time when no BFR was required. It's still true
that I can get a BFR in a hot air balloon and then fly a
pressurized twin loaded with passengers. There will always
be "loopholes." If they are so big that they need to be
closed, then the rule should be changed to close them.
FSDO's shouldn't go around with their own local
interpretations of what the rule should be.


Todd Pattist
(Remove DONTSPAMME from address to email reply.)
___
Make a commitment to learn something from every flight.
Share what you learn.

Todd Pattist wrote
but it still totally fails to conform to the spirit of the
regulation.

Exactly. It's clearly a violation if they came back after a
half hour, but when each pilot clearly flew with a CFI for
an hour, and met all the explicit regs, I'd want the FSDO to
keep its "spirit of the rule" and regional interpretations
to itself.

Now recall what I said: There are plenty of people out there who try
to abuse the system and inspectors who try to curtail the abuse -
generally in a manner that is ineffective, illegal, and incompetent.
This is exactly the situation here.

I happen to agree with you - I also want to limit the authority of the
FSDO inspectors to enforcement of the explicit regs, and I want the
FSDO inspectors to keep their "spirit of the rule" and regional
interpretations to themselves. But what is the underlying assumption
here? Let's be honest about it - the FSDO inspectors are using their
best judgment. What we're saying is that their judgment is so poor
that we don't want them using it. Kind of a sad state of affairs,
isn't it?

Michael