Learn to Fly

I was reading an article about when do you have to report a DUI or DWI related action (in a motor vehicle) to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)? You can read it here. It is true that any arrest, and/or conviction has to be reported to the FAA within 60 days, as required by FAR 61.15 . Some pilots have a misunderstanding that they only need to report the conviction and not the arrest, and, the others think that they have to report only when they go back for their Pilot Medical Certificate renewal. Both these are far from the truth.

Another thing we need to understand is that honesty here is always the best policy. FAA does occasionally check the National Driver Register against pilot, mechanic and other FAA certificate holder names. And if you have failed to report your incident within the applicable time frame, which is 60 days, and FAA comes across your name during it’s driver record search, you will definitely have something much bigger to worry about.

It is common for the FAA to not take any action against the offending pilot on the first instance of a driving DUI/DWI. Subsequent ones, I don’t know. I have not come across such a  pilot or a mechanic yet! If someone out there knows of such a dare-devil, please drop me a comment there with a contact information so I can enhance my knowledge from his/her experiences.

8 hours bottle to throttle is the minimum, as per FAR 91.17 .  That’s right, no matter how small the sip, you stay away from that ramp until at least 8 hours has elapsed. And that’s not all. 04% alcohol concentration in the blood or breath is enough to get you in trouble with the FAA as well. Perhaps it takes less that that .04% concentration for you to be affected. Or have you considered how badly you’re likely to perform while hung over? Quite a few studies have documented the loss of performance, judgment, and reaction time you can anticipate even after your blood alcohol content has dropped back down to acceptable levels.

So, remember, alcohol and aviation, for that matter just about anything physical, , yes that too, is not a good combination and should be avoided at all times. Alcohol is to be consumed and enjoyed very responsibly.

Oh by the way, the ol’ pilot rule of the thumb to remember this (in case you are a forgetful person) is called Whiskey Compass rule. We’ll talk about it some other day.