VH-KFI Mishap

[Natit]

Just caught on the 7 news, KFI the Cessna 206 used for meatbombing at Rollo's had a mishap last night.

Apparantly after take-off something wasn't right and the pilot tried to get it back down. End result - KFI nose down with a few dents scratches and bent prop.

Oops!

[rearwhelsteer888]

Good to hear that everyone is fine,but really you pay peanuts and you get monkeys.......nuff said.:E

[gary gearbox]

An aborted take off is a big decision to make within a very short window of time. I think most monkeys would just sit tight, continue the takeoff and hope for the best. Anyway lets see what the ATSB boys say . Most importantly all the occupants are fine.

GG

[Dawn Raid]

Uncalled for rearwhelsteer888 :mad:

Engine malfunction or failure after takeoff.... what are YOUR procedures?

If it was an engine malfunction, then even Chuck Yeager could not have flown a circuit to get it back. When the engine fails on take off your choices are limited. On the face of it the pilot did the right thing.

Dawnie

[rearwhelsteer888]

ok......fair enough in respect to the pilot,he probably did do the right thing,but I know the strip and there is a definate decision point on that strip no matter what way your going.

I flew the strip and operation for a while and calculated an airspeed that needed to be achieved,and if you dont get you reject,and you wont run off.He ended up 100m off the end.

So far there has been no talk of engine failure or malfunction,the pilot has simply said that it didnt "feel right".

I would suspect that they were overwieght.I can understand the position the pilot is in totally,These type of operations are almost impossible to conduct completely legally.Why dont they ask for the load sheet..?

This is another great example of the crap that new cpl's are exposed to to get that few hours to move on,and until someone does somthing about it they will cotinue to be screwed by these operators.

I feel sorry for the pilot because now he has this on his record and that follows you for ever,and I bet he had bugger all choice on weather to go.

In closing that is probably one of the worst strips around and there is not much giudence when you get there,It would help if the bloke who ran the whole show took more attention to getting people familiar.

Start bloody paying and you will get attention to detail.

RWS888:yuk:

[Continental-520]

Um, if we're talking about the same Rollo, his C206 is not KFI...


520.

[Capt L]

I don't think the Rollo you're thinking of does meatbombing.

[Tagneah]

but really you pay peanuts and you get monkeys.......nuff said.

Were you the bloke who burried the nose of the Pilatus Porter up there one year?

Before you go any further with all your generalisations, I was up there for quite some time and was paid quite well for my troubles. Unlike other DZ's it was good to spend the weekend up there with decent people. BTW I did do numerous load sheets while up there.

Tag

[Continental-520]

Aha, of course.

Thought for a minute that someone may have started meatbombing out of there...


520.

[rearwhelsteer888]

Tagneah,
Is that right .....he paid you quite well for your troubles did he,so lets see,if you were doing 10 loads a day @ 0.5-0.6 per load then that would be at best about 6.0 hours flying per day @ $10/hr flying .....Awesome $60 whole dollars for the day.
Top notch mate.
We were screwed,are you blind?
What I will say is that the people out there were excellent in comparison to the other DZ's that I've worked at.
P.s never flown a porter,wrong person.
RWS888
:E

[Tagneah]

$60 for the day =$120 for the weekend. Free food and (soft) drinks for the pilots. Free accomodation if you wanted for the night. Use of the aeroplanes if you wanted at a fairly cheap rate. I didnt work for nothing, got paid, hours in the log book and then got out of there.

If I had something better on then Id just say I wasn't available without the possibility of the flying not being there the next week.

I'd say (as DZ's go) it wasn't bad.

If you were screwed then that's your problem. What I was getting at was your comment "pay peanuts, get monkeys" You obviously weren't there when I was there because the other pilots were extremely professional and used meatbombing as a stepping stone (a paid one at that).

If you weren't there on the weekend you'd have got the $120 pulling a shift at the servo.................

[Boney]

Ah, yes, the old working conditions at a DZ.

Peoples, if you are 'working' at a DZ that does not pay you, these days, you would definately be in the minority. As anyone in the industry knows, the parachuting industry started out yonks ago purely as clubs, therefore, (as is currently the case still today) no legal requirement to pay the driver. However, since Tandem operations started in the early 90's, these so called clubs are now able to make a profit. Full time Tandem Masters in this country earn Gross (as if they pay any money to that lying little turd in Canberra?) from $30,000 - $60,000 a year, depending on a variety of factors.

