Seen a bad example of a bad Pilot.
Was at this field one day and was taxying out behind a C-182 loaded with 5 pax heading off to conduct a para drop.
I made my taxying call and was back tracking behind this guy and he turned off to the right to take off on a perpendicular rwy about 1/3 the way down.
My rwy of choice was sealed and about 1600m long and I had 12kts crosswind from the left at about 70 deg left. I was using 01.
This guy then turned and back tracked to line up and take off on 11.
Do the sums not looking good!!!!
I jumped on the radio and said To "Do you realise your taking off with about a 12-15kt gusting wind blowing up your tail" He then replied in broken english as he was a foreign guy , that I was wrong and what was my problem. Me and my mate looked at each other and thought is this guy for real. We held short at our threshold to let this guy go first and over fly our rwy. I though I would let him go just incase we had to dash over and pick up the pieces.
It was the flatest T/O I have ever seen in my life. He took off on a long grassy strip of about 1000m long with that sort of tail wind , loaded like that. For the fact there we no obstacles around he pulled it off just. And if he had an engine failure it would have been good night the fox , with that touch down speed he would have had a tragic result.
This guy got his commercial licence in OZ , but obviously had issues with reading the wind sock. Which is correct me if im wrong day one stuff......
But yeah bad pilot I would say for sure to even think of putting his passengers at that risk.
But a good pilot i would have to say would be a confident pilot with respect for the rules and people around him , and also a sound knowledge.
Cheers guys , sorry to spin a story
Dicko183
Last edited by Dicko183; 12th Apr 2006 at 07:40.