Odd that a truck driver is responsible for finding sabotage but a pilot isn't

No, you don't. You only must complete a form if you find an issue that needs to be addressed.

 

Because the regulations only state that you must be satisfied about the condition of the vehicle. It doesn't say, as I have stated before, how that satisfaction must be realized or WHO can do it. I'm not arguing with anyone or anything, I'm stating EXACTLY what the regulations state. I can't help it that they wrote the rules in such an ambiguous way.

Since it doesn't matter if you did a pre trip or not, if you hit anyone with your truck they're coming after you. Having done a pre trip won't get you out of anything. I've never seen a single case where the truck driver was found innocent because he did a pre trip.

The whole point of this thread was not to argue about pre trips on trucks, it was about how airplane pilots are not responsible for finding sabotage to an airplane but if a truck driver drops his trailer because someone yanked his 5th wheel, he DOES get blamed. That is absolutely insane to me.

 

But if you read previous replies in this thread, I pointed out that you could easily have checked it and it STILL be dropped IF IT IS SABATOAGED. Meaning you do your full pre trip, you go inside, take a leak, hop in your truck and drop your trailer because someone yanked your kingpin while you were pissing. My point is doing a pre trip doesn't guarantee you'll catch sabotage just like not doing one doesn't guarantee you will have problems.

You could do a pretrip and climb in the truck and catch a 20 minute cat nap. Or crash out for a 30 minute break and never leave the truck. Take off and the same thing happen. Pretrips aren't some magic catch all and end all to someone wanting to harm you and your truck. And saying "But I DID do a pretrip!!" doesn't seem to change anyone's mind on here. If you dropped your trailer, you obviously didn't. THAT COULD NOT BE MORE WRONG.

This thread got off topic. The topic is not should you do a pretrip or should you be responsible for dropping your trailer if you don't pre trip. It's about SABATOGE and how pilots are not held responsible for crashes deemed to be caused by someone intentionally damaging or altering their aircraft. But truck drivers ARE held responsible for any bad outcome caused by someone damaging or altering their truck and they not catching it before something bad happens. It's insane. And I still feel that way. Since most people on here are NOT also pilots, they have no experience with the FAA or with FAA rules and regs. I've been around planes since I was 18 when I took my first introductory flight for 20 dollars with a coupon in the back of a Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 owners manual. I'm much more comfortable at an airport than a truck stop.

Things have changed post 9-11 and most airports now have fences all the way around and are secured with gates and such so GETTING TO a plane to mess with it is much harder, but that doesn't change the point of why I made this thread. If anything the ease at which someone could yank a kingpin without the drivers knowledge should ABSOLVE him of dropped trailers if he can prove he did a pre trip. Because dropping a trailer isn't a sign that he didn't do one. I know whenever I take off I like to creep up and slam the johnson bar down to make sure everything is still attached and ok but there have been times I was in a hurry and forgot. I had no reason to think the kingpin was disconnected, I hadn't even gotten out of the truck since I stopped.

The fact that the first reply to this thread was not on topic at all, but was asking me to prove I'm really a pilot, as if I would lie about that. If I wanted to lie about something I would come up with something better than being a pilot. That shows me people aren't interested in discussing the topic but trying to call me a liar.