Sport Pilot Talk

Don't know how many here may recall the user "ussyorktown," aka attorney Daniel Barnath, but...

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/37320899/sma ... d-one-dead

http://www.winknews.com/2018/01/23/type ... dentified/

The first thing you find when you query for this username is this eerie post ....

http://sportpilottalk.com/viewtopic.php ... 42&p=36807

What's saddest is that this accident was so predictable. Several CFIs on this forum tried to counsel Daniel, to no avail. Our pleadings were met with nothing but argument.

For those who weren't here at the time: several years ago, this pilot posted (boasted) about using his iPad GPS to monitor his approach speed. Many of us cautioned him that he was monitoring ground speed, not airspeed. Our words fell on deaf years.

A couple of years later, he totaled his CT in a bizarre fuel exhaustion accident. He saw his fuel was low, made a precautionary landing in a field, checked his tanks and decided he had enough fuel remaining to make it to an airport about four miles away, and then crashed on final. He walked away from that one.

After the accident, he sued Flight Design, as well as his FBO, CFI, mechanic, dealer, importer, and God knows who else. The judge ultimately dismissed the suit with prejudice, but not until each of the defendants had wasted thousands on attorney's fees.

This latest accident was sadly predictable. Doesn't make it less tragic. A black mark for all of the GA and LSA community.

It is an ill-mannered breach of etiquette to speak poorly of the dead.

But mama never could teach me manners.

As a lawyer and as a human being, this guy had the ethics of a snake:

https://militaryphony.com/2013/12/0...r ... -of-shame/
http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=69862 (Faked photos, false claims of military rank and honors)
https://law.justia.com/cases/oregon/sup ... 44863.html (Denied admission to Oregon state bar for lack of good moral character.)
http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-5 ... rnath.html
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/inde ... ial_s.html (Ordered by court to attend anger management class.)​

As an aviator, this is a pretty good summary:
http://sportpilottalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2574​

Looks like his karma finally ran over his dogma.

(Sorry, mom.)

Tragically predictable.

Leading to the question: could/should we have done more as a community to try to prevent this?

Probably not, but that question sometimes nags at me.

Half Fast wrote: As an aviator, this is a pretty good summary:
http://sportpilottalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2574​

Note how patiently we tried to coax him in the right direction. As soon as he said “Fear not. I shall never be mentioned in a NTSB report.” that set off all sorts of alarms.

In the immortal words of Kurt Vonnegut, “So it goes...”

Well, I was reading his post about the iPad app he was using during his landings and frankly, it almost felt like he was trolling you guys ... I mean, I cannot imagine someone actually getting a license without understanding difference between ground and airspeed.
Even without GPS reporting for you ( in the old days ) it was trivial to visualize this simply by flying at 1000 feet AGL up and down wind during a windy day ...

I have nothing to say that would not be snarky.

BTW, I once received a "cease and desist letter" from him for internet posts I made about his flying. I ignored it.

FastEddieB wrote:Tragically predictable.

Leading to the question: could/should we have done more as a community to try to prevent this?

Probably not, but that question sometimes nags at me.

Eddie, I honestly don't know. As an instructor, you may feel obligations and responsibilities that I don't. I'm just thankful that his (inevitable) crash was into an unpopulated location with only him on board.

Maybe the FAA should have required a 709 ride after his fuel mismanagement crash. He certainly exhibited poor judgment, and maybe poor airmanship. But given his attitudes, I doubt whether a ride would have changed anything.

Had he been a better human being, people might have been inclined to do more to persuade him and help him. But when a rotten disbarred attorney lies about military service and files malicious lawsuits against everyone under the sun and takes zero personal responsibility for his own actions, we shouldn't be too surprised if the LSA community and society at large are perfectly content to let him continue his self-destructive behavior.

One of my favorite Mark Twain quotations seems appropriate: “I did not attend his funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.”

Warmi wrote:Well, I was reading his post about the iPad app he was using during his landings and frankly, it almost felt like he was trolling you guys .....

Go over to the POA website and read about his fuel mismanagement crash and subsequent lawsuit. He made an unplanned landing because his fuel gauges showed low fuel, confirmed he only had about 3 gallons left, did not add fuel (??!!), then took off again in clear violation of the reg about VFR fuel reserve. After crashing, he sued the plane manufacturer, his instructor, and a host of others. Suit was finally dismissed with prejudice.

I'm not sure whether that's evidence of insanity or stupidity, but either way it's consistent with honestly believing one can use GPS ground speed to land.

Half Fast wrote:

Warmi wrote:Well, I was reading his post about the iPad app he was using during his landings and frankly, it almost felt like he was trolling you guys .....

Go over to the POA website and read about his fuel mismanagement crash and subsequent lawsuit. He made an unplanned landing because his fuel gauges showed low fuel, confirmed he only had about 3 gallons left, did not add fuel (??!!), then took off again in clear violation of the reg about VFR fuel reserve. After crashing, he sued the plane manufacturer, his instructor, and a host of others. Suit was finally dismissed with prejudice.

I'm not sure whether that's evidence of insanity or stupidity, but either way it's consistent with honestly believing one can use GPS ground speed to land.

Just to be fair 3 gallons in a Rotax engine does meet legal reserves, but not by much. it certainly was not enough for the airplane he was flying.

Half Fast wrote:

Warmi wrote:Well, I was reading his post about the iPad app he was using during his landings and frankly, it almost felt like he was trolling you guys .....

.......
I'm not sure whether that's evidence of insanity or stupidity, but either way it's consistent with honestly believing one can use GPS ground speed to land.

Yes, this was exactly what I was struggling with trying to understand - people generally aren't that stupid . Sure, more often than not, out of stubbornness they will argue back and forth knowing very well that they are wrong and attempt to defend the indefensible, but ultimately the human instinct to survive kicks in and in the real life they behave reasonably.

Not in this case, it appears ... and to FastEddieB's larger point , if someone is so cavalier as to completely disregard common sense , then there is nothing anyone can do about it. I am just curious how such person can get a license in the first place ?

Yikes! Even "stolen valor."

“Daniel A. Bernath was one of the most prolific and unapologetic valor thieves I have ever encountered,” said Master Chief Petty Officer Terence B. Hoey, USN (Ret.), who helps investigate false award claims.

https://www.news-press.com/story/news/2 ... 061153001/

Reading the news article it gives me pause about the crash. Time will tell, but I have a strange feeling that it might have been something other than an accident

Half Fast wrote:I'm just thankful that his (inevitable) crash was into an unpopulated location with only him on board.

Karen reminded me that she had said of him, that she hopes we’d have some idea of an area he’d be flying in, so that we could avoid it.

She has said that about exactly one other person.