PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Would you be happy for a loved one flying with a brand new PPL?
Old 1st May 2012, 14:01
  #60 (permalink)  
pudoc
 
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Personally it would depend on the person. If I knew the person well, I knew he was intelligent, level headed and sensible I'd be fine going up with him even if he only had 45 hours. But if it was somebody who was a bit rebellious, had a very lazy attitude or was a bit of a joker, I'd think twice.

At my club there's a PPL holder I know, has about 100 hours but you couldn't pay me to fly with him. I've heard him on the radio and as the saying goes, true or not, if you sound **** people assume you are ****. But it's not just that, I have witnessed myself the dangers he can be to others. I was speaking to our A/G operator and he told me be careful when he's up and about.

This one guy who was joining the circuit to land, not only did he approach for the wrong runway (thankfully our A/G was on the ball) it sounded like he had no clue what he was doing. He wasn't sure if he was joining crosswind making an overhead join. You could hear the uncertainty/confusion in his voice and our helpful radio guy sorted him out.

No disrespect to him, but that's someone I would never go up with. In his defence he hadn't finished training I think he was on a QXC or a solo land away. Scary his instructor let him tbh! It's probably not even the students fault.

And contrary to that, I've come across some inexperienced pilots who seem to have a very good grasp of what they're doing. I'd fly with them any day despite the lack of experience.

There's more to making a good pilot than training. Greater training does provide better pilots but there's more too it. Willingness to be good, intelligence etc. To be a good pilot you need to have the right personality as well. It's not just about passing tests. I'm sure most of you have seen Top Gun, Maverick was quite clearly a good pilot but he just had the wrong attitude. Quite clearly highly trained, but I wouldn't fly with him...even though it is just a film.
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