The Winner Of The 2025 Oshkosh Idiot Award Is:

The pilot of N4301R:

 

Not only did he cut off aircraft in the conga line to fly into Oshkosh, his exit from Air Venture was much more memorable.

On the way in he completely messed up the procedure.

Leaving, he did even worse. 

He then took off from a taxiway in the wrong direction against landing traffic. The picture above is from a clip online of his departure from the taxiway.

That's very much really not a good series of incidents.  At all.

Thankfully, even with his horrible situational awareness and failure to follow the proper procedures, no one got hurt.

Oshkosh becomes the busiest airport in the world during EAA Air Venture, and you need to be on the top of your game flying there.  

If you're not, you really need to land at a nearby, and far less busy, airport and take a shuttle to the show. 

Everybody makes mistakes, but you can't keep making a series of them like that, as well as reject ATC instructions, especially not at the world's busiest airport. 

Keep Your Seat Belts Fastened

Seat belts save lives and prevent injuries on the road and in the air.

The Detroit Free Press: 'Significant' turbulence on Delta flight sends dozens to the hospital

The people injured in the turbulence, which as recounted in the article was indeed severe, with 25 people injured severely enough they needed to be taken to a hospital.  Those severely injured were the ones not wearing their seat belts.

In short, if you're seated on a plane or on the road, keep your seat belt fastened while the vehicle is moving.

Ouch. Time Flies.

Yes, time flies.  As do airplanes.

 

No Sympathy For BLM-Type That Blinded Helicopter Crew With A Laser

 The Detroit News:  Detroit Will Breathe' protestor blinded flight crew, feds say

 First, we can note that the dipstick in question, as can be seen in the photos in the article is rather on the pale side as is usual with the typical BLM/Antifa agitator.

Second, this asshat who blinded a flight crew of a helicopter and fought police claims to be a "street medic" at the demonstration.

Federal prosecutors Friday charged a "street medic" who participated in "Detroit Will Breathe” protests last year with shining a laser at a Detroit Police helicopter that temporarily blinded the crew.

Michael Sam Hurd, 32, of Fennville was charged with a felony punishable by up to five years in federal prison in one of the more serious charges to flow from protests in Detroit.

An awful lot of Antifa-type street medics seems to be up to very non-medical shenanigans while claiming to be medics, which is an act of perfidy that removes their status as "medics", as if they were ever entitled to any deference for using the term.  

Next, aiming a laser to blind a flight crew is a no-no, regardless of where it occurred or if it occurred during a protest/riot, and his lawyer doesn't quite get that:

    “This happened in the context of a Black Lives Matter demonstration going on so it is not like it took place at an airport or anything,” his lawyer David Cripps said.

That deflection attempt won't work counselor. Your asshat client blinded a flight crew over an urban area while in flight.  There are some obvious reasons why that is both a bad idea and a crime.

Good job on the investigation to catch this POS.  Lots of videotape that caught him in the act.

Hopefully Michael Sam Hurd gets the book thrown at him for his act of malicious stupidity.  Anyone shining lasers at people's eyes, whether in aircraft or not, should be prosecuted top the fullest.

Nice To See General Aviation Get Some Recognition In Michigan

There was a nice op-ed article in the Detroit News about the importance of General Aviation in Michigan.

The Detroit News: Opinion: Think aviation to keep Michigan's economy moving

In Michigan, general aviation supports over $5.2 billion in economic output and more than 33,000 jobs, resulting in $1.4 billion in labor income.

General aviation is also vital in supporting critical services, including medical transportation, search and rescue efforts, and other important public services.

 Good stuff.

Stupid Criminal Tricks - It's A Lot More Complicated Than That

Our latest stupid criminal is an 18-year-old who decided he had to go to a rap concert, which illustrates his baseline stupidity right there.

He compounded his stupidity by his choice of mode of transport: Stealing an American Eagle jet.

As might be expected, it didn't go well, he was unable to even start it, and was promptly arrested.

KWTX: Teen who doesn’t know how to fly tries to steal passenger jet

Prosecutors say an Arkansas teenager who's not a pilot has been charged with trying to steal an American Eagle passenger jet from Texarkana Regional Airport to fly to an out-of-state rap concert.

Miller County jail records show Zemarcuis Devon Scott, 18, of Texarkana was held Wednesday on commercial burglary and attempted theft of property charges.

Scott was arrested inside the cockpit before dawn on the Fourth of July.

....

An affidavit says Scott told Texarkana police, who responded to reports of a man seen jumping an airport fence, that he didn't think there was much more to flying than pushing buttons and pulling levers.

There's just a little bit more involved in flying a plane, especially a passenger jet, than pushing buttons and pulling levers.

