Wing walking flights in Sequim draw lawsuit and FAA investigation

[Brian]

Wing walking flights in Sequim draw lawsuit and FAA investigation

Mason Wing Walking is facing FAA investigation after a lawsuit that forced the Sequim business to move its home-based operations.

www.seattletimes.com

Some quotes below. Pics and more text available at the link.

In Sequim, on the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula, you can sign up for a daring thrill ride available nowhere else in America: Mason Wing Walking will take you up in an airplane to about 3,500 feet where you can climb out of the open cockpit and clamber across the wings.

A lawsuit by neighbors tired of the noise from the flights forced Mike and Marilyn Mason to move their business last fall from a small grass airfield at their home in Sequim; they now fly out of an airport 3 miles away.

The Masons are appealing the injunction. In the meantime, the Federal Aviation Administration has opened an investigation into whether the wing walking operation is properly authorized.

Wing walkers sign a waiver agreeing not to sue and then Mike Mason — an FAA-certified pilot, flight instructor and airplane mechanic who is also a former FAA safety inspector and an expert aerobatics pilot — flies his customers into the sky, where the wing walking begins.

The FAA says an operation like this needs its approval. In an interview, Mike Mason said that when he started the wing walking business about 13 years ago, the FAA cleared the enterprise to operate.

He said it was approved under rules that exempt certain flight school, acrobatic and aerial photography missions from the standard regulations governing commercial air carriers. "We had the FAA give us the word early on that they agreed we fall under these exemptions", he said.

The FAA is looking into this claim. "All aspects of Mr. Mason's assertions that we have approved the operation are part of an open investigation" ,the FAA said in a statement.

 

[Aeromot]

These are the same people and Stearman who do this for six months a year here at Santa Paula (contrary to the first line of quotes above). They just recently made their annual return to Washington. On nice weekends that plane will be busy from late morning until dusk. They have been doing this for at least 5 years, so the situation is not new. My son did a ride with them years ago:

The old plane IS kind of loud during some points in Mason's routine, but there are noisier planes that fly here. Maybe our FSDO has different thresholds for investigations.

 

[Brian]

I"d forgotten that video. It was fun watching it again.

Two questions:

1. Is there a cable on the wing-walker while they are exiting their seat and climbing up to the wing?
2. Would you do it?

 

[Aeromot]

I"d forgotten that video. It was fun watching it again.

Two questions:

1. Is there a cable on the wing-walker while they are exiting their seat and climbing up to the wing?
2. Would you do it?

1. Yes.
2. I'm older than they permit. If I could, and it were free, I'd do it, but not for the $$$ they charge.

https://masonwingwalking.com/

 

[Palmpilot]

By the way, in the trivia department, my recollection is that the "e" in Sequim is silent.

 

[Cap'n Ron]

Mark can check me on this, but J. Scott Hamilton's book suggests that in most states, an exculpatory contract ("waiver") is not enforceable unless insurance is available and offered. The article says no insurance is available.

As for the FAA, first, while he says the FAA previously approved what they're doing, if it isn't written down, the approval never happened. And I really can't imagine FAA approval for paying passengers being allowed to climb around like that without a parachute.

 

[BananAppeal]

My son isn’t as good at making videos as Art’s son, but he did it too. I would do it (unlike Art, even at their prices) if I didn’t have two artificial shoulders. Not certain I could climb out onto the wing. Oh, and there’s that age thing.

Nor would I hire MIke Mason as my lawyer based on the legal reasoning in that article.

 

[Domenick]

I was at Sequim Airport's (W28) 2022 Olympic Peninsula Air Affaire & Sequim Valley Fly-In.

2026 Sequim Area Events - Sequim Valley Airport

olympicpeninsulaairaffaire.com

Great little aviation festival. Was looking forward to going back this year, but unfortunately, they cancelled 2023 due to some scheduling issue.

Mason Wing Walking was there last year and I was not tempted, but others went up. Beautiful Stearman. Wonderful, throaty radial.

https://masonwingwalking.com/

Mike Mason flies out of a residential airpark. 48° 7.768'N 123° 12.338'W
Sequim Valley (W28) 48° 5.867'N 123° 11.243'W

Sequim lies in "The Blue Hole." In the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, it enjoys 300 days of sunshine a year compared to Seattle's 156 days of rain and 226 overcast days. I'm guessing after Mason's 13 years in business, some a-hole, newbie, Seattle bluebird transplant is pissing on Mike Mason's fire. Mason lives on a residential airpark. There's noise--I'm shocked.

