'Dear Mr. Campbell.... Thank You For (Possibly) Saving My Life'

News/Observation/Analysis By ANN Editor-In-Chief, Jim Campbell

I hardly know where to begin... but what started as yet another ridiculous fraud by one of aviation's most infamous aero-crooks appears to have taken on a new and far more dangerous path. Over the course of the last few years, we've written a few times about the exploits of a multiply-convicted felon and con-man, David Riggs... best known for terrorizing hundreds with an L-39 buzz job over the Santa Monica pier that hurt the rep of aviators all over the west coast.

In a series of misadventures, Riggs has conned and defrauded a number of folks all throughout the states (and, indeed, the world) and especially in the aviation industry... often passing himself off as a world class jet-pilot, famous stunt man, and warbird instructor. Based on the evidence at our disposal, he is none of these.

Most recently; we reported on a massive series of frauds using various online "Daily Deal" sites to sell warbird adventure flights to the unsuspecting public, promising all kinds of thrills in either an Extra 300 or SF-260 Marchetti... aircraft to which (to the best of our knowledge/research) he has no documented access.

Offering highly discounted adventures in the $300-$400 price range (or more for those choosing more extensive optional programs), and using a variety of identities, these online offers all eventually point to a site ostensibly named 'Fighter Combat Adventures.' Promising Top Gun-like excitement and featuring glitzy pictures of Extra 300s and SF-260s engaged in simulated air combat experiences, the site looks, to all the world, like the slick professional sites that adorn a number of the best simulated Air Combat company web sites... as well they should... because the FCA site used stolen and misappropriated pictures, copy and other intellectual property seen on Arizona's Fighter Combat International site as well as California's Air Combat USA operation.

The FCA site breathlessly offered the adventure of a lifetime...

• "$399 for a hands-on fighter-pilot experience with 40 minutes of practice in-air combat in the plane (an $849 value)."
• "$599 for a hands-on fighter-pilot experience with 60 minutes of practice in-air combat in the plane (a $1,299 value)..."
• "In addition to being in control of the aircraft during the flight, each experience includes ground-school training, a hero photo, pre- and post-flight briefings done according to standard military protocol, lunch in the ready room, and a hero video recorded from within the cockpit."

It sounds great... just like the amazing experiences offered by all the legitimate and well-known Air Combat experience operations that have been a part of the sport aviation landscape for many years.

Air Combat USA and Arizona's Fighter Combat International, though, have NOTHING to do with the online Groupon/Living Social/etc. offerings and gave no authorization for their intellectual property to be used. Further, an examination of the site that the online scams point to, Fighter Combat Adventures, contains some glaring warnings that only a few minutes research revealed to be questionable, and based on false, fraudulent or errant data. 

Over the course of a number of calls and searches, the name of Convicted Felon and Aero-Con-Man, David G Riggs, came up again and again... either personally, or via the names of some of the businesses that he has conducted a number of very questionable operations under. As noted previously, Riggs is best known as the pilot of an L-39 that terrorized a Santa Monica pier via a high-speed, low-altitude buzz job that scared hundreds and posed a serious danger to the lives of those nearby, David Riggs ultimately had his tickets pulled for a year and a criminal conviction and penalties entered against him (for which he has yet to complete his sentence). Since then, with his tickets questionably restored by the FAA, Riggs has continued with a stunning litany of dangerous activities and efforts that have caused many to report him to the FAA and other Federal agencies, while his dangerous and harmful activities continued, inexplicably, unabated and unchallenged.

Riggs is currently under investigation in connection with an illegal jet-ride scam that is connected to the deaths of a pilot and an unwary passenger -- and also has more than a passing connection to the 2006 crash of N39DF, an L-39 known as 'Wild Child.' That aircraft went down, killing two experienced pilots, while Riggs was allegedly acting as the Director of the alleged aviation-themed movie they were flying for. Riggs' last actions commanded the L-39, reported by the NTSB to be operating at 5500' MSL over hilly terrain, to "Give me a sharp snap roll to the right and pull down out of frame..." Seconds later, N39DF impacted the terrain below at 3100' MSL. Riggs is named in a litany of other scams to defraud persons or companies out of airplanes and other property, and is a party to dozens of documented legal actions and lawsuits.

