The final hot air balloon fallout...

The Libertarian in me says great, the consumer can now have a means to make informed choices.

Yet on a more pragmatic note how many balloon riders are going to look at these safety ratings at all and even if they do know what they mean?
 
The Libertarian in me says great, the consumer can now have a means to make informed choices.

Yet on a more pragmatic note how many balloon riders are going to look at these safety ratings at all and even if they do know what they mean?

Pretty much my exact thoughts after reading it.
 
  • Holding valid aircraft and commercial vehicle insurance
Insurance keeps us safe.
  • Not exceeding a minimum specified number of accidents or incidents within a recent time period
So, like, an occasional accident, you know, stuff happens, we learned from it.
  • Verifying annual aircraft inspections
They don't get annuals now?
  • Hosting a forum for passengers to rate the company
Guaranteed to reduce the risk of a fatal accident by 12.3%
  • Notifying local FAA offices of the location of their base of operations
Another big safety step!
  • Executing and storing passenger liability waivers
As long as you don't get blamed, it wasn't really an accident.
  • Conducting random pilot drug screening
That would have prevented an accident. Maybe.
  • Developing written policies for crew safety.
That's how you cover management's collective asses. "They were told not to..."
 
No need for a time machine - if you're interested in 1960's stop, stumble, and fall management practices, study the FAA. To any extent that they are successful, it's the grunt level folks overcoming "management vision". The farther you get from the working level, the more asinine and wasteful it gets. Yeah, a few controllers might be jerks, and some managers (might) be struggling against the machine, but the ratios are definitely inverted. Rant complete.
 
To meet the BFA’s program requirements, company pilots of balloons that are capable of carrying more than 4-6 passengers must be commercially certificated for 18 months, have a specified amount of flight experience, and hold an FAA second-class medical certificate. Pilots also must pass a drug and alcohol background check, have attended a BFA-sanctioned safety seminar within the last 12 months, and be enrolled in the FAA WINGS program.
What does "more than 4-6" mean? Will this program save "up to 15% or more" on my car insurance? Is it available if I have "up to $10,000 or more" in credit card debt? Why did the FAA hire a writer whose last job was writing ads for late-night broadcast on unpopular satellite radio channels?

I also don't know what it means to be "enrolled" in the FAA WINGS program. I think I am, but I can't really be sure as it doesn't seem to do anything other than occasionally e-mail me that my points (which are valid toward skipping a BFR as long as I also get flight instruction roughly equivalent to a BFR) are expiring.
 
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The time it took to draft the regs cost more tax dollars than this issue is worth. Every dollar spent on enforcement will only be worse.
 
I think this is a properly measured response.
I knew something had to happen, but I really didn't want a hammer to fall.

There are many activities we enjoy which have risk.
Some people want to outlaw skydiving and motorcycles. Eff that!

However, some balloon operators expose the naive public to risk well beyond what they or their families imagine. This gives them the ability to a) recognize there is risk and b) to make risk choices that suit them ......without strangling the hobby.
 
Funny that folks who like to bash the FAA for writing regulations in blood are quiet in this thread. In July 2016, a commercial balloon operator with a substance abuse issue killed 15 passengers flying in bad weather. In response, not a word of new regulation was drafted; instead the FAA worked with the industry to adopt voluntary safety standards—avoiding regulatory overreach and giving the consumer a choice.
 
Funny that folks who like to bash the FAA for writing regulations in blood are quiet in this thread. In July 2016, a commercial balloon operator with a substance abuse issue killed 15 passengers flying in bad weather. In response, not a word of new regulation was drafted; instead the FAA worked with the industry to adopt voluntary safety standards—avoiding regulatory overreach and giving the consumer a choice.

The balloon guy was already knowingly violating reg's. Creating more wouldn't have helped.
 
The balloon guy was already knowingly violating reg's. Creating more wouldn't have helped.
Had the balloon guy been required to hold a medical and submit to NDR checks, the FAA would have known about the multiple DUIs and pulled his medical certificate. It would be pretty easy surveillance at that point to shut him down if he was operating without a medical.
 
Had the balloon guy been required to hold a medical and submit to NDR checks, the FAA would have known about the multiple DUIs and pulled his medical certificate. It would be pretty easy surveillance at that point to shut him down if he was operating without a medical.

So he would have magically participated in this voluntary system?
 
The way I read it was Class II medicals are required for all. There was some other stuff that was voluntary depending on how 'shiny' a rating you wanted

Missed that, but that makes the “program”seem more like that’s what they really wanted, and the rest is just fluff to make it look more interesting than simply saying, “You need a medical now. Like we always should have required.”
 
As I read this , now 2nd class medical are required for commercial operation with more than 4-6 passengers, “giving rides” , but they did this with no NPRM session? I have not seen the FARs update yet.

Will gliders be next to require a medical? Wait, most I can carry is two pax.
 
So he would have magically participated in this voluntary system?
Of course not, but other operators who do participate in the program now have a point of differentiation. If consumers perceive these operators as being higher quality, then it will exert pressure on others to take part. It's a way for industry to influence quality without letting them block competition. This is exactly how it works in my industry.

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Of course not, but other operators who do participate in the program now have a point of differentiation. If consumers perceive these operators as being higher quality, then it will exert pressure on others to take part. It's a way for industry to influence quality without letting them block competition. This is exactly how it works in my industry.

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There a) Aren’t that many balloon flight operators, and b) I don’t think the typical “tourist” gives much of a damn if the brochure at the hotel in the foyer says a balloon ride company is “Platinum Safety certified” or anything like that.

