Fact: Stranger than Fiction?

[Hermit of HIRF]

Hi all,

Sorry if the post is in the incorrect place but I think I will get some good answers if I post here. I have a question that had been really bugging me for some time so I am hoping someone will have some info.

About a year ago a friend of mine came into contact with a gentlemen (let's call him Jim) who said he was a keen pilot, he flies general aviation aircraft having a share in two aircraft at the local airfield which he flies every month. Great I thought, seems like a nice guy and I guess it never hurts to know a pilot!

Then comes the pill that is hard to swallow. Jim says that despite working for a local utility firm that in his 'spare' time he flies for large airliners regularly doing routes from London to Hong Kong. What's more is that (according to Jim) he flies the A380. I think so far he has mentioned Emirates (for sure), United Airlines (I think) and American Airlines (I think). At this point I must say that I am not a complete novice to the field of aviation, whilst studying at Uni I did a stint for a helicopter systems integrator working on research programme. The team were looking at new HMI systems for the cockpit for both fixed and rotary wing platforms and during my time there I learnt a bit about large aircraft (A380) and looked into the requirements for becoming a pilot. Suffice to say I found his story more than a little dubious. Over the past months I have repeatedly tried to understand a little more about his story, but since I don't know him personally that well, and I don't want be rude I have tried the soft approach.

So far I can work out that Jim got his PPL years ago and got a Multi-Engine License (not sure if thats the right terminology) just for fun. From there Jim is a little cagey about how long it took him to get a full professional license but suffice to say Emirates and United are happy to call him whenever they need him and although he does not get paid for his services he gets some perks including free flights every year and medical checks.

On the face he seems a nice guy but I just don't want to believe it - it seems too good to be true. So my question is this possible? Any facts or info would be really appreciated but better than that is there anyway I can check? A database maybe with everyone in the UK with the right qualifications to fly an A380?

Thanks in advance.

[99jolegg]

Sounds like absolute rubbish...airlines don't go around employing random contractors to fly A380s; that's what they employ people to do. They certainly wouldn't ask people to do it for free.

Contractors are used in some airlines, but not as far as I'm aware at any of the airlines you've named but could be wrong.

[Nervous SLF]

Do not lend him money and check very carefully before you buy anything from him.

[Dave Clarke Fife]

The only way he would be flying for Emirates on the A380 would have been ( in 99.9% of all their pilots) after having previously accrued many many hours on A330/340 or B777 as a full time employee of EK. No contractors as previously stated. There is a faint whiff of bovine excrement about this. In the military there is a term used for this sort of character......Walt. Nuff said

Oh, and emirates don't do London -Hong Kong direct either😉

[parabellum]

Total BS from start to finish. Do some easy homework on the A380, engines, take-off thrust, zero fuel weights, max take off weights, max landing weights etc. innocently ask a few questions, one or two questions should be enough.

[aviate1138]

Ah! Walter Mitty lives on! Only Danny Kaye film I liked. "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber.

Wal·ter Mit·ty
n.
An ordinary, often ineffectual person who indulges in fantastic daydreams of personal triumphs.

Sad that Walts have to spend their lives living a massive lie. He needs help. Some can be a right nuisance.

[JEM60]

Only a faint wiff of bovine excrement??? It's smelling the whole place out.!!!! Complete and utter rubbish. The guy obviously has an image problem. I'm a PPL and I wonder if he is even that!. Walter Mitty........

[marcoalza]

Tommy Pepper if ever.

Ask him some good questions as PB suggested, sus him out then kick his head in :E

[PhineasC]

What do you gain by bursting his bubble?

[The SSK]

Years ago, a bloke down my boozer, balloon pilot, used to odd-job on dodgy 707s with third-world registrations flying special cargoes down to Libya (not from UK I hasten to mention). And that was for real. But he didn't make a habit of boasting about it.

[Lookleft]

Possibly a "virtual" airline pilot that does all his airline flying on MS Flight Sim. I don't mind chatting to people who flight sim and want to know more about the real deal but I do get curt with the blowhards who think that what they do on a computer is the same as what I do for a living. Being a "Senior Pilot" with the virtual version of American Airlines is a bit rich.

[Jn14:6]

Not to mention that nobody currently flies the A380 London-Hong Kong!

[Smoketrails]

Popping in and out of Brum the last couple of years I have had the pleasure of running into one the local "nutters" on the spottingdeck at BHX! I have a faint feeling your mate has got friendly with one of them..

[ilesmark]

Q - 'How can you tell when you meet a pilot at a party?'
A - 'He'll tell you'

[crippen]

Thailand has a lot of these types too! French Foreign Legion,S.A.S.,Green Berets,ect.:=

[Heathrow Harry]

this Jim guy - is he Nigerian??

[wiggy]

Jim says that despite working for a local utility firm that in his 'spare' time he flies for large airliners regularly doing routes from London to Hong Kong.


