Originally Posted by
firebird_uk
...Working as a contractor he was (presumably) only paid when he got to fly. The winter slowdown and recent poor weather may have made this day one of only a few in his diary (though I concede that I may be completely wrong here). The commercial pressure could be his financial pressure.
Was his decision to launch made because he was hoping for the best and in need of a "pay day"?
Just to speak hypothetically on this aspect. If a client calls the pilot and says "don't start the job because the weather is ****e (or whatever), but the pilot does otherwise and gives it a go but turns around because the weather is as the client said, is the Company going to invoice the client for this flight time? Is the contractor pilot going to claim his flight pay because he flew despite the client cancelling? If I were the client I wouldn't pay. If I were the pilot I'd stay on the ground if the client cancelled the job, otherwise the boss isn't going to be happy about the non-revenue flight time.
In this instance (in light of the information in the public arena so far, if true), I'm just left to wonder why, after the client cancelled, that the job still went ahead. To my way of thinking no point starting a job if you're not going to get paid for it, and particularly if it's going to cost the boss money.