Taupo=BAD

[CougarNZ]

As i pretty fresh pilot 186.7 hours of total time in the past 13 months of my flying ( total flying experience).

Firstly i must aplogise yet again for pulling this thread off topic.

My first post here was to defend those of us that take the student loan road into our aviation careers.
but i did concede that there are people taking the cousres because of the loans , some people starting with not even putting a feew hundreds dollars up front for trial flights and lesson before signinf up to the course, some will be lucky to get to point to Pass there CPL ( note i have yet to do the flight test) and have no direction pass flying off the money in the course fees. But there are also guys who work hard to ensure we are learning the right things and have some future using the large investment we have made in ourselves.

I noted earlier in a post my recommendation for people to read a couple of books written by Tony Kern ( a USAF instructor ) just search on amazon for "Flight Discipline" and Redefining Airmanship" , ,book i had recommended to be by a Air NZ Pilot. both of these books are very good for putting questions to each of us as to how we think and behave as pilots. I have pick up some good SA advice in the books.

MOR approached the aero club where i am training , but the old boys network seemed to block out a fresh face with some great skills , much to the dissapointment of many of us students. surely the more social interaction and professional interaction the better we can become as pilots.
starts to make us students look closer at if our "aero club and training provider", are they just interested in the revenue provided by us , or are they making a genuine effort to ensure we become good pilots, ie that they teach us more than just how to pass the flight tests and exams. instill some good airmanship practices in our learning.
Our Instructors make a effort but organisational cuture ( atitudes from club excutive) around us makes us a little nervous

We all look around us for role models.
something i made light of a CAA safety talk at our aero club , I look up to students on my course with 50 more hrs to be ( as they have more experience ) and to other pilots in the aero club. It's up to all pilot to look out for each other and even question each other's atitude at times. the very experienced pilot with a bad atitude ( mindset ) is just dangerous as pilot with less experience flying in conditions beyond there skill level.

right back on topic , I flewn into AP on the day all this was in the media. I believe i had a good SA of things going on in th MBZ as i flew up from the south. but i still took a wide downwind track and ended extending due to a skydive plane on a non standard base leg descending thru 5000ft . as i couldn't get a visual on the other aircraft and it wasn't comforming to standard circuit procedures. I am sure the other pilot was aware of my position in circuit. we most likely we not conflicting each other , but was easy enough to hang out wide and state my intentions clearly on radio to ensure safety all round.

I would think that ATC at AP would become necessary in the furture with aircraft numbers in the area. Surely Safety has to be ensured on a better model than be a cost-benefit model. Maybe CAA needs to be more pro-active in enforcing safety standards for the safety of both the public and for Us ( the Pilots )