B1900 missing in the congo?

[chuks]

My two cents' worth...

First, yes, I am currently working for that Swiss company, in North Africa where I am a Twin Otter pilot.

I am at the point (age 60-plus) where there's no real pressure to prove anything much. They give me a trip and I fly it to the best of my ability but yes there have been days when I just couldn't get the job done. Lack of local experience, reluctance to take risks, lack of ability even, given that I am probably not the world's greatest Twin Otter pilot. (Until I took this job I had flown a Twin Otter exactly twice from an unpaved strip! I had always operated from paved runways, odd as that might seem, with most of my "bush strip" flying having been done in 400-series Cessnas.)

I have to live with knowing that there are guys who could probably get a trip done that I cannot. Luckily, my employer is very good about this and seem to be happy with my level of ability. Too, nowadays they are under a reasonable amount of supervision from the Swiss authorities, FOCA. It is not the case that they are just turned loose to operate in a cowboy way in the Third World.

I agree with V1 that cowboy operators are a big part of the problem, carrying First World registrations and operating to Third World standards. Part of the problem there, though, is the individual pilot who chooses to ignore, bend or break the rules.

When it comes to that I think I only need to mention that I used to work in Nigeria. I would have lasted about one tour if I had chosen to do everything by the book but I worked there off and on from 1981 until 2005.

The most unhelpful thing is to just point a finger in another direction. I was told by another pilot (falsely) that TCAS makes no sense because of all those airplanes without transponders, plus why should he switch his on given that I had TCAS and he didn't? I had to guess that man did not put in a lot of time studying ICAO SARPs, plus being dumb as a bag of hammers. No need to raise HIS game with all those other losers flying around, eh?

All this about the hard-drinking Ivans... I knew a few Russians in Nigeria and they seemed okay to me. Way underpaid, something like $500/month I was told, and the equipment looked as if it had been made in a locomotive works but they were out there getting the job done and if they were drinking in the line shack at least they never offered me any! I helped one guy write a CV because he wanted to try to get a better job, when I found out he was really quite accomplished in Russian terms. Come to that, the French often take a glass of wine with their lunch and then go commit aviation; it isn't just the Rooskies drinking the brake fluid.

Another thing is this finger-pointing that soothes us. Joe Bloggs dinged in but that is because poor old Joe was obviously a screw-up, not like US! I remember one of the biggest finger-pointers I knew, a legend in his own mind, who ended up doing a CFIT to the grim amusement of many who knew him.

I guess on the one hand we need to wait for the report. On the other hand we need to listen to the bush telegraph and review our own individual ways of getting the job done.

I once had to tell a nervous co-pilot that there was no such thing as a safe airplane. Even parked with the chocks in, the damned thing could have a gear collapse and squash you like a bug. What there is, is an acceptable level of risk and that is what we are paid to find.