Was The Idiot Legal?

Ignore if you will for the moment 91.13, the catch-all "careless/reckless"
provision that can getcha if you sneeze during the approach. Let's see if
"idiot" was legal.

What else can getcha? 91.103 might be a good start. Lessee, it starts off
with a catch-all that says you have to have "all available information"
regarding the flight, but it goes on to enumerate what the author of this
section finds important -- weather, fuel, alternates, delays, and
performance figures (takeoff and landing distances). Hmmm ... nothing about
notams or VFR charts that I can see.

What else? How about 91.139(c) that says that a person must operate the
aircraft under the terms and provisions of the NOTAM. Since the idiot
eventually worked himself into the system, and the NOTAM didn't specify that
you have to have VFR charts on board, was he legal?

Seems he had enough fuel. Seems he maintained VFR weather minima. His
airplane didn't have any malfunctions (other than a loose nut on the
microphone) evidencing improper maintenance.

The NOTAM itself is rather vague. It says you MUST execute the Ripon/Fisk
approach if operating VFR. It says you MUST, you are REQUIRED, and you
SHALL in a lot of places in the NOTAM. As to carrying it, the wimpy "pilots
are EXPECTED to ... have a copy of the NOTAM" are the words. EXPECTED.

When a lot of imperatives are used along with a permissive, the general
holding is that the permissive is not mandatory. Expected is a permissive.
Just one little word change could have made all the difference.

Do not under any circumstances misinterpret my questions to say that I
thought the idiot was an exemplary specimen of aviation competence. Not on
your tintype. I'm merely attempting to find something in the written
documentation that we all aviate under to hang my hook on and I can't find
it. Didn't have a VFR chart? Not required to have one. Didn't have the
notam? Not required to have it. Will stand for a long time as how NOT to
fly into Oshkosh? So long as there are computers that will reproduce audio
files.

Jim