Donald Lee Walters v. John L. McLucas Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration
Opinion
Opinion
Walters petitions this court to review an order of the National Transportation Safety Board (Board) which upheld the revocation of his private pilot license by the Federal Aviation Administration. The bases for the revocation were that he violated Federal Aviation Regulations and had been convicted of possessing marijuana for sale.
On the night of December 17,1975, Deputies Chapin and Mergell of the Mojave County, Arizona Sheriff’s Office kept watch for drug smuggling activities at an isolated and deserted airstrip. A few hours after the Deputies arrived, they heard a plane flying low over the airstrip. The Deputies did not see the plane until moments before it landed; until then the plane was being operated without lights.
When the' engines were shut down, Chapin approached the plane and questioned the pilot. The pilot identified himself as “Don Walters.” Chapin then examined four documents which the pilot produced: a pilot certificate, California driver’s license, a medical certificate, and a radio telephone operator’s certificate. Each document was in the name of and signed “Donald Lee Walters.”