Deep fatigue from traveling 2 days and waxing my plane in the Atlanta heat, waking up at 3am due to being on Italy time, long flight to OSH, hold for an hour then getting beat by some of the strongest turbulence I ever encountered, even the dog was puking. Since I was holding at 2300' and 135kts as directed, with the low ceilings and severe turbulence I never climbed or accelerated and 135 is my downwind speed, as I added flaps normally the plane decelerated normally, never got a gear horn. As I entered the pattern the turbulence subsided and I just relaxed too much.
When the FAA dude asked what happened I answered with 2 words, "I forgot". He liked that and the fact that I had not put the switch down or pulled the breaker and tried to bull**** some excuse. I explained my analysis of the incident (due to the minimal level of damage it's an incident not an accident) coming down all the links in the chain I could identify and concluding that my primary and initial error was allowing myself to operate at such deep levels of fatigue.
He and the NTSB guy were quite pleased that not only were there no injuries (all that really matters) but that I was completely open and honest with them, was introspective as to the causes coming to what they agreed was the valid conclusion, and took full ownership of the mistake. "The good thing about guys like you is you're not going to make the same mistake again."
Naturally I'll have to do a 44709 ride, that is where the only hitch in the matter comes in as the FAA needs to close these and have the ride done in 30-60 days otherwise they have to issue a suspension. I told him I'd be back in Italy on Monday and not likely to return until October and asked if it was possible to do the ride this week, he said he would try, but due to Airventure, it was uncertain if it was possible. He called the next day and said it wasn't and gave me the option of avoiding a suspension on my record (and him all the paper work and trying to send me certified mail which is impossible) of voluntarily surrendering my certificate at the FSDO pending completion of the ride which I can take at any FSDO, so that's what I did since I don't use the certificate in Europe anyway.
So now it's in the hands of the insurance company, at $70k of coverage, a minimum of $30k in salvage, and $50kin repairs, I suspect they will total it.
When the FAA dude asked what happened I answered with 2 words, "I forgot". He liked that and the fact that I had not put the switch down or pulled the breaker and tried to bull**** some excuse. I explained my analysis of the incident (due to the minimal level of damage it's an incident not an accident) coming down all the links in the chain I could identify and concluding that my primary and initial error was allowing myself to operate at such deep levels of fatigue.
He and the NTSB guy were quite pleased that not only were there no injuries (all that really matters) but that I was completely open and honest with them, was introspective as to the causes coming to what they agreed was the valid conclusion, and took full ownership of the mistake. "The good thing about guys like you is you're not going to make the same mistake again."
Naturally I'll have to do a 44709 ride, that is where the only hitch in the matter comes in as the FAA needs to close these and have the ride done in 30-60 days otherwise they have to issue a suspension. I told him I'd be back in Italy on Monday and not likely to return until October and asked if it was possible to do the ride this week, he said he would try, but due to Airventure, it was uncertain if it was possible. He called the next day and said it wasn't and gave me the option of avoiding a suspension on my record (and him all the paper work and trying to send me certified mail which is impossible) of voluntarily surrendering my certificate at the FSDO pending completion of the ride which I can take at any FSDO, so that's what I did since I don't use the certificate in Europe anyway.
So now it's in the hands of the insurance company, at $70k of coverage, a minimum of $30k in salvage, and $50kin repairs, I suspect they will total it.
Last edited:
