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  #18  
Old November 28th 06, 05:14 AM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
Judah
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Posts: 936
Default Get a ferry permit, or just fly it?

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in
oups.com:

I agree. Interestingly, I was involve in an FAA "altercation" a little
while back. The C-182 that the FBO rents out got an onsite inspection
by the FSDO and failed. All of us CFIs who taught in the plane got
called to the carpet for not taknig off inspection covers before flight
(or something stupid like that). Interestingly though a few pilot who
also happen to be FAA ATC's didn't get called at all. Seems like the
FAA takes care of their own??


I don't know all of the details in this case, so I'll just throw out some
general concepts that were relayed to me recently by a fellow pilot who
spent some time at the local FSDO. He said that the FAA holds higher
expectations for CFIs with respect to regulatory infractions. Basically,
CFIs represent the FAA to their student pilots every day. It is their
responsibility to accurately teach pilots the rules that the pilots are
supposed to follow to ensure safe flight.

It is ultimately the Pilot's responsibility to ensure safety of flight, and
it is ultimately the pilot's responsibility to ensure the plane he is
commanding is airworthy. However, when a pilot is renting a plane from an
FBO, he is typically not given free access to maintenance Logbooks, and has
to trust that the FBO is properly maintaining the planes.

If the FAA finds out that the plane has not been properly maintained, they
are obviously going to take action to ensure that the problem gets
corrected. In reality, all the pilots who flew it in that condition may
have violated FAA regulations. However, as a CFI, you are not only supposed
to know how to determine if the plane was safe, you are also supposed to be
training pilots how to do the same. If, after being chastised by the FAA,
you STILL don't know what the problem was, or how to have detected it, I
would be concerned that you do not take seriously your RESPONSIBILITY as a
CFI to both your students and to the FAA.

What if the problem had caused fatalities? What if the problem could have
easily been detected, and your student missed it because you never taught
him that it is his responsibility to check for it, or even how to check for
it? Don't you think that CFIs SHOULD be held to a higher standard than
pilots?

Whether your students work for ATC or McDonalds is irrelevant - ATC is not
responsible for teaching pilots how to fly safely. CFIs are.