The bizarre series of Air Combat offers appeared on sites such as Groupon, Living Social, FatWallet, Amazon, Dailydealsgo, Yipit, MemberDealsUSA, Zozi, and others. Contacts with a number of these sites, specifically Groupon, Living Social, and MemberDealsUSA eventually (and with great difficulty) resulted in limited conversations with staffers who all indicated varying but unimpressive levels of concern about the potential for fraud but, thus far, no evidence has been shown that the offers have been curtailed or canceled... and in the case of Groupon, an effort to comment on one fraudulent site's offers (with a series of questions posted by ANN but posted by someone outside of Aero-News), was refused publication...

Numerous other frauds were uncovered that seemed to be intended to bolster the limited credibility of the Riggs operation... and as each one was uncovered and debunked by ANN, another would soon show up... there seemed to be little to no end to the number and severity of frauds conducted by Riggs' apparent criminal enterprise.

And then it got worse... FAR worse.

ANN has learned, (frankly, to our surprise) that Riggs and associates have been reported as attempting to actually conduct some of the Warbird Adventure rides they sold... without FAA approval, knowledge, licensing or using the aircraft they promised hundreds of their so-called customers... the aforementioned Extra 300s and/or SF260s.

Instead, we have received a number of reports corroborating the use of EXPERIMENTAL Lancair amateur-built aircraft for these COMMERCIAL operations. This is, of course, illegal. Recent operations in Livermore, CA, were reported by airport staff with at least two Lancairs (one mostly yellow, another reported as yellow/blue) and an L-39 that was allegedly Riggs'. The flights were conducted over the course of a few days and came to a stop when one of the aircraft "broke" and further flights were canceled from that location.

ANN has received inquiries and reports from several persons that were about to take these flights... and failed to do so because of their reading of our stories on this fraud, though one barely escaped potential hazard when he received a call canceling the flight for his son, because of the aforementioned aircraft failure.

One customer, who has since canceled his flight through Groupon (which offered NO notification of the hazards involved in their fraudulent enterprise even though we notified them... several times... and have the emails to prove it), told ANN that, "I've been rapidly reading about David Riggs... and his scams and it's quite scary - even if I had been going up it might be in an experimental craft or a Lancair. I could have died. No thank you... I really appreciate you investigating this - your journalism is hugely appreciated and may have saved my life." 

Another customer/survivor told ANN that, "I received a Groupon promotion for 'Fighter Combat adventures' an $899 value for $399. You can look it up and have probably seen the web site or its advertisement. Anyway, they are also offering this program through AAA of California for same deal. I made a  phone call and was verbally told, initially, that they flew the Marchetti SF260 or the Extra 300. In fact, if you follow the FAQ section on the Groupon posting, it states that from the 'Merchant', that they fly these planes. Our initial reservation was for October 21, 2012 @2:30, but after we had left for the Livermore airport we received a voice mail that the day's afternoon's flights were being canceled due to a malfunction of some sort.

That night around 5:00 p.m. I spoke with Paul at 818-286-8620 and was given a 'free' 'friend' flight of the same duration as compensation for the missed appointment, at this time, when asked what type of planes they actually do fly, and  Paul told me that they were flying the Lance Air/Lancair 360s.

I then did homework on them, as I want to get my son a cool t- shirt of the aircraft he would be flying, as he is interested in aviation and has flown several GA aircraft. The Lancair is an experimental kit aircraft, not suitable or approved for this type of endeavor by the FAA. If you follow the Groupon website ad to the supposed Air Combat adventure website it takes you to 'Top GUN Fighter Combat Adventures (http://caacro.wix.com/aircombat#!untitled/mainPage), with definite pictures of a Marchetti 260 and Extra 300 in the photos.

This is fraud, plain and simple, deceptive in the least or best of this. Today, 10.26.2012, at 4:40 p.m. I called security at the main terminal of Livermore. Well, he was the same gentleman there when our flight was canceled on 10.21.2012. I asked if they fly out of there; he stated that they occasionally do- as they did for early flights on the 21st. He knew they were Lancairs, Experimental, and not rated for doing what they were doing. He asked that his name be withheld..."

