Page 15 - July 2022

The first thing to understand is that you are under no legal obligation to make the call when you land, or for that matter, you are never obligated to make that call. You will not be vaporized or lose your certificate privileges. Nothing will come of not making the call.
It’s important to understand the players and risk factors. The Tower, Approach Controller, Center Controller or FAA representatives generally speaking are really nice and helpful folks. That said, landing without permission, violating airspace, looking into the eyes of another pilot who is not in your aircraft kind of bugs those controllers to the point of action. Sometimes, they just want to have a talk with you to explain what they saw as the problem and it goes no further. “Please be careful” may be the limit of your liability risk.
On the other hand, sometimes your maneuver sets off internal alarm bells. If the alarms go off, ATC is obligated to file a formal deviation and write it up. Please understand that ATC does not like paperwork, and they would prefer not to do it unless they must. Sometimes, they must. As Shakespeare said in Hamlet, “Therein lies the rub.” If they must, you are speaking to them on a recorded line (which is usually the case) anything that you say, can and will be used against you ... yada, yada ... you know the line. So when you call, before all else, specifically ask if you are on a recorded line. If you are, politely ask if you can call them back on an unrecorded line. Even if you can work it out peacefully, the recording becomes evidence of what you are about to discuss, hoping to be forgiven for your indiscretion.
The core issue is that those nice folks you are speaking with are investigators, not enforcers. The investigators merely collect information and turn the information over to the real power players. They don’t make any decisions; they get your position and kick it uphill to the FAA’s general counsel, who makes the decisions and are the enforcers. The enforcer takes the raw facts from both sides and determines whether there is a possible violation that should be prosecuted.
Describing the process in more familiar terms, imagine you’re pulled over for speeding:
Police: License and registration, please. Do you know why I’m stopping you?
You: Well, maybe. Was I speeding?
Police: I’d say so.
JULY 2022
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 13