Do people contact you every time there's a plane in the local news?

cowman

cowman

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Cowman
No, it's not just you. I've received paniced calls from non-pilot friends makingnsure a crashnthey heard about wasn't me. I recently went to work one morning and was greeted with "good, it wasn't you."
 
I get a couple of texts every now and then, it usually starts with what’s up? My reply is sky. Then they ask, so it wasn’t you who crashed the Cessna . I like to think at least they give a crap
 
EdFred said:
They used to. Now they don't anymore. I don't know if they realize it's because I'm an awesome pilot or because they don't give a crap. I'm going with the latter.
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I’m going with Ed’s answer for the most part.

Plus, the only person who truly needs to know if I’m aloft, knows.

And she knows enough people who actually work for the local airport that have her number, that they’d find her if something was up.

I learned my lesson about saying I was aloft and not notifying her of a three hour delay, two decades ago. That wasn’t nice. Especially considering our flight in a 337 had the fire trucks called out for it when we finally did land.

I also learned not to fly in idiots airplanes who don’t maintain them that day. “Oh the gear always does that...” Eff you, you moron. You own more airplanes than you can afford to fix. Dying radios and bad static wicks in a snowstorm in the mountains, gear that didn’t come down just once, but twice, and he never had it looked at. And more.

Learned a lot of things to watch for that day, to not become just another fatality statistic. Not the least of which was someone who constantly reminded everyone on board that he held a single engine ATP and had never held a flying job and owned multiple airplanes.

Huge red flag. LOL. Not really kidding. It wasn’t just that, but a whole laundry list of what the FAA now calls the five hazardous attitudes... I think if video cameras weren’t shoulder mounted monstrosities back then, I could have captured all five in a single two day trip.

I have no idea if the guy has killed himself in an airplane yet, but he was trying.
 
P.S. People who do NOT know me at all, other than social media DO ask ... and not even for local crashes or events. That’s the weird ones.

Not kidding, someone I barely know from a ham radio question I answered for him something like ten years ago now, asked me via a private message on Facebook whether I was the pilot who landed the Ercoupe on Lakeshore Drive in Chicago.

I guess I’m the only pilot he knows.

The photos of my red and white airplane and the cartoon of it that I use as my profile photo, don’t exactly look like a blue Ercoupe, but it’s nice that he asked, I guess. :)
 
The last plane that crashed locally, I got a text from a friend "You didn't crash a plane in the river did you?" ...... Well, if I did, chances are I wouldn't be responding.
 
I used to get it for skydiving accidents as well.

And, more to the OP's topic, I've actually gotten it on the forums as well whenever there's a crash in the area I work.
 
I have 2 friends who ask me about every crash they hear about. Not thinking it’s me, but they’re just interested in the causes. Like the recent crash out of Lincolnton, I got “I thought you’re not supposed to fly in thunderstorms?” That’s right, you’re not supposed to, and I don’t.
 
I get a, “Good. You’re alive,” when I walk into work after every crash in the news. I find it amusing if they are saying it when the recent crash-of-the-week is a Cessna citation, Lear, helicopter, etc. What the heck do they think I’m flying???
 
My relatives pull out my will and look disappointed when I walk in the front door.

Actually, there was a fatality at my home airport last year and I did get some calls.

The most amusing is that anytime a small plane flies over my mom’s house she texts and asks if it was me. She says, “but it was a white plane just like yours.”
 
It’s a normal reaction for people,who have a friend that owns an airplane.
 
I get it a lot. Even more so since one of the (non-fatal) accidents involved a friend of mine. I finally had a chat with my sister. "You've been in major car crash, I've never been involved in a plane crash. Do I call you every time I hear about a highway fatality, which is a couple times a day? No, that would be annoying. So if I crash my plane, I promise either I or my heirs will let you know."
 
No calls.

I think my friends and family realize that flying is the safest thing I have done in the last 40 years.
 
Yes. I get texts and messages on social media from friends.
 
EdFred said:
They used to. Now they don't anymore. I don't know if they realize it's because I'm an awesome pilot or because they don't give a crap. I'm going with the latter.
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Same.

When I first got my PPL I’d get the calls, now not so much, maybe they got bored of hearing I was alright lol
 
Occasionally, but not as much as when I first started flying back in the late 90's. The one call that stands out most in my mind was on 9/11. My sister called and woke me up as I was sleeping, after working the night shift. She was in a panic and nearly crying thinking it may have been me (initial reports were of a small plane). She was so relieved to hear my voice, then told me what was going on and to turn on the news.

I guess she had good reason to be concerned that it could have been me, because she knew that I flew small planes up and down the Hudson numerous times after getting my PPL.
In fact, that (Hudson river scenic flight) was my first flight in a small plane (my discovery flight).
 
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Being a fairly new pilot, (little over a year) I get the calls from friends, and relatives not only to make sure it wasn't me, but to let me know
why I shouldn't fly "those things".
 
This thread reminds me of this:
upload_2018-7-29_14-5-40.png

I'm with EdFred on this one. When I was a new pilot people would get worried, I think know I've been flying long enough that people stopped caring as much (I mean that in the best of ways haha)
 
I got about 10 text / calls when the guy landed on 55 just north of Springfield a couple weeks ago.
 
I've flown with people over the years whose friends call every time there's a crash of something similar to what they fly.

I've gotten two of those in my life, but it took the crash making national news to do it.
 
EppyGA said:
Get calls from the media some times when there is a local crash.
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I dated a reporter for the Florida Times-Union a bunch of years ago. For the longest time I was her "Aviation Expert." Didn't realize it until I started noticing that the "Aviation Expert" always seemed to say the same things I did.
 
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My inlaws used to do that. I started calling them every time there was a car accident in the area to make sure they were alright. Eventually they got the hint and stopped.
 
My a-hole wife's nephew called every time there was a crash, as he thought it was ridiculous (and funny) that the gov't would let just "anybody" fly a GA airplane. I called him after there was a car wreck in Annapolis, his home town, to "be sure it wasn't him". And express my outrage that just anyone could drive without a CDL. . .
 
Lol!!! Everyone’s with EdFred.
You all think everyone thinks you’re awesome pilots!! lol!!!
 
There was a previous thread on this... in which I said:

My ex-wife lives near the airport I trained at. Every time there is an accident (fatal or not) she calls me. I tell her that when I die she'll be the first person I call.

In her case I think it's nice that she cares if I live or die. We have no children, and no financial ties, so she's actually just being nice.
 
Sundancer said:
My a-hole wife's nephew called every time there was a crash, as he thought it was ridiculous (and funny) that the gov't would let just "anybody" fly a GA airplane. I called him after there was a car wreck in Annapolis, his home town, to "be sure it wasn't him". And express my outrage that just anyone could drive without a CDL. . .
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:idea:
Uh... did you actually mean your "wife's a-hole nephew" or did you mean it the way it's written? :dunno:
 
I have coffee every morning (while walking my dog) with a group of neighbors at a local coffee shop and they all know I fly. Every time there's an aviation accident or incident anywhere in the world I get asked about it. What happened? What was the cause? Was it pilot error or problems with the airplane?

My stock answer is "I don't know and it's premature to speculate."
 
No... but everytime a plane flies overhead in my hometown someone asks me if that’s my plane... (in a club with 5 total members c-182) low wing, high wing, smal twin, big twin..doesn’t matter.
 
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