Even more terrifying... "Mr. Campbell, I think you saved my life. I used to do a little flying many years ago and gave it up as i grew a family and a business and a life that didn't include aviation, until now. I promised myself that I'd get back into it someday and when the Groupon special landed in my email box, I thought it was just when I needed to get my flying juices started again. Right from the start, I got a bunch of gobble-de-gook from Fighter Combat Adventures. First, they said they used Extras, then SF-260 warbirds and then later they said they used Lance-Airs. I asked them how they could do that and they said that they had special permission from the FAA. I own a retail business and over the years, I've heard every con in the book. Right from the start, I was uneasy and remembering your old US Aviator magazines, I decided to look you up and found A.N.N. And I found your stories on Mr. Riggs. They scared me. They really truly scared me. I'm canceling my flight and when chance dictates, I'll go to one of the legitimate and pr oven companies that you recommended. I told this to the Fighter Combat people and they had some pretty bad things to say about you and said that there were a few websites that were working with them (from the West Coast) and they said they had a lot of dirt on you. I remember you dealing with that same (expletive deleted) in the U.S. Aviator days and just laughed at them. I can tell when I'm being conned. I'm getting my money back. The whole thing sounds really shaky and very risky. Thank you for (possibly) saving my life."

The FAA is aware of this development and an investigator is reportedly looking into it. Flights are reportedly still being conducted throughout California and may have been conducted, as well, in Arizona. Using Lancair 320s or 360s for such an operation is foolhardy and dangerous since each aircraft is custom-built and can have unique and unpredictable flight characteristics unless thoroughly tested and documented. While the Lancair series can do limited acro... the kind of maneuvering (and the associated goofs and failed attempts that come with it) associated with an Air Combat adventure scenario can put these aircraft into compromised flight regimes in a hurry... especially when maneuvers terminate via an accelerated stall or in an extreme pitch down attitude. It is our belief that the use of these aircraft, albeit illegal to the extreme, is also highly dangerous and judging by the evidence we have seen of Mr. Riggs's "skills" in particular, we find such operations to be insanely hazardous and warn/ask/plead with the community that if you see such operations for yourself, to please call the FAA Hotline and also let us know at ANN.

In the meantime; ANN has had little success in getting the rest of the aviation community to demand action on these dangerous activities. AOPA has been useless in this story and things are still a mite chaotic at EAA to expect much... but we have some hope that when the dust settles, that they'll get on the horn with the FAA and explain how important it is to see that Riggs' extraordinarily foolish and hazardous endeavors harm or kill no one else.

ANN, as always, will keep an eye on the story and will be pushing for aggressive and swift action from the FAA and other authorities to forestall any possibility of future injury... or worse.

Without question, the activities of David G Riggs qualifies him, in our opinion, as one of the most dangerous men in all of aviation. Con-man, felon, fraud, liar, fool, reckless flyer.... all these terms and so many more combine to make us increasingly concerned that his activities will not only be found to have contributed as a hazard to the lives and livelihoods of others, as well being someone who can bring great and unwelcome scrutiny upon aviation -- all because (IMO) he has no concern for the welfare of others.

E-I-C Note(s): If the likes of the so-called member associations won't take a stand against these crimes, ANN will still do its best to fill the gap... but we strongly urge our readers to forward copies of this article (and other articles about Riggs and a number of other ANN Special Investigations) to the FAA, FBI, NCCS, and other related or criminal investigative branches of our state and federal governments, as well as our elected officials, and see if we can finally get some remedial action.

The embattled aviation world, simply put and coarsely out, really can't take much more of this crap.

Additionally and as previously stated; Let me be perfectly clear about one very important issue in this story... both Arizona's Fighter Combat International as well as California's Air Combat USA operation have excellent reps and appear to be solid professional operations... we have uncovered NOTHING to suggest any true affiliation with the Fighter Combat Adventures scam outside of being victimized by the theft's the FCA site has made of their intellectual property and their apparent intent to mimic their appeal and appearance. -- Jim Campbell, ANN E-I-C

FMI: Aero-Scam: 'Air Combat' Industry Fighting Fraud (Part 1), Aero-Scam: 'Air Combat' Industry Fighting Fraud (Part 2), http://www.faa.gov/contact/safety_hotline/, http://caacro.wix.com/aircombat#!untitled/mainPage, http://caacro.wix.com/californiaaviators#!kids-camp/c10my, www.aviationcriminal.com