Lykes Brothers Company loses in court

Well there is some justice in Country Justice (Florida Ridge, Florida, USA)

The Lykes Brothers Company owns about 300,000 acres in the vicinity of the Florida Ridge.  As a company they have a bad attitude toward hang glider and paraglider pilots landing on those 300,000 acres.  You can find out more about the company here:

http://www.lykesranch.com/

http://www.florida-agriculture.com/news/lykesbrosinc.htm

 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEEDF133BF936A25755C0A96F948260

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lykes_Brothers_Steamship_Company

http://www.sptimes.com/2002/01/25/Business/Lykes_squabble_wraps_.shtml

Recently a paraglider pilot landed on Lykes Brothers land near highway 29 five miles south of the junction of highway 29 and 27, a well known landmark for those pilots flying from the Florida Ridge.  The area south this junction is isolated and difficult for retrieval if you don't fly over to the west to get by highway 29 or to the east to be near highway 27.

The pilot was given a notice to appear in court by a deputy sheriff who was also an employee of the Lykes Brothers Company.  The deputy stated that he was acting in both capacities as he handed the pilot his citation.  Wow, talk about owning the cops.  Doesn't this sound like corruption?

I was contacted by Kent Robinson (from Texas) to see if I could find the sections of the FAR where it states explicitly that we are allowed to land (in the case of an emergency) without committing an act of trespass.  I was able to find references to such a provision, but no actual provision (any help from you dear reader?).

Anyway, the pilot went to court and according to Kent after some discussion between the prosecutor and the judge the charges were dismissed.  Apparently landing on the property is not trespass.

I have written to the Lykes Brothers Company hoping that we can work out a future accommodation and a better working relationship, so we don't have to keep going to court.  Here is the letter I sent to them:

I'm a hang glider pilot who often flies in Florida and sometimes from the Florida Ridge (http://thefloridaridge.com/) which is near some of your 300,000+ acres in Glades County.

It appears that hang glider pilots have not been welcome to land on your lands, which is understandable, and we, of course, have no desire to land on your lands.  My particular desire is to land at the small local airports or to fly far to the north (last year I flew 153 miles to land near the Villages north of the Florida Turnpike near Orlando).  But sometimes, hopefully not often, we have to land somewhere that we'd rather not, and that might be on your lands.

We are very sorry to sometimes have to land on your property.  We certainly don't wish to and we certainly don't wish to be a bother to your employees and sure don't want to disturb the land, crops or stock in any way.  We, like you, have a very serious land preservation ethic and do our best to make sure that we leave no footprint.  We want to be able to get off your property as soon as possible, and we want to land as near to the highways as possible.

I am just hoping that we (the free flying community) can develop a better relationship with the Lykes Brothers Company owners, managers and employees in the future.  We wish to be responsible flyers and we want to respect your rights.

Thanks for your consideration.

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