American teenage pilot meets with consequences of own actions

sarangan said:
Running a 5K to support a hospital? Noble. But this? This is an adventure masquerading as charity, and getting other people to pay for your adventure. I always wanted to fly a Cub coast to coast. Any takers to fund it? We’ll slap a “raising money for the homeless” label on it and call it a cause.
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We don't know that he's using any donated money to fund the flight, to be fair to him.
 
Racerx said:
Can't work up the nerve to go across lake Michigan. Glad it's not just me
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I won't even take direct-as-filed from DLH to MSP; I loop around the shore till I'm south of the lake lol
 
The flight on Flight Aware is the leg before the crossing.

Radar at Ushuaia should have had him if he continued south. Ushuaia would be the logical jumping off point, as it is on the southern coast.

There are two good airports there, the old one near town, and new International, which has long runways,. Airlines use the international, and a very active flying club use the older airport. I rented a Piper Tomahawk from the club, and flew up over the mountains north of the city. Steep rocks, glaciers, and isolated lakes.

Those two airports are the furthest south on the America's continent. It could be that the troops stationed there would have prevented his takeoff.
 
Katamarino said:
to be fair to him.
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Fair's got nothin' to do with it.

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The purpose of these threads is to put up an example of a bad pilot, so we can harrumph and feel superior. A few contrarians will point out that maybe he's not so bad. Someone will make a funny joke. Then the usual suspects will engage in a strident argument about a tangential issue and exchange insults.
 
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Katamarino said:
We don't know that he's using any donated money to fund the flight, to be fair to him.
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He doesn't have to funnel money directly to his flight to personally benefit.

When it's a YT/TikTok personality I can be reasonably confident the root cause of their actions is brand building and clicks. There's good reason to second guess their motivations when their influencer monetization is about getting attention.

I'd say the same for most corporate giving/volunteer programs. It's 1% about doing good and 99% about taking photos of "giving back" and being able to put it on your webpage that you did XYZ for [insert noble cause here].

Just my cynical $0.02
 
Ed Haywood said:
The purpose of these threads is to put up an example of a bad pilot, so we can feel superior. A few contrarians like me will point out that maybe he's not so bad. Someone will make a funny joke. Then the usual suspects will engage in a strident argument about a tangential issue and exchange insults.
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No, the purpose of this thread is to point out a rather unique and unusual situation. Despite his poor judgement regarding this event he's done more than 99% of private pilots will ever do. It's just particularly frustrating that this will likely make life a lot harder for those who wish to do this kind of thing legitimately.
 
Katamarino said:
It looks like one of these "Look at me, I'm a teen pilot!" individuals has made a poor decision, taking off from Punta Arenas, deviating from his flight plan, and heading to Antarctica instead. He has now been detained, and it seems not allowed to fly back.
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Another detained daredevil teen pilot with a Cessna, years ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathias_Rust Journalists described him as "psychologically unstable and unworldly in a dangerous manner".

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geezer said:
Katamarino can advise on the difficulty and expense of obtaining fuel for the return trip.
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No 100LL down there. But his plane has ferry tanks and IIRC can fly around 2,400nm. So the 1,400 mile round trip would be no problem. At least as far as fuel is concerned.
 
Piperonca said:
Another detained daredevil teen pilot with a Cessna, years ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathias_Rust Journalists described him as "psychologically unstable and unworldly in a dangerous manner".
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My favorite cold war GA story:

share.google

Ultralight Flight Over Berlin Wall : Daring Escape to West Told

Two West Germans appear to have staged one of the most audacious escapes ever from East Berlin by swooping over the Berlin Wall in ultralight aircraft to snatch their East German brother and bring him to the West.
share.google share.google
 
I think it's pretty neat, what he's done. "charity" aside ( I haven't looked at details for that). Understand and echo Katamarino's concerns that this stunt may make legit trips to anatarctica and elsewhere from Chile more problematic for a GA pilot.

most of us don't want to fly 10 hour legs, as it seems he's been doing. But he's getting after it. Life is short-as the wise sage Ferris Bueller said-

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”​

 
Ed Haywood said:
Fair's got nothin' to do with it.

