On Aug 11, 8:00*am, Jim Beckman wrote:
At 20:51 10 August 2009, jcarlyle wrote:



You mentioned this was in NJ. Be aware that NJ has a law that
prohibits landing a plane other than at an airport. One of our club
members from Philadelphia Glider landed out in NJ, and the NJ State
Police showed up (in pairs, as usual). They were not friendly, going
so far as to try to get the land owner to press charges.

The defense, of course, is that the Air Regs trump the state
laws. *That's where a nice official-looking letter from the
FAA itself could come in handy. *The troopers in this incident
didn't seem to have any knowledge of the law you mention.
They were trying to figure out whether it was a crash or not,
and, I guess, whether the NTSB needed to be brought in.

OTOH, the state law does prevent you from calling in a
tow plane for an aero-retrieve, unless the field in question
is a registered airport.

Then again, I can remember from quite a few years back
when somebody landed a light plane in some NJ field, I forget
what the problem was, got the problem fixed, and wanted
to fly the airplane out. *It may have been off a country road.
Anyway, the remarkably cooperative local officials managed
to get the road declared a temporary airport for an hour
or so, closed it off, and let the guy fly out.

Jim Beckman

Looking over some of the other NJ aviation statutes, clearly the
question of licenses and fees for airports, airfields, and aircraft is
a primary consideration. It almost seems to trump safety.

Frank Whiteley