For the week of August 8 - 14, 2001

Judge dismisses ‘Risky Business’ case

FAA accused pilot of dangerous flying

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By TRAVIS PURSER
Express Staff Writer

A federal judge has dismissed claims that California real estate mogul and air race pilot Bill Rheinschild endangered people and property two years ago by illegally buzzing the city of Hailey in a souped-up World War II fighter plane nicknamed "Risky Business."

Bill Rheinschild, left, gave rides in his World War II fighter "Bad Attitude" on airport appreciation day this summer. A judge last week dismissed claims that Rheinschild buzzed Hailey homes in a different warplane in 1999. Express photo by Travis Purser.

Rheinschild could have been grounded for 40 days, if the judge had upheld claims by the Federal Aviation Administration that the pilot violated its flight rules in a joyride lap over Woodside subdivision and the airport on Aug. 28, 1999.

Rheinschild flew as low as 150 feet over houses, banked nearly vertical and appeared to be about to crash, Hailey residents told National Transportation Safety Board Judge Patrick Geraghty during a hearing Aug. 1 in Boise.

But that testimony contradicted Rheinschild’s witnesses who said "Risky Business" never flew lower than 1,000 feet over Woodside, banked no more than 45 degrees and appeared to do nothing out of the ordinary.

Because witnesses for both sides were equally credible, the FAA could not prove that Rheinschild did anything wrong, the judge said. Therefore, he said, "I must dismiss the case." The FAA waived its right to appeal.

"I’m not upset, nor am I particularly happy," airport manager Rick Baird said Friday. He said the FAA’s investigation of Rheinschild and the hearing sends a message to all pilots that Hailey citizens "will put up a fight over flights they see as dangerous."

Rheinschild has a reputation for making loud, low passes over Hailey. Since 1991, the airport’s governing authority and the city have written him at least six letters asking that he comply with airport flight procedures meant to reduce neighborhood noise. Authority Chairwoman Mary Ann Mix said in 1999 that "he’s one of those folks that really causes us a problem."

Rheinschild said that year that he had never received the letters.

At least one FAA official believes the hearing may have an effect on Rheinschild despite the dismissal. During an interview from an FAA office in Boise last month, investigator Lewis Sanders said, "My object is to get him to quit doing it."

With little hard evidence available, the nearly five-hour hearing was fraught with contradictions that had lawyers for each side attempting to discredit the other side. The issue turned on the "credibility of witnesses," said FAA lawyer Scott Morris.

In 1999, Rheinschild told the Mountain Express he was not in Hailey on Aug. 28 and that he had sold "Risky Business." During the hearing last week, however, he said that he was in Hailey that day. He said he made the low pass so his wife, watching with friends from the tarmac, could visually check the operation of the plane’s landing gear, which had recently been serviced.

Rheinschild’s wife, Erin Rheinschild, a veteran commercial airline pilot and also a warplane racer, told the judge the landing gear appeared to be functioning properly and she gave her husband a "thumbs up" when he flew by.

A thumbs up "could also mean ‘cool,’" Morris said in his closing statement.

Rheinschild said he lowered then raised the plane’s gear over Woodside. But Hailey resident Dave Stelling said he watched that part of the flight from his home west of the airport, and, he said, "I don’t recall the gear being down."

"The way events transpired are different from what he’s saying now," Baird said. "The first time I heard he was making a low pass for checking his gear was when we were notified this thing was going to court [30 days ago]."

Dave Cummings, the air-traffic controller working during the flight, said he gave Rheinschild permission over the radio for a low pass of the airport, which is something controllers grant without asking why if they deem it safe. The low-pass permission exempted Rheinschild from the 1,000-foot altitude restrictions that exist around the airport. But it did not grant him permission to perform acrobatic maneuvers, which the FAA said he did.

After "Risky Business" flew over Woodside, Cummings said, "my neighbors are all awake, but I enjoyed it myself," a tape recording of the day’s radio transmissions played during the hearing revealed.

Cummings criticized the location of homes during the hearing.

"They built houses all along the downwind (the flight area over Woodside). I don’t know why they did that, but they did," Cummings said.

Rheinschild’s Washington, D.C.,-based lawyer, Mark McDermott, suggested the FAA had unfairly unfairly asked witnesses to embellish their testimony. When questioned by McDermott, FAA investigator Robert Rountree acknowledged that a member of his team had asked Cummings "couldn’t he think of anything else that Rheinschild did that he shouldn’t have done."

In 1998, Rheinschild flew "Risky Business" to a third-place finish at the Reno Air Races at an average speed of 420 miles per hour. Air and Space magazine called the races "aviation’s last bastion of organized recklessness … (where) a pilot can literally take his life into his own hands and as close to the desert floor as he or she dares."

Rheinschild owns another race plane called "Bad Attitude." He said he plans to enter the races again this year.

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