Ok, the first post on this topic was influenced by a bottle of Bushmills and two ‘so called’ friends, who crashed at my place last night, en-route to a new fire season.
If we take vino veritas at face value, I’d be a hypocrite to delete it now
I edited a couple of names and initials, as it was over the top to put a real identity to the some of the weasels hanging out in Gatwick. (Plus a friendly lawyerly type said they might sue me)
But I want to continue my rant…
I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but it won’t make sense to start a new one.
(Sorry Ivor)
As Paco said! A lot of the JAA syllabus would be in an engineering exam in most other places. And he knows a lot about the subject of exams!
What I’d like to know, maybe you can help me out autosync?
Is how does this notionally superior education, fit into the life of a working Pilot?
I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but flying helos is not difficult. my friends and I could be called intellectually challenged perhaps. But a lot of us have been doing this job all our lives successfully. With nowhere near the depth of knowledge required by the current JAA syllabus.
Anywhere you go today.And I mean anywhere on the planet. Your going to have more oversight from the client and operator than is imaginable. Pre-contract obligations to abide with, and safety guy's around every corner. The day's of cowboying a job are long since gone with most operators.. But a constant within these ops is the no-one has ever questioned me on any obscure theory and if there was any relevance in the JAA syllabus. The safety guys would be all over it! Trying to expand their kingdom yet further...Kind of like the CAA I guess...
Ok, we have guys like Nick Lappos around, but anyone who thinks Nick is a standard issue pilot needs their head read! I’m talking about a the plain jane, standard issue pilot…
Take Fire fighting or oil patch as an example.
All you need for this kind of operation is a seasoned, practical, workaday helo driver.
Such as my ‘mates’ or me. Who have done this! year in year out, since we were quite young…Yes, there’ve been accidents, plenty of them in the big picture! But knowing the name of a local wind that runs off the Tibetan Plateau is not going to stop them.
I worked in that general region years ago, and never knew any local wind existed. And if it had a name, I couldn’t give a !!!!! at the time…. What I did know, is that when I left the filthy shack that served as crew quarters in the pre-dawn, was that it was raining sideways and blowing like a b*tch…Words fail to convey, the total lack of interest I had, in what was driving the wind. All I knew was it was another lousy day, living out of plastic bags, to stop the little buggy critters from infesting everything. Going to the cookhouse to find nothing that resembled wonder bread! And convince myself that Luke-warm white soup that tasted fishy was a nourishing breakfast…
I had a (the) gyro go tits up in the Lama on this gig. And the funny thing is, when the wrench RR’d the gyro, the words ‘earth tied or transport wander’ never fell from his lips…What fell from his lips was …I think it’s F**ked buddy. There’s another one in the flyaway box but it’s probably F**ked too! No tag on it…Do yah really need it?
He was the Engineer version of my pilot buddies and me. Living with the day to dynamics of the helo world… Are we Intellectually challenged? Yeah! I guess…but you don’t need to be Albert E to fly helos. What you need is good old common sense, and it don’t hurt having a good wrench in the next hooch.
Start on big jobs with lots of BS floating around the mess. Learn the business the tried and true way...Osmosis...
If you have the smarts to genuinely remember the entire JAA syllabus, you’re probably wasted as an operational pilot, and should be doing something ‘better’ with your life. Something that guys like me can’t get into because in plain words, we’re just not that smart. ….Imagine a helicopter world, manned (womaned?) by intellectually superior beings….Who’s gonna take out the trash?..
Autosync
Don’t know where you got the idea I don’t like Europeans and Brits (Ouch!)
Like many folks, I’m prone to making sweeping generalizations. And definitely need to control it better. So any English folks that are offended, I apologize and mean it!
It’s just the minority of pompous assh*les that stick in my craw. And the same guys stick in your craw just as much. The worst CAA/JAA bashing I’ve heard ,is from the home-grown, who are victims of these d*cks on a daily basis…
What do you mean, “The CAA are not the JAA”?
Do you have a local JAA office where you are?
The CAA are the effective body at operational level, and haven’t figured out yet that they (UK CAA) are the only oufit that’s taking the JAA deal 100% serious.
Regarding the Aussies and whining!
Afraid I gotta disagree on this point as well. If you ever find yourself on a lousy remote gig somewhere, with everything cratering. It’s great to have a bunch of Aussies or Kiwi’s around to brighten the day. When they’re not ‘Pommie bashing’
Which is only for chuckles anyway. They are (again a sweeping generalization) about the most ‘Stand-up’ guys you’re going to find anywhere.
A national trait of these guys is a can do attitude, anytime, anywhere…Maybe I only know the good ones?
Enough of this frivolity?
170...
Phone Wind…great name by the way! …A well thought out reasoned response!
(How’d you do that?;-))
France is a cool place to live, but I’d look further into the tax position. You need a good tax guy and even then, it’s gonna hurt!