Chieftain Crash at Rand Airport
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Here and There
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Prospector,
With all due respect I believe that you are 100% correct in what you say BUT the fact that your first job was some 40 years back might make it difficult to see the other side of the story.
I was in the position that these unfortunate souls were in and at one stage worked for the company of disrepute, Flightline. I now sit in the cockpit of a widebody jet for an international airline, only a few years later, and ask myself the same question. Why did I do it? The answer is simple and NdekePilot hit it right on the head. I was a 200 hour comm pilot with wet ink on my license and nobody would even look at employing me. The company I joined was new and didn't have a bad name.....yet! A combination of desperation to get my career rolling and pure ignorance meant that I faced the exact situation that "JD" faced on countless occasions. I never created any of my own luck as you believe. I made the exact same mistakes that these pilots made and I did it over and over again. I was however extremely LUCKY and made it through the hundreds of deathtraps that I ran through. The only reason why I wasn't ever in a smouldering wreck is simply luck. I never had an engine failure as I rotated. That was pure luck and I sure as hell didn't create it.
Now that I am wiser and and not so desperate I look back at what I did and get cold shivers down my spine. I look at guys/girls just getting started now and see them taxing out in a heap of scrap fully laden with pax and wonder why they are doing it.
I guess it is easy to say that now that my career has taken off and I'm not desperate to pay the bills. I guess that you could say that I am now like you, on the other side of the fence.
You are correct in that the pilot is the last link in the chain but the fact remains that these operators need to be removed. Closing the company down doesn't help because they always start again. Ban the individuals involved or better yet send them to jail...after all they broke the law and innocent people died.
With all due respect I believe that you are 100% correct in what you say BUT the fact that your first job was some 40 years back might make it difficult to see the other side of the story.
I was in the position that these unfortunate souls were in and at one stage worked for the company of disrepute, Flightline. I now sit in the cockpit of a widebody jet for an international airline, only a few years later, and ask myself the same question. Why did I do it? The answer is simple and NdekePilot hit it right on the head. I was a 200 hour comm pilot with wet ink on my license and nobody would even look at employing me. The company I joined was new and didn't have a bad name.....yet! A combination of desperation to get my career rolling and pure ignorance meant that I faced the exact situation that "JD" faced on countless occasions. I never created any of my own luck as you believe. I made the exact same mistakes that these pilots made and I did it over and over again. I was however extremely LUCKY and made it through the hundreds of deathtraps that I ran through. The only reason why I wasn't ever in a smouldering wreck is simply luck. I never had an engine failure as I rotated. That was pure luck and I sure as hell didn't create it.
Now that I am wiser and and not so desperate I look back at what I did and get cold shivers down my spine. I look at guys/girls just getting started now and see them taxing out in a heap of scrap fully laden with pax and wonder why they are doing it.
I guess it is easy to say that now that my career has taken off and I'm not desperate to pay the bills. I guess that you could say that I am now like you, on the other side of the fence.
You are correct in that the pilot is the last link in the chain but the fact remains that these operators need to be removed. Closing the company down doesn't help because they always start again. Ban the individuals involved or better yet send them to jail...after all they broke the law and innocent people died.
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WHODUNNIT.
Thankyou, a well balanced and very reasonable reply,I can see you have been there, done that. But the fact I started earlier in itself is of no great importance. The same sort of people were trying to make a quick quid out of aviation, the accident reports have changed names, but the causes have not changed. After five years of semi retirement I am now back full time flying, 120 hrs in 30 days last month, how come you say? no flight time limitations for private operations, no legal requirement for an auto pilot, makes one wonder where our regulators learnt their profession. The last half dozen or so pilots doing the same job were straight from aero clubs, the fact that there were no fatalities shows that perhaps luck does play a part. After six thousand hours in singles, moved into multi operations, another five thousand odd in multis, and three engine failures, but none at rotate perhaps does show that some get the dirty end of the stick. Anyway, enjoyed your reply and am now enjoying my aviating more than ever because I know if any shady practices come in am in the position to say {"stuff your job where the sun dont shine". I appreciate that not all are in the position to do the same. A great deal of the blame must rest with the regulatory authorities for not ensuring, which is their main task, that these conditions are not allowed to exist.
Regards.
Thankyou, a well balanced and very reasonable reply,I can see you have been there, done that. But the fact I started earlier in itself is of no great importance. The same sort of people were trying to make a quick quid out of aviation, the accident reports have changed names, but the causes have not changed. After five years of semi retirement I am now back full time flying, 120 hrs in 30 days last month, how come you say? no flight time limitations for private operations, no legal requirement for an auto pilot, makes one wonder where our regulators learnt their profession. The last half dozen or so pilots doing the same job were straight from aero clubs, the fact that there were no fatalities shows that perhaps luck does play a part. After six thousand hours in singles, moved into multi operations, another five thousand odd in multis, and three engine failures, but none at rotate perhaps does show that some get the dirty end of the stick. Anyway, enjoyed your reply and am now enjoying my aviating more than ever because I know if any shady practices come in am in the position to say {"stuff your job where the sun dont shine". I appreciate that not all are in the position to do the same. A great deal of the blame must rest with the regulatory authorities for not ensuring, which is their main task, that these conditions are not allowed to exist.
Regards.
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Here and There
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Prospector,
It is a pleasure to be able to chat with someone who by the sounds of it has offered so much to GA over the many years.
You are in the most sought after and pleasant position....able to fly on your terms. Enjoy it and fly safe.
Let us hope that things will change so that those who have paid the ultimate price did not do so in vain. We really should learn from their misfortunes.
Regards
It is a pleasure to be able to chat with someone who by the sounds of it has offered so much to GA over the many years.
You are in the most sought after and pleasant position....able to fly on your terms. Enjoy it and fly safe.
Let us hope that things will change so that those who have paid the ultimate price did not do so in vain. We really should learn from their misfortunes.
Regards