They sure as hell don’t look at Safety reports about Airlines before booking the cheapest ticket.
 
As I read this , now 2nd class medical are required for commercial operation with more than 4-6 passengers, “giving rides” , but they did this with no NPRM session? I have not seen the FARs update yet.

Will gliders be next to require a medical? Wait, most I can carry is two pax.
There were no changes to the regs, hence no NPRM. If you wanted to provide input on the industry standard, there was an opportunity to comment.
 
There were no changes to the regs, hence no NPRM. If you wanted to provide input on the industry standard, there was an opportunity to comment.
Ok, so it becomes an industry standard, above the requirements of the FARs. That works, but not enforceable?

Thanks for the information.
 
Ok, so it becomes an industry standard, above the requirements of the FARs. That works, but not enforceable?

Thanks for the information.
Regulations are enforceable. Industry standards are only enforceable if there’s a regulation requiring adherence to the standard. In this case there is not—it is a voluntary standard.
 
how many balloon riders are going to look at these safety ratings at all and even if they do know what they mean?
At least with restaurants the food safety ratings are more obvious, like "A" is clearly better than "B" and so forth.. but I also doubt most consumers know what it actually requires to get an "A" rating or what you failed for a "B" etc

With balloons however it is not obvious to the person in the hotel that "silver" may be bottom tier and that "gold" is not top tier

Still, to your point, it will be up to the consumer to make that choice, and if "Mike's balloon rides" starts losing business because everyone else in his neck of the woods is "top platinum rated" than maybe the program and capitalism will work to help limit future accidents?
 
Had the balloon guy been required to hold a medical and submit to NDR checks, the FAA would have known about the multiple DUIs and pulled his medical certificate. It would be pretty easy surveillance at that point to shut him down if he was operating without a medical.
The balloon guy was required to not be high. He was high. What makes you think that requiring to have a medical would mean that he actually would have a medical? And 100% of pilots with unreported DUIs get their medicals pulled? Not likely. And we all know that no one ever gets in a 121 cockpit intoxicated.....

This was an insignificant problem. Obviously not to those in the crash, but on the whole.
 
As I read this , now 2nd class medical are required for commercial operation with more than 4-6 passengers, “giving rides” , but they did this with no NPRM session? I have not seen the FARs update yet.

Will gliders be next to require a medical? Wait, most I can carry is two pax.

Six seater gliders, now there's a hole begging to get filled in GA :D

I think they're just haunted by bad marketing. These stereotypes are like herpes. That's s---t's forever :D
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The balloon guy was required to not be high. He was high. What makes you think that requiring to have a medical would mean that he actually would have a medical? And 100% of pilots with unreported DUIs get their medicals pulled? Not likely. And we all know that no one ever gets in a 121 cockpit intoxicated.....

This was an insignificant problem. Obviously not to those in the crash, but on the whole.

This is all fascinating discussion, but I guess y'all never saw this: https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/s1394/BILLS-115s1394is.pdf

If FAA and the industry hadn't done what they did, senator Cruz was ready to run with this Bill. Notice it doesn't differentiate between commercial and non-commercial operators.
 
Six seater gliders, now there's a hole begging to get filled in GA :D

I think they're just haunted by bad marketing. These stereotypes are like herpes. That's s---t's forever :D
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A very close family friend (grandpa’s best friend) who’s now long deceased (both of them, actually) crashed one of those during landing in Normandy. Broken ankle.

Eventually had to be fused solid after he hobbled around the French countryside for a while. His crew on board all survived.

He made out a lot better than a bunch of them did that day. That’s how he described it. Talk about understated.

His obituary in 2005 (age 92) simply said:
“He served in World War II in the U.S. Army from June 1942 to December 1945.”

He had stories of other flying antics over South Dakota in the decades after he returned, mostly helping ranchers shoot coyotes, but he had hung up the flying spurs before I knew him.

He’s buried in the GAR cemetery in Miller, SD. “Nothing fancy” as he would have said.
 
Is 5 passengers more than 4-6 passengers? It would have made more sense to say something like 6 or more passengers. A range is not a limit.
 
This is all fascinating discussion, but I guess y'all never saw this: https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/s1394/BILLS-115s1394is.pdf

If FAA and the industry hadn't done what they did, senator Cruz was ready to run with this Bill. Notice it doesn't differentiate between commercial and non-commercial operators.
I doubt this was a priority for Senator Cruz. More likely since he's from Houston, someone asked him to introduce this. I could be wrong, but if this is important to him, the FAA's new rules are unlikely to be sufficient.

Either way, the FAA has no business wasting resources based on the possibility that Congress might or might not do something.
 
I doubt this was a priority for Senator Cruz. More likely since he's from Houston, someone asked him to introduce this. I could be wrong, but if this is important to him, the FAA's new rules are unlikely to be sufficient.

Either way, the FAA has no business wasting resources based on the possibility that Congress might or might not do something.
And you base your doubt on this being a priority for Senator Cruz based on what? Regardless, not much in the way of FAA resources were expelled; this is a BFA initiative and the were no new rules enacted by the FAA.
 
Perhaps I'm in the minority, but it seems reasonable to me.
 
Why would the consumer's insurance company know or care?
The balloon operator’s insurance. Sure, the operator might be uninsured, but it’s yet another incentive for an operator to voluntarily adhere to an industry standard.

I’m not real familiar with BFA, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they offer insurance through their organization. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they’d require adherance with the standard as a condition of being insured.
 
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