Page 26 - Dec15

24 • TWIN & TURBINEDECEMBER 2015Select Airparts Quarter Page 4/C AdNASA Aviation Safety Reporting System via computer (http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov), and then start checking the daily mail with more interest than usual.Three weeks go by and nothing happens, but then an official-looking letter bearing the FAA logo arrives from Las Vegas by certified mail. It is dated two weeks prior to its arrival, yet it requests a reply in 10 days. The phrasing has a definite legal ring, as if written by a prosecuting criminal attorney, although it is signed by an Aviation Safety Inspector. It has a clear editorial bias that says we did indeed do something seriously wrong and enforcement action is being considered. The third paragraph even has a Miranda-type warning that any response I choose to make could be used against me.The “guilty until proven innocent” tone makes me quite uncomfortable, and so I call a pilot acquaintance who was formerly employed as an attorney with the FAA and describe what happened. His attitude is actually not that concerned. First, he says promptly filing the NASA ASRS form was definitely a good idea, as the outcome of these events is often hard to predict.Second, when he worked for the FAA, the FSDOs often deliberately sent out letters later than they were dated, because they thought it made a prompt response more likely. Third, the Las Vegas area has one of the highestB/E Aerospace, Inc. Half Page 4/C Ad