Legal rights when landing on private property (USA)

[2NO]

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

[BTIZ]

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
>

[Bruce Hoult]

In article <mDWde.9774$fI.2464@fed1read05>,
"BTIZ" > wrote:

> 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.

I don't know about the US, but in Commonwealth countries you aren't
traspassing until you've been asked to leave and have failed to do so.

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

[COLIN LAMB]

BT did a pretty good job for not being a lawyer. I have been a lawyer for
35 years and frankly the question rarely comes up.

In an emergency, you can land anywhere you need to land, period. However,
if you land in a military installation, you may regret it, because of paper
work. I would not land in a prison yard, either.

It gets more complicated. If you chose to land in a game refuge, for
example, that might be construed to be violating the FAR and there might
possibly be some sort of citation issued for flying over the area (since you
landed in the area, you were therefore not at a safe height or distance
away).

If you are intoxicated, there also might be a problem.

But, let us say you landed in an open farm field. Neither the owner of the
property or anyone else has the right to detain you. That would be false
imprisonment and you would have a claim for damages. The claim might buy
you a new airplane.

Each state may have various laws that apply. Generally, the owner of the
property would not have a right to detain the aircraft, but he may have a
right to keep you from trespassing to get it. Rarely will that happen.
And, if he is aware of some liability that he may be facing, then he is less
likely to be a jerk.

Your liability insurance carrier would be the immediate telephone call, as
they would assist in retrieving the aircraft.

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 may be one reason why the abandoned airfields are
still on the charts - because they are useful in emergencies.

Glider pilots land often in the puckerbrush and rarely have a problem. Most
of the time the farmer is excited to have a visitor from the sky - unless
the visitor is a jerk.

Colin

[BTIZ]

> It gets more complicated. If you chose to land in a game refuge, for
> example, that might be construed to be violating the FAR and there might
> possibly be some sort of citation issued for flying over the area (since
> you
> landed in the area, you were therefore not at a safe height or distance
> away).
>

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..

BT

[Bruce Hoult]

In article t>,
"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----------

[Alistair Wright]

>
> Glider pilots land often in the puckerbrush and rarely have a problem.
> Most
> of the time the farmer is excited to have a visitor from the sky - unless
> the visitor is a jerk.

In the UK in my time (some years ago now) whenever I landed in a farmer's
field I always offered the farmer a free ride in a two-seater if he cared to
turn up at our Club. I have been royally entertained by farmer's wives all
over England. Once I even got invited to a birthday party that was going on
in the house next my landing field. I wasn't intoxicated when I landed, but
I sure was by the time the retrieve arrived! Twice the farmer who turned up
for his free ride actually joined the club and went on to solo!!

I reckon it would have to be a pretty dour individual who was not impressed
by having a glider land on his property.

The point about military fields is worth noting. In the 1972 Nationals
someone landed at an American Airforce field and we had a hell of a job
getting him and his glider out of there. He missed the comp next day.

Alistair Wright
ex Staffs, Coventry, Essex and London GC.

[Andrew Warbrick]

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.

[bumper]

"COLIN LAMB" > wrote in message
nk.net...
> BT did a pretty good job for not being a lawyer. I have been a lawyer for
> 35 years and frankly the question rarely comes up.
>
> In an emergency, you can land anywhere you need to land, period. However,
> if you land in a military installation, you may regret it, because of
> paper
> work. I would not land in a prison yard, either.
>


Reminds me of an incident that happened last year. Following Allen Pratt's
fatal crash of his Carat MG just north of Minden, several parts, including
the canopy/frame and ailerons were not located in the wreckage or debris
field after the glider broke up in the air. The debris field was more than a
mile in length and included pasture land, the Nevada Correctional facility
and sagebrush covered mountains.

After talking with the NTSB, a friend and I did low and high altitude grid
searches to locate parts with my Aeronca Champ, being very mindful of the
FAA regs on separation from people and structures. We did not over-fly the
prison, figuring that any debris that fell there would have been quickly
discovered . . . but we did fly close (g). The prison went ballistic, even
did a prisoner lock-down, if they had surface to air missiles, we'd have
been toast! They filed a report with the FAA saying we over-flew their south
tower at 300 feet.

I'd managed to erase my GPS trace before I knew of the complaint, so that
was of no help. Fortunately, the FAA investigator believed me and there was
no prove (pictures w/ground reference etc.) to substantiate the complaint.
So I got off . . . but I was worried.

So now, I would recommend calling a prison ahead of time, even if planning
on flying close to them. Those guys are paranoid. That prison is now on my
personal Area 51 list.

all the best,

bumper

[Don Hammer]

On Wed, 4 May 2005 07:43:07 -0700, bumper wrote:

> "COLIN LAMB" > wrote in message
> nk.net...
>> BT did a pretty good job for not being a lawyer. I have been a lawyer for
>> 35 years and frankly the question rarely comes up.
>>
>> In an emergency, you can land anywhere you need to land, period. However,
>> if you land in a military installation, you may regret it, because of
>> paper
>> work. I would not land in a prison yard, either.

I've heard that if you land in an indian reservation, they will walk up and
ask you what you are doing sitting in their airplane.

[Nyal Williams]

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.
>

[Charles Yeates]

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.)
>

[Brian Glick]

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
> >
>
>

[Keith]

In message >, Alistair
Wright > writes
>
>In the UK in my time (some years ago now) whenever I landed in a farmer's
>field I always offered the farmer a free ride in a two-seater if he cared to
>turn up at our Club. I have been royally entertained by farmer's wives all
>over England. Once I even got invited to a birthday party that was going on
>in the house next my landing field. I wasn't intoxicated when I landed, but
>I sure was by the time the retrieve arrived! Twice the farmer who turned up
>for his free ride actually joined the club and went on to solo!!
>
Aeons ago, when I was doing my silver distance from the Wrekin GC at
Cosford, I had to radio base to say I was landing out in "a nice big
field near a power station", about 10 miles west of the airfield. I
expected a couple of hour's wait for the recovery, and was very
surprised to see the Chipmonk drop into the field about 15 minutes
later. Thoughts of a quick retrieve were dashed when the Tug's passenger
jumped into 'my' K8, and I was ordered to hold the wingtip, then to
"keep running east". As the aerotow roared off over the eastern
boundary, the farmer appeared from the opposite direction, one hand on
the tractor's steering wheel, the other waving a shotgun. I did as I was
told!


>I reckon it would have to be a pretty dour individual who was not impressed
>by having a glider land on his property.
>
I learned in the bar, hours later, having walked back, that the farmer
was notorious, and had prevented gliders being retrieved from his field.


--
Keith

[[email protected]]

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

[Mike the Strike]

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.

[5Z]

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