Busta,
I can empathise with your level of frustration, believe me! Sometimes, if you let it, this board can get you down. Sometimes, however, it can shine...
A couple of days ago, I returned from a long trip, during which time I'd not been able to give more than a cursory glance to the forums. I found so much negativity, more I feel than normal, but for some reason, this time it got to me...
The Yemeni Captain thread really broke my back. Here was a foreign man, in a foreign land, who had died alone amongst strangers. Fine, there are other issues surrounding the event worthy of discussion, but within 3 posts that thread had turned into a company-bashing thread, with some utterly inane "They'll all suffer the consequences later!" posts.
Truly, I couldn't understand how people could lose focus on the basic, fundamental issue. Part of that is my issue; as an "artistic" person, very different to the usual profile of a pilot, I react in different ways, and over the years I've had to realise this, and try to adjust my reactions accordingly.
Since I work for the company being bashed, I steered well clear of the thread, doing my usual "write a response, then bin it!" ploy. Even when one of our most respected Ppruners, a senior captain with my company took the time to call the Paramedics involved and post the results, it didn't deflect the issue.
So then to the Concorde thread... and my God how it had changed since I last looked, a few days prior! It was like a Blade Runner-esque nightmare, with so many counter-accusations and attacks drowning any relevant issues...
Yet in there, I found something that makes Pprune for me worthwhile... someone had taken the time to post a very flawed, but movingly eloquent tribute to the Captain involved. For me, it shone like a beacon in the darkness. I don't for a moment question the fact that his actions should be subjected to scrutiny, but he became a man again... he became someone I would have enjoyed working with, someone I feel I could have had a beer and great trip with. I've asked myself many times, could I have done what he was trying to do? Would I have had the presence of mind to even attempt what Christian Marty did? He might have got it wrong, but given the information he had..............?
Recently, I was involved in an incident in a simulator, during conversion, where we were given unknown to anybody in that box, an unsurvivable windshear just after gear-up on take-off. So we get the warning, see the trend, I react according to training.... and it doesn't work. We depart to the right in a slow roll, GPWS going mad.... we hit the ground with full up stick, and full thrust on an aircraft supposed to fly you out of anything, to the untrained mind. And the sim didn't just freeze... it went through a complete crash sequence on the ground....
I went into shock. Medical shock. The rest of that detail is a blur, and I didn't sleep well for the next 2 weeks, constantly reliving those events. I'd done all I could and failed. Never mind the fact that no-one could have survived what was a 75-knot and 180 degree wind-shift at those speeds, all I remembered was that split second before it hit the ground where I said to myself..."I've lost this...." I also remember the calm resignation that went with that thought, despite the frantic inputs I had on the controls.
So I posted an immediate response. In a minor way, I can empathise with Christian Marty. Poorly worded response it was, but heartfelt. Yeah, I got flamed, but so what? It's only an internet bulletin board after all.
And there is why I think you should stay, and continue to contribute. This is a one-dimensional medium. there is no way to either convey the sublety you intend, or even deflect instantly responses that do not correlate with your intention, as you could in conversation. Rather, a thread grows like a coral reef, dead body upon dead body, but within that growth there lies meaning.. only it gets buried many times. The thread I refer to is a worthy one, there are a lot of superb points raised, but the noise drowns out the signal.
So what to do, then about that noise-to-signal ratio? I'd say, be part of the signal. Accept that sometimes this board will almost leave you swearing at the computer. It will. Accept that some of the people whose opinions so **** you off would be excellent beer-partners, and once you'd moved beyond the single-dimensional confines of the medium you would actually enjoy each others company. Some of them you'd hate, of course. But you can't tell, because this is such an inefficient method of communication. But it is all we have got.....
So please, stay with us. Contribute. Add to the whole. And don't let it get you down... it may be the biggest internet aviation site in the world, with umpteen million hits per month, it may be able to change policy in airlines and unions around the globe through the voice of its contributors, but at the end of the day...
.....it is only an internet bulletin board.
£6
(PS.. I'm writing this under my "write, then sit on it for 24 hours policy"... only difference is, I'm not going to sit on it for 24 hours, otherwise I will never send it.)
Edit for typos, well after the 24 hours!
[ 02 September 2001: Message edited by: Sick Squid ]