EUGENE, Ore. (AP) – A Sheridan man who had his pilot’s license revoked more than a quarter-century ago has been placed on probation and fined $2,000 after admitting to a federal judge that he flew a single-engine plane from Eugene to Independence.
Teddy Mayfield, 74, has a long history of defying federal aviation rules.
Court records show Mayfield was sentenced in 1994 to 4½ months in federal prison for repeatedly flying without a license. In 1995, he was sentenced to five months in state prison for criminally negligent homicide in the deaths of two customers of his former skydiving school.
Mayfield rebounded from those lows to become a Sheridan city councilman and Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year.
But he caught the Federal Aviation Administration’s attention on June 13, 2008, when he departed from the Eugene Airport without communicating with or getting clearance from air traffic controllers.
He initially told investigators another pilot with him was flying the plane, according to a sentencing memo from Assistant U.S. Attorney William “Bud” Fitzgerald. The FAA, however, discovered the other pilot had been in Corvallis.
Mayfield, in a recent letter to U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan, said he took full responsibility for the illegal flight: “I knew better and I should not have done it.”
Fitzgerald and defense attorney Steven Myers agreed Tuesday that probation, not prison, was a sufficient penalty. Myers noted the gap between the 2008 flight and Mayfield’s previous aviation-related conviction. He added his client complied with terms of his pretrial release, and has a 35-year history of community service in Sheridan.
Mayfield first had his license to fly revoked while still a student pilot in 1967, for illegally carrying a passenger during a flight. He obtained a commercial pilot’s license in 1972 and opened Pacific Parachute Center in Sheridan.
The FAA revoked Mayfield’s license in 1982 for violations that included failing to disclose his criminal history on a prerequisite medical certificate application. Though his license was never reinstated, Mayfield continued to fly despite court orders not to do so, leading to his 1994 federal prison sentence.
That same year, the FAA revoked Mayfield’s parachute rigger certificate after the agency faulted his failure to properly pack and maintain two parachutes involved in skydiving fatalities. In 1995, he pleaded guilty in Yamhill County Circuit Court to criminally negligent homicide in the deaths of Charles Schaefer, 33, and Lee Perry Sr., 85.
They were among 13 people who died in Pacific Parachute Center jumps. An FAA spokeswoman said in 1994 that most of the deaths occurred after parachutes malfunctioned.
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Information from: The Register-Guard,
http://www.registerguard.com
Source: http://www.katu.com/news/weird/82179502.html