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The purpose of these threads is to put up an example of a bad pilot, so we can harrumph and feel superior. A few contrarians will point out that maybe he's not so bad. Someone will make a funny joke. Then the usual suspects will engage in a strident argument about a tangential issue and exchange insults.
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pointing out that someone did something stupid isn't always about feeling superior.
 
Ed Haywood said:
Fair's got nothin' to do with it.

View attachment 142469

The purpose of these threads is to put up an example of a bad pilot, so we can harrumph and feel superior. A few contrarians will point out that maybe he's not so bad. Someone will make a funny joke. Then the usual suspects will engage in a strident argument about a tangential issue and exchange insults.
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Bad decision making is bad decision making, and good decision making is good decision making.

Sometimes you make a good decision and lose anyway: Choose a Vegas show instead of roulette and get hit by a bus while crossing the street. Sometimes you make a bad decision and good luck prevails: Bet your paycheck on 35 and win.

Judging a decision by the outcome reflects survivorship bias.

Is there any reasonable pilot who, without knowing the outcome, would defend this kid's decision making? It seems to boil down to, "I have enough gas to get there, send it!"
 
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This isn’t the first time he’s been detained on his around the world journey, guessing it’s more of a formality than anything else.

I do think he could do better with his PR though so that we understand him more as a person. His message is a bit too short and repetitive. But if you love flying then do it, and go for it. This might have been the last stop for him to complete his journey.
 
Katamarino said:
Assuming his 182 is set up like mine, you could carry enough fuel to get there and back quite comfortably. In terms of distance it's not that much more than the flight to Bermuda I did, where there is also no Avgas. Better beaches though.
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You've got a 1,500 nm range?
 
Katamarino said:
I have about a 2,500 nm range.
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And, as someone previously pointed out, the kid in question posted an implication that his is similar.

People are getting way too hung up on range. He had it made in the shade from that standpoint.

To me, the only safety question on this thing is what he was wearing. If he was wearing a dry suit, then this trip was safer than flying over the suburbs or a dense forest. If he wasn't adequately prepared for a water ditching, then an engine out would be a very big deal.
 
Salty said:
Ok, bravery or youthful foolishness not withstanding. How in the hell is landing at a desolate field on Antarctica "seriously endangering the safety of air traffic to Antarctica and the Magallanes Region"
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Now there's lead contamination in the tundra from burning AvGas near the penguins.
 
172andyou said:
And, as someone previously pointed out, the kid in question posted an implication that his is similar.

People are getting way too hung up on range. He had it made in the shade from that standpoint.

To me, the only safety question on this thing is what he was wearing. If he was wearing a dry suit, then this trip was safer than flying over the suburbs or a dense forest. If he wasn't adequately prepared for a water ditching, then an engine out would be a very big deal.
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Uh, in that water, any ditching is death unless you land next to a coast guard ship.
 
Hengelo said:
I won't even take direct-as-filed from DLH to MSP; I loop around the shore till I'm south of the lake lol
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You had me for a moment, trying to figure out which lake between DLH and MSP you wanted to fly around. I mean Minnesota is known for its lakes...

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MauleSkinner said:
Mille Lacs is pretty substantial…and I know some guys who navigate well enough to fly over it on a direct flight. ;)
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Even with the lake I live near, if you are sightseeing at 1,000 feet and end up directly over the center of the lake, depending on the airplane, you are probably outside of gliding distance from shore.
 
Salty said:
Uh, in that water, any ditching is death unless you land next to a coast guard ship.
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Why does this graph suggest that you've got well over four hours to either get rescued or into a raft?

