CJ I very much doubt spinnerhead meant it unkindly.
When you have lost a few more friends...and you will...you may see it in a different light.
I hope you never see the numbers I have...if I include non aircrew friends and people I may have only flown with once, like the fella who issued me with my IR, who died with one of my early instuctors when their CAA Bonanza had a midair with a glider, and pilots from competing companies who I may only have spent time with at the aeroclub or yachty or a "How's your end of the funny farm?" when our paths crossed at some mountain strip it's up over 40!!!
If you just include people I considered really good mates it's still over 20!
After 4 in my first year in PNG I started to harden up...at some point after that I just got very pissed off every time.
Several days after pulling the bodies out of my own aeroplane, during which good people were telling my wife to watch me because I seemed to show no emotion whatsoever I lost it and broke down crying...because of that young dead pilot? No he was an idiot!
Because I had lifted out of the crumpled fuselage the tiny bodies of two children, 1 boy and 1 girl, both about my daughters age at the time...3 or 4...and carried them to the bush helipad and zipped them into the same body bag.
That's why I get worked up about this stuff.
Chuck.
PS Mainframe I certainly know there are some bloody good ATOs out there...but the system is still flawed and needs to change back to a more hands on approach from the regulator...perhaps CASA should, upon receipt of a request for an flight test, decide from a short list, which ATO will conduct the test.
At least that would stop the shopping around that goes on!
Last edited by Chimbu chuckles; 30th Oct 2002 at 12:14.