My opinion is that the purpose of this forum is to mentor and be mentored. When I first started reading a few years back, I thought, "what a great place to learn" (I already had enough knowledge to usually see a fool writing, and take it with that much value).
I soon realized though, that a lot of the posters were asking questions for which I had well experienced and proven answers. I soon found myself answering a lot more than asking. The asking has not stopped though, it’s just on other forums.
12 years ago I was one of three people who lifted my very dead buddy from his burning and badly crumpled Cessna 150, after he had done something quite similar to that B-52. A number of us had told him to smarten up, and fly right. We should have pushed more, as he was a family man, and the sole owner of a very busy local airport/air service/maintenance facility, his death deeply affected local aviation, and many people’s live were changed.
That event, among other more recent events, has reminded me that those of us who have lived through those learning years of piloting, are now duty bound to give back the best we can, to promote safe and enjoyable aviation. Those of us who value a healthy aviation industry are not served well by the pain and poor public image of accidents. We are not served well by more regulation, whose purpose is to regulate away more privileges because some idiot pilot found a new way to hurt someone, which we would have never imagined. I make my living evaluating and testing aircraft. If people fly less, I work less.
In order to mentor and promote techniques which I know to be safe, I wrote in another thread, the following:
“The object of landing, is to have the aircraft stall wings level, and smoothly stop flying just as it touches the runway in good control, with lots of room ahead. That requires slightly differing techniques in different aircraft, but the end result is the same. If you got a stall warning horn as you gently touched, you probably had a great landing too, and had to explain to some pleased passengers what the stall warning sound was.”
The person who started this thread, took that statement for a run, and after another 200 plus posts, lost. He lost any credibility which had been extended to him out of courtesy, he lost any chance of being considered a peer here (even with the newest of newbies) for a very long time, and he lost the privilege of posting on that thread. The effort which a lot of us expended on his behalf, was, for the most part, apparently wasted. Doubtless, with the attitude demonstrated by this “fully qualified” lesser experienced pilot, people on the ground may one day be lifting him out of a wreck. I do not wish this, but the risk is a reality. I very much wish that this fellow not be permitted to carry passengers because of that higher risk.
That said, if an otherwise airworthy aircraft becomes a useless ball of aluminum at the hands of this pilot, my conscience is clear. I expended effort to mentor a better appreciation for good technique, willingness to learn, and a better attitude. I am convinced it was a waste of my time. I did, along the way though, build a bit of a bond with pilots here who are my peers, or to whom one day I might be a peer.
So that is the purpose of this forum, as I see it.
Dear Moderator, in the other thread, you very effectively fulfilled a request, and a swift and appropriate end was brought to a ridiculous situation. Such worthwhile action on your part might again be worthy of consideration, but perhaps on a wider scale. I suppose it’s worth waiting through a few more posts to see if an attitude improves, but how many chances does someone get?
Pilot DAR