 

[Cap'n Ron]

He said it was approved under rules that exempt certain flight school, acrobatic and aerial photography missions from the standard regulations governing commercial air carriers. "We had the FAA give us the word early on that they agreed we fall under these exemptions", he said.

I'd sure like to hear him tell which exemption rules those are and how they apply to what he's doing.

 

[Palmpilot]

Sequim lies in "The Blue Hole." In the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, it enjoys 300 days of sunshine a year compared to Seattle's 156 days of rain and 226 overcast days.

I grew up in Seattle. At one point I checked an almanac, and found out that it had 48 clear days per year, and about the same number of partly-cloudy days.

I still get homesick occasionally, mainly for Western Washington in general, though.

 

[Palmpilot]

If you don't want to try wing-walking, how about crawling on it?



https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/worst-flying-movie-ive-ever-seen.142839/

 

[GingerJ1]

Wing walking? Oh hell to the no!

 

[Cap'n Ron]

If you don't want to try wing-walking, how about crawling on it?

Ummmm...

...no.

 

[jhempel]

In the video I see that he was buckled in once on the wing. During the video I was wondering if there was any tether attached during the transition from the seat to the wing. I didn't see it in the video. The description on the web site mentions a safety cable, so I assume he was tethered the whole time.

I did a lot of tower climbing on radio towers years ago as part of my job. Our tethers were never more than a few feet long because of injuries that can result from using longer tethers. The longer tethers result in more inertia and swinging into things during the fall. It would still be better than falling from the plane!

The web site addressed Cap'n Ron's concern about the lack of a parachute. The web site says that it could get tangled on the plane if the parachute accidently deployed while climbing. While that may be true, I question the legality of not having one. A parachute was required during my brief time doing aerobatics training in an open cockpit biplane. I'm not sure it would have been any benefit without some training in egress and skydiving. I doubt if my reaction time would have been fast enough to clear the plane and use the parachute before I hit the ground.

All that said, I would have done it in my younger days. I've done a few things that were more dangerous than the wing walking ride. My risk tolerance and physical stamina have declined with age. I wouldn't even consider it now, but I can see the appeal.

 

[Ghery]

By the way, in the trivia department, my recollection is that the "e" in Sequim is silent.

Yes, it is.

 

[Brian]

Up here, we have the town of Gansevoort. It's pronounced Gansvert. The 'e' is silent.

 

[Group W]

There are many, many of those, including a couple of streets in Portland (OR) -- Couch (pronounced "Kooch" and Glisan ("Gleeson").

On various flying trips I've stopped in Kearney, NE (pronounced "Carny") and Pierre, SD ("Peer").

Roy

 

[BananAppeal]

In the video I see that he was buckled in once on the wing. During the video I was wondering if there was any tether attached during the transition from the seat to the wing. I didn't see it in the video. The description on the web site mentions a safety cable, so I assume he was tethered the whole time.

I did a lot of tower climbing on radio towers years ago as part of my job. Our tethers were never more than a few feet long because of injuries that can result from using longer tethers. The longer tethers result in more inertia and swinging into things during the fall. It would still be better than falling from the plane!

The web site addressed Cap'n Ron's concern about the lack of a parachute. The web site says that it could get tangled on the plane if the parachute accidently deployed while climbing. While that may be true, I question the legality of not having one. A parachute was required during my brief time doing aerobatics training in an open cockpit biplane. I'm not sure it would have been any benefit without some training in egress and skydiving. I doubt if my reaction time would have been fast enough to clear the plane and use the parachute before I hit the ground.

All that said, I would have done it in my younger days. I've done a few things that were more dangerous than the wing walking ride. My risk tolerance and physical stamina have declined with age. I wouldn't even consider it now, but I can see the appeal.

There was definitely a cable when my son did it. Here’s a screen shot of the first frame of a video of him climbing onto the wing. You can see the cable clipped onto the outboard side of the left rear strut as he climbed onto the wing.

 

[Cap'n Ron]

There was definitely a cable when my son did it. Here’s a screen shot of the first frame of a video of him climbing onto the wing. You can see the cable clipped onto the outboard side of the left rear strut as he climbed onto the wing.

What sort of paperwork did they have to approve that cable as an aircraft part and its installation on the aircraft?

 

[Brian]

There was definitely a cable when my son did it. Here’s a screen shot of the first frame of a video of him climbing onto the wing. You can see the cable clipped onto the outboard side of the left rear strut as he climbed onto the wing.

I don't see a screen shot.