Some excellent replies in this read.
Well done everyone!
As stated above pilots young or old need to use their brains and their voices and take a stand when being pressured by their employers to do the wrong thing and break the rules.
To all the younger pilots reading, remember, sometimes that is the ONLY way that you are going to live to be an "older" pilot!!
Is the job really worth it?? Is any job worth dying for????
Apparently there are quite a few that people think are,…trust me , they are definitely not!!
I have taken a stand on numerous occasions and am still here as a result of it.
For Eg- It cost me money on occasions but I let the CP/owner take the trip when he wanted me to go out overweight for eg.
If everything goes as planned and you bend/break the rules 99 times out of 100 you MAY get away with it, (depending on what you are trying to do). If it’s the day it doesn’t and something actually goes wrong then no one can help you when the ATSB or Feds come a looking.
IF you survived the event and depending what happened you can more than likely kiss goodbye to your licence and career. Not to mention being wide open for a lawsuit later.
YOU primarily as PIC, not your CP or Boss.
Remember your car insurance policy is not liable to pay out if you are DUI or breaking the law and have an accident. Same with your aircraft insurance
AFAIK.
So who is going to pay for all that bent metal and / or peoples injuries.??
Checkboard's experience with the freight company is a classic example of how 1 person standing up and saying, "Wait a minute, that's not bloody right, I'm not going to do that and neither should the rest of us", probably saved himself and everyone else in the company at some point too. He broke the chain.
Going out 1-200kg or more overweight in some clapped out 30yo+ piston twin??.
Holy Crap, come on, using the curvature of the earth to get airborne on the clapped out aircrafts best day???
What about if today’s the day that once in a lifetime EFATO actually happens to you???
Here are 2 very wise pieces of advice given to me many years ago by my senior pilots--
REMEMBER (especially in the cockpit), “ It doesn’t matter WHO is right, it ONLY MATTERS WHAT is right”!!
ALSO REMEMBER, as a Pilot your 3 main priorities in order of importance should be—
SAFETY,….. Customer/Pax satisfaction and then Company profitability.
They should be your company's priority order too!!
Any attempt to reorder those usually ends up costing more than a few lousy dollars in the long run.
Fly safe and fly smart.