What would you do ?

[TRNS113]

Hi everyone. I am having a debate with myself about on indecent that happened last week. A VFR pilot on unicom reported to a friend of his on frequency that his alitmiter was not working properly. He then proceeded to enter controlled airspace and upon contacting the controller in that area he did not report his problem. Should I have called the tower and gave them a heads up? Just wondering.

[CFD208]

Maybe he fixed it?

[cptkirk]

or maybe he had the wrong altimeter setting which corrected itself when he contacted the controller and received and set the correct barometric pressure.

or maybe he had a Special Flight Permit.

Was he operating carelessly or recklessly?  then maybe I would call.

Maybe it failed in flight and he was flying to a destination to get it repaired.  He was not operating IFR and did not have to report it.  If it were me flying and my Altimeter failed, you bet I'd report it to get it on record that it just failed in flight.  That way if I land and the local FAA dude pulls up to meet me and asks why i was flying with busted Altimeter, I can tell him it failed in flight, to listen to the tapes of when it was reported and that I'm here to get it fixed. 

[sykocus]

As the two people before me said it's possible that he fixed it by the time he called the tower. However, I'm not sure that you would have any responsibility to report him. Also from the tower's perspective it would only come into play if 1) they had a radar display and 2)the aircraft in question's mode C was giving an erroneous value. The 2nd condition be easily discovered because if the controller wanted to use the plane's mode C for separation he would have to verify it's accuracy to less then 300ft first. That's why it's nearly automatic to have a controller have a plane say altitude if they don't hear it on initial call to the facility.

Also, controllers are not the cops of the sky. We're more like the crossing guards. We don't give out tickets to planes not following the FAR's. We just keep everyone separated on their way to their destination. If you feel someone is operating unsafely/irresponsibly then you would want to contact your local FSDO office. They're the "mean" ones :p

[atcman23]

The FSDO is worse than the "fuzz."