Chatting in the pub yesterday with some fellow cyclists about the hypocrisy of politicians who lose their licenses and then get ‘born again’ as cyclists, I heard the following tale. Some farmer a little further to the west of here – presumably a successful one – had lost his license through drink driving, and promptly bought a little helicopter to get himself to the supermarket and back, flying right over the centre of the town and parking in a nearby field (at last, a reason for those out-of-town retail parks). It shows a certain lateral thinking, to be sure, but can that really be true? Surely you’d lose any helicopter license you had as well? Wouldn’t you?
Still, at least if he’s up in the air, he’s not bombing round the bend ahead of me…
Hi, saw this one on FB,
No you wouldn’t lose a flight licence. CAA (now JAA) issued flight crew licenses are not subject to criminal action by the police for actions on the road. However, if you got caught flying drunk, you’d find yourself in hot water….
Though again, for some reason, not as severe as the road eg for Private pilots, there is no blood alcohol limit, merely some wishy washy, no drinking less than 8 hours before flying and you must be fit to fly or something like that.
Hope all’s well,
Cheers,
The other surprise (to me) is that at the end of the period for which one is barred due to drink-drive, you get a new driving license in the post. I used to imagine that one had to take the driving test again.
Ruaraidh – yes, finally got around to fixing that feed… welcome back.
DM – you’d think, wouldn’t you?
Not sure if I’d be more worried about the drunk waiting around the bend, or the one hovering overhead.
Well, you can’t do much about the latter, and there’s less for him to hit up there!
You’d actually be amazed how crowded the skies are and how other aircraft can sneak up on you. I’ve been sat in a light aircraft and only had time to utter a strangled sound that was supposed to be ‘look out, there’s an plane coming towards us’ but really sounded like ‘lmpnp’ before it flew very close overhead.
Duck!
And anyway – how would pc plod catch a drunken helicopter pilot?
Dom – actually that is true. The RAF use the skies round here as their playground and they go FAST
Mr. Goat – I expect they lay in wait for him in fields near pubs…