Justin’s Pilot Reports (PIREP)

A few weeks ago I was having an end-of-year luncheon with several coworkers at the Tower of Americas. This unique building rises 750ft above downtown San Antonio and features a rotating restaurant that provides diners with an impressive 360 degree view.

Needless to say, the Tower is a prominent VFR landmark that is used frequently by approach controllers at San Antonio International as a waypoint for vectoring General Aviation traffic to the airport.

So, flying over the Tower is a common occurrence for many San Antonio pilots. During this lunch, I spotted a Cessna 172 off in the distance heading towards the Tower. He was southbound and coming from San Antonio International. I pointed the airplane out to a coworker and as the airplane came closer, it captured the attention of several other folks at the table. Unfortunately, the airplane wasn’t climbing. In fact, it continued to grow larger as it began to appear to be on a collision course. Some of the friends at the table were actually getting nervous. I have to admit I was a bit nervous as well, but that was soon replaced by a growing fury.

Needless to say the airplane did NOT collide with the Tower. He made a right climbing turn away but circled the Tower and other prominent buildings. Since all of my coworkers knew I was a pilot, I was suddenly hit with a barrage of questions. “Isn’t someone talking to him?” - “How can he get away with that?” - “That wasn’t very funny” - “Is someone going to talk to him? I hope he’s in trouble.”

Thanks a lot. If you’re the pilot of this airplane or a pilot that has pulled a stunt like this, thanks for effectively giving General Aviation a huge black eye. I was stuck between trying to explain that what just happened was a violation of Federal Aviation Regulations (specifically, FAR 91.119) and that even if the airplane had struck the Tower the damage would have been minimal since folks were making comments of a 9/11 style impact. Needless to say, despite all my words to try and reassure them, the experience left most folks at the lunch table with a bad feeling about those “small, uncontrolled airplanes” in the sky.

How any pilot could think this was “fun” escapes me. I swore that if he made another close pass I was going to try and grab the aircraft registration number off the fuselage. I wanted him/her to pay dearly for thinking that it was OK to treat an airplane like a joyride in Dad’s corvette.

Fortunately, this past Saturday I had the privilege of taking two folks up on their First Flight (Flight 35). The weather was perfect and I had an opportunity to talk about the safety, fun and excitement associated with flying a Cessna 172. We did some flying over beautiful Medina Lake and when all was said and done we had several folks smiling and reflecting on how cool it was to be up in the blue sky having fun.

If you’re a pilot reading this, I hope you’re playing an active role in educating your non-pilot friends, coworkers and others about General Aviation. If you’re not, who is going to help reduce the damage caused by fellow pilots and others that seem bent on ensuring that we lose our freedom to fly?