I met one of these at a local health club in the UK a few years back .....he'd been B.S.ing the staff that though he had a fairly humdrum day job he was also a part time jumbo skipper for Air India and that whenever he travelled to the sub-continent he flew the aircraft. Even when he knew my line of work (747 P2 at the time), and even when he knew he'd been "rumbled" the B.S. didn't stop flowing; when questions were raised about things like simulator checks and recency he claimed he was exempt from the same due to his "special licence". Frankly he'd dug such a deep hole for himself over the years with the club staff that he had to keep digging to save face and as a result the story just got even more convoluted ...........we decided just let him get on with it and I actually felt sorry for him....

Oh, and there was the pub landlord I was introduced to who had a "flip" in a Phantom, alledgedly the station Commander had flown him from Leuchars to BHX to save him driving - bit of a shame that I knew the "staish"............

[Tableview]

Sounds like the Walter Mitty I once worked with who claimed to have a PPL and offered to take me flying. The excuses got odder and odder and one day he mentioned that he'd flown from Cape Town to Plett (400 km) in his single engined non-pressurised aircraft. "When we got to 45,000 feet it got a bit turbulent ......." he said.

[Nervous SLF]

My wife has just asked me is this "Jim" the same bloke who has built a simulator in his bedroom? Only she remembers seeing
a programe on TV the other day where people go around and judge other peoples houses. The winner gets 1000 Pounds.
Could it be this bloke ?

[student88]

Total BS - steer well clear.

[Hydromet]

Sounds like a bloke I once worked with, who put it over many people (including me) for quite a while. Quite aside from his illustrious career in the army (which he would have to have joined at age 5 to have done everything he claimed) and driving an FJ Holden taxi with a million miles on the clock, he was holder of the world upside down flying record.
During the time I knew him, he was promoted from Major to Colonel, and organised the Anzac day ceremonies for a large area while impersonating an army officer. He was eventually convicted, but about 20 years later turned up again as a retired Brigadier in a country town, where he split the local RSL, half of whom knew he was a fraud, and half of whom believed his claim that his war work was so secret that his name was removed from army records.

[radar0976]

There are plenty of guys like this around. I guess they just do it to massage their egos. Was talking to a guy recently who evidently has a PPL. The kind of person who you meet for the first time and they tell you their life story in the first 10 minutes. A definite sign of insecurity. Anyway this guy told me that his "friend" was delivering an A320 from Dublin to Manchester ??! His friend supposedly rang him and asked him if he wanted to come along and "have a go" :ugh: ! He went fairly quiet though when I told him that my uncle was an A330 skipper (which is true).

[powerstall]

You should have told him that you're next in line for the next mission to Mars! :D

[Gandalf the Viking]

Reminds me of a story I read many years ago. A Scottish based airline pilot (genuine) owned a launderette as a sideline. On his regular visits he would usually pop into the newsagent next door for a chat. One day as he was leaving he heard the customer behind him ask the newsagent "Who was that bloke?"
" Oh, he's the guy who owns the launderette next door. Thinks he's a :mad: airline pilot!":ugh:

[WIDN62]

Perhaps the people he shares the GA aircraft with ought to have a good look at his licence!

[FLCH]

Jim sounds pretty much off base as United don't have 380's.

It has to be a sad life if your self view is so low, you have to brag about fiction.

More than anything else, I feel very sorry for him.

Of course if he's having you on ...... ;)

[Davey2]

I've got a very similar situation with a neighbour. He and his wife arrived in the village about 10 or so years ago and another neighbour bounded round in great excitement telling us that the newcomer was a retired airline pilot. When we first visited, the conservatory was full of those airliner models like you used to see in travel agents and naturally we asked who he flew for etc. Seems he'd been at various times a copper, a lorry driver, a coach driver and then latterly, had come into some money, paid for his training and got a job with Monarch, retiring early due to some health problem. He made a great thing about how he had met his current wife in a bar whilst dressed in his 'Captains' uniform.

Now we listened to all this stuff for a couple of years but as in all these cases, the longer it went on, the more it got embellished, up to the point where he apparently was captaining the the last transatlantic plane to leave US airspace after 9/11 shut it all down.

The thing is, he seems to know a fair bit about routes, cabin fits and the different aircraft variants but he's evasive when you get into the nuts and bolts of flying. As it happens, I let on fairly early on that I had done some powered flying towards a PPL and another neighbour has his. This didn't seem to put the bluffer off although when I dropped the odd technical question into conversation, he had a habit of changing the subject quickly. What did it for me was when a hot air balloon went over one day and he read the registration out loud as (something like): G - ABC1 (as opposed to G - ABCI). When I pulled him up on this, he just said that he'd forgotten the registrations were all letters!

Another colleague raised doubts openly and asked to see photos or a log book. The excuse given was that there had been a burglary at a previous house and all the stuff had gone missing.

It's got to the stage now where I don't bother about it any more and as some have said here, why 'out' him?, but it does rather annoy me that he persists, even though he must know the game's up as far as I'm concerned. I've seen the Army site where they pursue the 'Walts' mercilessly but I suppose when you've risked your life for Queen and country, it's a far greater insult to have imposters saying they've done the same. Also, it's easier to check the service and medal records and get absolute proof of deception.

At least he hasn't gone the whole hog and tried to con his way onto a flight deck....so far....