But where does this leave the driver?

My personal sentiments are ... (wait for the posts!?)

If you were working at a place that was purely a club, and I mean zero Tandems, then I see no major moral issue with a driver working, dropping ONLY licenced jumpers, for free. That is, actual real FUN jumpers, who themselves do not jump for work but jump for a hobby, and pay for their slot.

But, whenever a Tandem or ANY student jumps as part of a course, then the driver should be paid, say $10/load SE and $15/load. As a matter of course, as mentioned in another post above, the driver should not have to pay for his BBQ at the end of the day and he/she better have a free beer(s) to wash it down with as well.

All Tandems and Student jumps to be paid.

Of course this will never happen. While there are people out there who will continue to offer to work for free and even pay like a whore for hours. I am not even going to start that one.

I suppose you could always approach the APF about these issues as there are alot of non driver people within the parachuting industry who would believe in the cause (what, both of them?).
Only problem is that the person you will talk to in Canberra charges people to work for him. It works like this. You pay approx $5,000, get SE Turbine time, approx 50hr. ICUS, at the same time as about 5hrs/week command, in a C-182. After a couple of months you are not up to speed so must move on, to make room for the next poor bastard. By then, you will probably be so sore from the reaming, you will need some time off to go to the hospital for a re-bore anyway.

If the stories like above are true, this person needs to be investigated by the authorities. Been going on for years, I believe. Hey, why not get Today/Tonight on to it. They never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

No, I never worked there, but have met 2 that have, so what are the chances of getting a fair go for ALL meat bombers, I'd say sweet FA.

So what is a fair wage?

I checked out the award for drivers of bug smashers a while back so these are only Guessimates.

But if you are driving a C-182/C-206, you should be getting around $25-28,000 pa gross. Without a calculator, I think this equals about $400/week after tax.

This is a fair wage. Why is it fair? Not only is it liveable for a fulltime job, but it also happens to just be the bloody award, to which employers are legally bound to, apparently.

But you are very unlikely to be paid this in the meatbombing game.

However, you should be paid something, I even heard a rumour once that it is supposed to be a profession?

Even if it $60 a day, food, beer, first chop at the new students etc. etc.


Just my thoughts.


Boney


Looking for intelligent comment, looks like QNIM won't be able to post?

[Tiger 77]

If its true that most dz's pay their pilots these days then WA must be well and truely behind the times. I know that almost all the dz's over here have their pilots working for free and treat them like crap. These dz's also have tandem ops and students.

I also know that most of the dz owners would not change this practise unless forced to by the law.

[Master Red Cylinder]

Tiger

If WA pje do not pay, thats because pilots accept to do it for free. No law is going to state that they have to be payed especially because they hide behind the fallacy of private ops.

I flew for one near perth for a while and guess what...got paid. Not as much money as I make now, but it was reasonable and fair. But I had to make a stance for it, in the middle of 8 other pilots who were doing it for nil.

MRC

[Boney]

I can see it now, newby does parachuting for free for 6 months, then moves on.

5 years later he/she is working for Qantas whinging that other pilots accept lower conditions to work for the other majors.

We are our own worst enemy.

If there was any justice in this life, these charactors would not get into an airline for medical reasons and therefore be stuck for life in the GA industry that they helped destroy.

[bushy]

Most will be stuck in G.A. anyway. only about 5% get into the major airlines.

[ginjockey]

Yep. It's a sad state out ther in meatbomber world. I had a mate who used to fly for a redneck operator out of Darwin. They paid absolutely nothing for his efforts and he worked his arse off most weekends. While drop kick tandem master would brag about making $100 per load for his video skills, they never even paid him fuel money for the 190 kilometre round trip by car to the DZ and back. They operated an antique 182 that was usually found with two flat tyres and a flat battery upon arrival. They would jump start the plane for half the loads of the day off someone's car with paying tandem pax looking on in amazement through the six foot spear grass. A great example of just how bad it can get. Anyway, he stuck it out for a while, got some hours and I caught up with him over here in Brissy recently for his Virgin interview. Hopefully he's in that 5 percent of lucky ones who can look back and laugh.

Have fun guys

Gin.

[Tiger 77]

Is this operator still in Darwin? I wasn't aware of any Skydiving there. Normally I would drive 30 hours to Perth to jump at the big dz down there.

Tiger