RIP Martin J. Tibbitts, Founder of World Heritage Air Museum

Mr. Tibbitts died at Sheboygan Wisconsin's airport on the way to Oshkosh in a crash on takeoff of the World Heritage Air Museum's de Haviland Venom.

The cfrash also injured two farm workers on the ground and killed 40-50 cattle when it crashed into a building shortly after takeoff.

One of the founders of the World Heritage Air Museum, based at Pontiac Airport, Mr. Tibbits had helped the museum amass quite the collection of flying jet aircraft from the earlier days of jet flight, with the newest acquisition - A Gloster Meteor jet.

I recall meeting him a few years ago during one of Oakland County airport's open houses, and admiring the WHAM's planes on display. A very nice gentleman, he was very open and enthusiastic about aviation and a great source of conversation about the museum and its jets.

Aviation is a lot poorer for his loss.

The Detroit Free Press: Vintage military jet crash kills Grosse Pointe Park pilot and businessman

Devotion - A Story of Heroism In The Air And On The Ground During The Korean War

Devotion is an excellent story of friendship, heroism, and the challenges of aviation and the Korean War. Very well written by Adam Makos, the author of A Higher Call, the story focuses on two pilots, one the first African-American Navy Aviator Jesse Brown and his friend, wingman, and hero, Tom Hudner. It's also the story of a heroic helicopter pilot.

The story's climax is set during the fighting at the Chosin reservoir, where thanks to naval aviators like Brown and Hudner, and their flying in terrible conditions to deliver close air support, hundreds of Marines were saved from the Chinese onslaught.

A great book for anyone interested carrier aviation in the Post-World War 2 and early Korean War period and to learn about some heroic deeds with in the air and on the ground that have gone un-retold for some time and deserve some recognition and remembrance today.

Now That Was A Close Call!

Matt Hall in 2010 demonstrated some very skillful stall recovery:

A recovery like that shows why he's a top-notch aerobatic pilot and air racer.

Talk about pushing the envelope, going beyond it, and still managing to salvage a situation that would have ended in disaster for probably any other pilot.

Do not try that at your home airport kids.

Right On Cue, As Soon As A Republican Takes Office...

The Media discovers the inconvenience to airports and general aviation of Presidential Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs).

The Detroit News: Trump’s Florida visits puts small airport in tailspin

Funny, I don't recall a single article over the myriad of TFR caused general aviation airport activity closures when Obama was president in the Chicago area and other environs. Any visit to Detroit would shut KPTK right down, including all flight instruction and regular VFR activities and that happened quite a bit and caused quite a drain to the coffers of the various flight schools and other operations at the airport.

You'd think they could make at least a pattern work exception when you're over 10nm away, but no.

In short, these restrictive VIP TFRs are nothing new to the aviation world. While they should be better tailored and a bit less restrictive they are unchanged from prior administrations and nothing new, just now we have some new airports feeling the pain of the one size fits all TFR.

All These Airfields Are For You -- Except KXTA Attempt No Landing There

A little aviation database oddity to open the new year.

While there are a plethora of airfields you can land on in the USA, and you can even land on military airfields in case of an emergency. You'd likely have to do a fair bit of paperwork if you did land at a military airfield in an emergency, but it's far better in a real emergency to declare it, land and do a bit of paperwork rather than not declare, fly on, and have someone else do the paperwork reporting your demise due to your stupidity.

But, there's one airfield in the continental US where you definitely cannot land.

This prohibited airfield however now happens to be in quite a few civilian aviation GPS databases.

KXTA, is otherwise known as Homey Airport and even better known to the world and especially the tinfoil hat brigade as Area 51.

It's an interesting story as to how it managed to get an ICAO identifier and get accidentally added to civilian GPS airport databases.

That error remains in lots of databases still used today, creating some humorous results:

Yes, thanks to this lasting database entry error, you can book your own private jet charter from Area 51.

Good luck with that.

Today, The Loss Of One Of The Greatest Aviators To Have Slipped The Surly Bonds Of Earth

MPR: Bob Hoover, One of history's Greatest Pilots Dead at 94

A World War 2 Fighter pilot, A test pilot, and an aerobatic pilot extraordinaire, the world is now a lesser place without Mr. Hoover in it.

2016 has shaped up to be a year when we are saying farewell to far too many of our best.

RIP Mr. Hoover.

A Very Cool EAA Project

An Experimental Aviation Association Chapter in Brighton, Michigan is getting teens interested in aviation, not to mention keeping them gainfully occupied, by helping them build an aircraft.

The teens are building an RV-12 light sport aircraft and while doing so learning lots of skills and getting involved in aviation while doing so.

The Detroit Free Press: Michigan teens building airplane from scratch