Crab yes, and no, I hope you didn't think it was an attack on you. If so then please accept my apologies, that's not what it was intended to do.
It was a rant for everyone, and I am as guilty of prejudice as anyone. I get tired of hearing everyone talk about how they are the only ones who know all about whatever type of flying they do, or their training was the best, or whatever. In order to promote safety, and improve the quality of all of our flying we have to remind ourselves that we are not perfect, nor do we know everything. I feel that it is important for us all to take a step back and realise that we all have something to offer one another. We shouldn't allow pride, or prejudice to get in the way of our learning something from each other, and possibly saving our arses one day. Without sounding maudlin, or soppy, the best part of forums like these is the information we can gain from one another. I'm not here to compete with anyone, I'm here to learn, and to pass on any info that I think might help. I may be wrong, but then that's great, because someone will correct me and I will have learned something. No one learns when we get into a "I'm better than you" debate. Both will be right, but only in their realm of expertise. Usually with those types of debates, most just tune them out, and then any good info will be lost. To put it bluntly, I wish we could stow the bull crackers, it only gets in the way. That in no way means you can't have a little fun, with good natured ribbing.
Helicopter pilots in the Western world are all trained to a high standard, military or civillian, yet no-one is the best, and no system is best. They all have drawbacks and benefits. What I was trying to do was to try and get rid of the one-eyed way of looking at things. As I mentioned earlier in this post, I am as guilty of it as anyone.
As an example of this co-operation; the Cdn military did not have instructors that had very much mountain experience, so they contracted to a civillian flight training unit to teach them. They could have done it themselves, but they went to a place that has been in operation for over 50 years now, and saved them from repeating mistakes that had been learned a long time ago. It wasn't one sided, as there were some good lessons that the military guys were able to pass on. Both learned and benefitted from the exchange.
Cheers
Randy_G
