Dear Garrett..

The flight from Watsonville to Santa Cruz was short – about twenty miles. When the Santa Cruz deputies didn’t bring the prisoners to me at the Watsonville Airport, I would fly to the Santa Cruz Skypark Airport to pick them up.

The brief flight from Watsonville to Santa Cruz was relaxing. The Monterey Bay coastline was pretty with blue waters washing up on the beaches with its waves. I could see bathers, surfers and fishermen scattered about as I passed over the beaches. The beach was a friendly place to me. Looking down from my aircraft, I imagined the people I’d see below enjoying their time on the beaches away from the routine and rigors of every day life.

I liked to land on the beach when the ocean tide was low enough for me to touch down on the still wet sand left behind from the retreating tide waters. The beach had to be clear of people, of course. But no landing on the beach today. I was flying to the Santa Cruz Skypark Airport to pick up a prisoner.  So today, I could only enjoy the coastline from above which I was able to do often on my prison runs up and down the coast of California.

With the Santa Cruz Skypark Airport in sight, I departed the mesmerizing beauty of the coastline and lined up for a straight in approach to the northwest runway. The Santa Cruz Skypark Airport runway was short and narrow. There was a cliff drop off at the departure end of the northwesterly aligned runway.

This cliff at the end of the runway was either a concern or a blessing depending on the situation. The cliff was helpful on the occasions that I would fly out heavy off the runway to the northwest. On heavy takeoffs, I had room to descend into a valley after passing the departure end of the runway to gain extra airspeed thus enabling the aircraft to climb more comfortably before having to safely clear the Santa Cruz mountains.

As I parked the aircraft after landing at the Santa Cruz Airport on one of my first prisoner runs, I noticed two official looking vehicles waiting to meet me in the prisoner pick up area at the far south end of the airport. I easily recognized one of the vehicles to be a Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department vehicle carrying inside it the prisoner that I was to transport to the prison in Vacaville . I would soon learn that the other was a FAA vehicle. This would be the first time I would meet with FAA personnel for other than the pilot certification side of the agency. The two gentlemen now approaching my aircraft were on the enforcement side of the FAA. Completely by surprise, I was about to experience my first official FAA Ramp Check.

As I exited the aircraft, the two men introduced themselves to me by identifying themselves as FAA Inspectors. They then asked me to produce my FAA Pilot and Medical Certificates. After showing them my Commercial Pilot Certificate and Second Class Medical Certificate, the Inspectors obviously realized, contrary to their expectations, that I was legally qualified to transport the prisoner standing by with the Sheriff’s Deputies for the flight. Appearing surprised, with what seemed like a posture of disappointment, the FAA Inspectors released me from their inquiry into the legality of my performing the job of an aircraft Prisoner Transportation Deputy and told me I was free to proceed with the conduct of my flight.

After meeting with the approval of the FAA Inspectors, I turned my attention to the deputies standing by with a prisoner in their custody. Without any introductions, the deputies positioned the prisoner in front of me to perform the standard ritual of removing the handcuffs from the prisoner as I simultaneously installed my waist chain and handcuffs on the prisoner. I then promptly loaded the prisoner on board the aircraft and we departed the Santa Cruz runway and flew to the prisoner’s new home at the Vacaville, California Correctional Facility.

After completing the prisoner transport, I met with Freeman regarding my first ever and unexpected though successful FAA Ramp Check. Freeman explained to me what had happened. I was told that we (Watsonville Aviation Service) had won the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Department Prisoner Transportation Contract by out bidding another aviation business operator named, James Dahm. In addition to running a flight services business, Jim was also the airport manager at the Santa Cruz Skypark Airport.

Speaking with Freeman, I got the picture that Mr. Dahm had previously held the prisoner transportation contract for quite some time and that James was not pleased that another company had acquired the contract away from him. My employers were owners of the newest flight services company in the area thus eager to acquire what business they could to enable their new business to become successful. Watsonville Aviation Service had submitted the lowest bid of 14 3/4 cents per mile to transport a prisoner by air and we were awarded the Santa Cruz County Prisoner Transportation Contract.

Freeman further explained that Mr. Dahm had apparently reported me to the FAA for illegally flying the prisoners for Santa Cruz County. It sounded to me that it appeared to Mr. Dahm that I was too young (age 20) to be a Commercial Pilot and therefore I was transporting the prisoners illegally. I felt an additional sense of satisfaction as I flew and completed this particular prisoner transport flight to the prison in Vacaville. Knowing that I had successfully passed my first FAA inspection made one of my first prisoner transports all the more exciting.