Letter of the law or spirit of the law

[InsyleM]

Wich is more important, the letter or spirit of aviation law?

We learned in School,
that an aircraft's annual inspection is due, on the last day of the month, at midnight.
How strictly enforced is that?
I see two ways this could be applied, both of wich seem correct.
If your annual is due in July, and you get up in the morning on July 31st at 8am, is your annual already 8 hours over due? Or do you have 16 hours left to fly it to get it done?

I also noticed that through a wording overlook,
the FAR 43, refering to the requirment for washing an aircraft prior to inspection, uses the word "He" This by letter of the law says that only a male can wash and depanel an airplane in preperation for inspection.

I figured this could make for some interesting discussions...
Supose your at 9000'? Flying at 250Kias... with a 20 knot tailwind?
or 270kias with a 30 knot headwind?
Even with the same wind 250kias @ 9000' is diffrent groundspeed then 250kias @ 1000'
So how do they know if you were speeding or not? The transponder only reports altitude..

[tigisfat]

There is only one way that it may be applied. It is due by midnight on the last day of the month, meaning 23:59 and 59 seconds is the last second. On the first second of the first day of the next month, you are overdue.

It's very strictly enforced if you're caught. If you don't have a current annual, you can't fly the aircraft. If you do, or you own it and allow it to be flown, you are hugely liable. On the other hand, there's nothing that says you HAVE to do an annual. If you want to park the aircraft and not accomplish the annual then you're still golden!!

[jwenting]

The letter of the law is the only thing that can be enforced.
If you don't, you're on a very slippery slope and soon every LEO and judge are going to give their own interpretation on things and punishing people for violating the spirit of the law while not breaking the actual law itself, and letting others go who are guilty as hell but "didn't mean to do it".

[NikeHerk67]

[QUOTE=InsyleM;1237352]Wich is more important, the letter or spirit of aviation law?

We learned in School,
that an aircraft's annual inspection is due, on the last day of the month, at midnight.
How strictly enforced is that?
I see two ways this could be applied, both of wich seem correct.
If your annual is due in July, and you get up in the morning on July 31st at 8am, is your annual already 8 hours over due? Or do you have 16 hours left to fly it to get it done?

I also noticed that through a wording overlook,
the FAR 43, refering to the requirment for washing an aircraft prior to inspection, uses the word "He" This by letter of the law says that only a male can wash and depanel an airplane in preperation for inspection.

In proper English the word he, for centuries, meant (mankind) and was used to refer to both genders not only in the (boy not girl) definition. It's only been in recent history when the society decided that it wasn't politically correct. If you read literature written for the past 6000 years and up until about 30 years ago, don't be surprised if you see he being used for both genders. I'm not surprised you weren't taught that in our modern day schools, however.


InsyleM

I figured this could make for some interesting discussions...
Supose your at 9000'? Flying at 250Kias... with a 20 knot tailwind?
or 270kias with a 30 knot headwind?
Even with the same wind 250kias @ 9000' is diffrent groundspeed then 250kias @ 1000'
So how do they know if you were speeding or not? The transponder only reports altitude..

InsyleM

An acquisition Radar can measure azimuth and distance changes from one sweep to the next. Once the computer is feed the altitude information, which is the unknown, it can do the math, and quite accurately as well.

[InsyleM]

There is only one way that it may be applied. It is due by midnight on the last day of the month, meaning 23:59 and 59 seconds is the last second. On the first second of the first day of the next month, you are overdue.

It's very strictly enforced if you're caught. If you don't have a current annual, you can't fly the aircraft. If you do, or you own it and allow it to be flown, you are hugely liable. On the other hand, there's nothing that says you HAVE to do an annual. If you want to park the aircraft and not accomplish the annual then you're still golden!!

Ok Here's where the confusion sets in.
it says Midnight, NOT 23:59:59
Midnight is the very FIRST part of the day. If they ment that it should expire at the END of the last day, it should have been writen 23:59:59 instead of midnight. IT's ALWAYS after midnight for whatever day it is. Like right now, its 13 hours and 49 minutes past midnight on October 16th.

Also: I dont know how to do multipul quotes in the same message,
But about that "He" meaning mankind in general. I really didn't know that. I knew
in Spanish, a male gender pronoun can mean a group of people includeing females,
but I didnt know it worked that way in English too.
Thanks,
-Jonathan

[tigisfat]

Ok Here's where the confusion sets in.
it says Midnight, NOT 23:59:59
Midnight is the very FIRST part of the day. If they ment that it should expire at the END of the last day, it should have been writen 23:59:59 instead of midnight. IT's ALWAYS after midnight for whatever day it is. Like right now, its 13 hours and 49 minutes past midnight on October 16th.

Also: I dont know how to do multipul quotes in the same message,
But about that "He" meaning mankind in general. I really didn't know that. I knew
in Spanish, a male gender pronoun can mean a group of people includeing females,
but I didnt know it worked that way in English too.
Thanks,
-Jonathan

right, that's why I said that 23:59 and 59 seconds was the last moment in which it could be accomplished, because it expires at midnight. Also, the first second counts as part of the first day of the next month, and the inspection is now overdue.

[InsyleM]

right, that's why I said that 23:59 and 59 seconds was the last moment in which it could be accomplished, because it expires at midnight. Also, the first second counts as part of the first day of the next month, and the inspection is now overdue.

I still think the way it's worded is improper.

[tigisfat]

I still think the way it's worded is improper.

eh, I can see where you're coming from. There's a lotta things that way. It drives me mad sometimes because I'm a thinker. I don't take things at face value and run, I have to read in.

[alastairmonk]

Perhaps a little real-world common sense is called for .....

If the Regulations require the inspection to be carried out (sometime) on the last day of a particular month (and an aviation lawyer would be able to determine precisely when that is, 0000 + 1 second or 2359 +59s on the stated day) then it makes sense to make sure that the inspection has been done before the last day of the month. Why make life un-necessarily complicated or risk the wrath of the authorities ?

As for the use of the male pronoun, in many cases it is assumed that this includes both males and females, however if the legal document has been properly drawn up, somewhere in the early parts should explicitly state that references to the male gender also apply to the female gender. Anyone with access to the particular document in question could check.

Alastair

[United 232]

The letter of the law is the only thing that can be enforced.
If you don't, you're on a very slippery slope and soon every LEO and judge are going to give their own interpretation on things and punishing people for violating the spirit of the law while not breaking the actual law itself, and letting others go who are guilty as hell but "didn't mean to do it".

Most laws are indeed up for individual interpretation, such as wreckless driving, disturbing the peace, assault, malicious mischief, etc...