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Lindberg said:
I

I don't know what the real survival tube would be, but those seem to be for calm water, and neither go down to a water temp of -2° C.
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The relevant line in the graph suggests we can extrapolate he would have about three hours to get into a raft. Maybe more if the graph bends horizontal to the left as it does with the other gear.

But it's far more important that this is almost certainly an academic argument. Seems quite unlikely, given his pattern of behavior, that he was wearing a dry suit and had a raft.

Anyway, you tell ME that I have to ditch a plane and I'm picking a dry suit and raft in the drake versus suburban Dallas or a dense forest. The latter two people fly over constantly without being terrified. Now, if I also get to pick aircraft instead of just the gear I bring... The Klapmeier brothers had a strong point that a BRS changes the equation and I'd pick that over suburbia or forest compared to even a properly equipped cold water ditching in the drake.
 
I didn't realize I was so young. My last 3 trips have crossed Lake Michigan - twice each time!
 
172andyou said:
The relevant line in the graph suggests we can extrapolate he would have about three hours to get into a raft. Maybe more if the graph bends horizontal to the left as it does with the other gear.

But it's far more important that this is almost certainly an academic argument. Seems quite unlikely, given his pattern of behavior, that he was wearing a dry suit and had a raft.

Anyway, you tell ME that I have to ditch a plane and I'm picking a dry suit and raft in the drake versus suburban Dallas or a dense forest. The latter two people fly over constantly without being terrified. Now, if I also get to pick aircraft instead of just the gear I bring... The Klapmeier brothers had a strong point that a BRS changes the equation and I'd pick that over suburbia or forest compared to even a properly equipped cold water ditching in the drake.
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3 hours survival, assuming anyone comes looking for you or can find you AND can get a helicopter or ship to your location in that time period. No thanks. We were literally just having this conversation in our office the other day, about guys that ferry single engine aircraft across the oceans. The person I was talking to knew a guy that used to do it, died crossing the Atlantic. Based on what they knew of his accident, perhaps what he radioed or was witnessed, when the engine quit he intentionally put the plane straight down into the ocean. He had pre-decided he was not going to die drowning or freezing to death.
 
172andyou said:
Anyway, you tell ME that I have to ditch a plane and I'm picking a dry suit and raft in the drake versus suburban Dallas or a dense forest.
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You'd pick one of the coldest, roughest, most unpredictable weather seas -- with few vessels able to reach you? Hope your ELT battery is working :)
I think my odds of putting the airplane down in suburban chicago or dallas or what have you (and surviving) are 50:1 better odds!
 
midwestpa24 said:
3 hours survival, assuming anyone comes looking for you or can find you AND can get a helicopter or ship to your location in that time period.
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Remember, I have a raft also. I can survive essentially indefinitely so long as I can get in the raft within three hours.

midwestpa24 said:
No thanks. We were literally just having this conversation in our office the other day, about guys that ferry single engine aircraft across the oceans. The person I was talking to knew a guy that used to do it, died crossing the Atlantic. Based on what they knew of his accident, perhaps what he radioed or was witnessed, when the engine quit he intentionally put the plane straight down into the ocean. He had pre-decided he was not going to die drowning or freezing to death.
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Yikes!

ArrowFlyer86 said:
You'd pick one of the coldest, roughest, most unpredictable weather seas -- with few vessels able to reach you? Hope your ELT battery is working :)
I think my odds of putting the airplane down in suburban chicago or dallas or what have you (and surviving) are 50:1 better odds!
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I mean, all that is true. Maybe that the weather is VFR means a chopper can get to my PLB beacon without too much trouble? Range could definitely be an issue depending on how bad my luck is.
 
ArrowFlyer86 said:
He doesn't have to funnel money directly to his flight to personally benefit.

When it's a YT/TikTok personality I can be reasonably confident the root cause of their actions is brand building and clicks. There's good reason to second guess their motivations when their influencer monetization is about getting attention.

Just my cynical $0.02
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huh...

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