The Mason Wing Walking business in Sequim, which allowed thrill-seekers to pay to clamber onto the wings of 1940s Stearman biplanes mid-flight, is no longer in operation.
The Federal Aviation Administration has revoked the pilot's license of Mike Mason, who has flown wingwalks in Sequim in the summer and in California in the winter for the past 12 years.
“The Administrator has determined that an emergency exists related to the safety of air commerce and requires immediate action to revoke an air transport pilot's certificate,” the federal agency said in a March 18 statement. wrote in a letter to Mason. Mason was prohibited from operating an aircraft, effective immediately.
Although the government has now determined that Mason's flight was unsafe, Mason claimed in an interview last August that he had been cleared by FAA inspectors to fly when he began wing-walking in 2012. did.
He said it was guaranteed exemption from the standard rules governing commercial airlines, based on rules specific to flight schools, aerobatics and aerial photography missions.
The FAA later said it was investigating the claim. An “emergency revocation order” letter to Mason describes the outcome.
Based on a multi-wing walk flight in Sequim last summer and a similar flight in Santa Paula, Calif., in December, the FAA ruled that the FAA “advertised or offered to the public the operation of an aircraft carrying passengers without authorization.” was lowered.
During these flights, which last about 25 minutes each and cost between $1,000 and $1,400 for a thrill ride, wingwalkers crawl out of the cockpit while tethered to cables at about 3,500 feet in the air.
Participants were strapped into fixed-rig harnesses and performed aerobatics such as standing on the wings of a bright red biplane and flipping it upside down with its head facing the ground.
Then, detached from the rig but still attached to the cable, the wing walker climbs onto the wing and straddles a pole fixed horizontally between the biplane's upper and lower wings, Harry Potter style. I flew in
The FAA investigation determined that these flights were “careless or reckless enough to endanger the life or property of others.”
In addition to operating his business without a permit, the letter said Mason violated aviation safety regulations by performing acrobatic flight maneuvers when paying passengers did not have parachutes.
This conduct “demonstrates that you currently lack the required degree of care, judgment, and responsibility,” the letter concludes.
Mason was directed to immediately surrender his revoked pilot certificate to the FAA and was subject to a fine of $1,828 for each day he failed to do so.
Mason and his wife have two children. one of them is disabled. The flying business is their livelihood.
According to the letter, the FAA will not accept applications for a new pilot's license from Mason for one year.
Mason has appealed the FAA's lawsuit, but remains prohibited from flying during the appeal process. The FAA will likely schedule an appeal hearing in April. He did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Complaints from residents
The FAA's ruling invalidates the controversial business operation.
Mason originally jumped from a grass runway at the Blue Ribbon Farm development in Sequim, where his family lives. Many of the residents are former airline pilots and have small private airplane hangars next to their homes.
Blue Ribbon residents are bound by a pilot-friendly code that explicitly allows aircraft to take off and land and prohibits noise complaints. However, regulations prohibit the use of the runway for “commercial purposes.”
The homeowners board heard complaints about the number of planes Mason was operating over the summer, causing confusion. Mason then moved the flight to nearby Sequim Valley Airport.
However, Mason's wife, Marilyn, continued to give pre-flight ground training to customers in the airplane hangar next to the Blue Ribbon House.
The wing walkers spent about three hours making the ascent, learning the footholds they would use to climb over the aircraft, how to hold on to it, and how to secure the upper harness.
The controversy further escalated in 2022 when the board sued Mason to prevent it from operating from the location altogether.
In its submission, the board expressed concern that it could be held liable if a wing walker dies in an accident. No insurance company will cover wing walking.
In another setback that forced a new move on the business, the FAA last summer revoked Mr. Mason's permit to fly where he habitually flew wingwalks, just offshore in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The FAA revoked permits for the area, which it controls due to its proximity to air routes regularly flown by other aircraft, after receiving noise complaints from residents along the coast.
So Mason switched to flying inland, away from air routes, between the coastline and the Olympic Mountains, a few miles south of the airport, to avoid needing FAA permission.
However, the Stearman is a very noisy airplane, so this caused anger among people living in the new flight area.
Chrysalis Carter, who has lived in a quiet rural home in the Blue Mountains between Sequim and Port Angeles for 30 years, said Mason flew low over her property four to six days a week, weather permitting, last summer. He said he was flying.
She could clearly see the wing walker standing on top of the plane. She said she and her husband considered moving her because the noise was so bad and constant.
When told of the FAA's action Thursday, Carter sighed and said he was “really relieved.”
The court's decision in the Blue Ribbon homeowner case prohibited Mason and others from using the Blue Ribbon airstrip or hangar for their wing-walking business.
Mr. Mason's appeal of the Clallam County Superior Court's decision is still pending, but unless Mr. Mason's appeal of the FAA decision is successful, the decision may be invalidated.
Homeowners Commission Chairman Mark Long expressed caution about the FAA's decision in an interview Thursday.
Mr. Long, himself a small plane pilot, said he and the board took legal action solely to force Mr. Mason to move his business off-site.
He said the board does not intend to pursue Mr. Mason's license by filing a complaint with the FAA.
“We are pilots,” Long said. “We feel sick every time we hear about someone having their ticket or license revoked.”
“That was never our intention,” he added. “We know that's his purpose in life. We hope he gets that back.”
The forced closure of Mason Wing Walking may end the last chance for wealthy amateurs to attempt this daredevil bucket list stunt.
UK-based Wing Walk Company offers a similar service, but it straps its customers to a rig on top of the plane for takeoff, landing and flight time. You don't actually walk on the wings in the air.
In the United States, experts perform wingwalking at several small air shows. But Mason's surgery was the only way the average person could sign up for such a ride.
