Young Maestro??

[topendtorque]

Sincere apologies for putting this thread into Rotor heads, but I don't seem to be able to find a good home for it eslewhere. Please move it mods if you can find a home.
it relates to a story about a young (18 yr old) proclaimed by the media- yes again- as a hero of sorts because he put a Victra Airoturer down on one of Hobarts busiest streets without bending a motorcar or scratching himself.

The story relates how he was (practising aero's) and the donk stopped, and he did a magic job by landing after flying under an traffic overpass.

The story also relates as to how he has just been accepted into the RAAF.

Now,the rubbishing begins. How did this super hero get past the usual Air Force shrink tests?

By putting himself up as a formula one super star ego machine or what?

I must ask as he quotes a fable in the F/W instructor world who has now passed on as his mentor and instructor, BUT, did not this imbecile ever learn that before doing aerobatics that one of the items on the checklist is, drum roll or two, -- safe to reach an emergency landing area -- check. god damn.

Please tell me if I am way off beam, here, but it is something that I do every day I take a newbie or and oldie up for flight checking.
It just happens to be something that I do every 30 seconds of my usual flying routine, every day, every minute, every damn day, sorry to bore people.

I sincerely hope that this young sprat will have a come uppance supremo deliverred by way of - no thank you the air force does not want you - otherwise how would you be depending upon this maverick to back you up in a real jam?
Here is one of the links to the super hero story.

News Video - 04-Apr-2010 (http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201004/r542645_3161737.asx)

[212man]

BUT, did not this imbecile ever learn that before doing aerobatics that one of the items on the checklist is, drum roll or two, -- safe to reach an emergency landing area -- check. god damn.

Not, a HASELL check by any chance? Doesn't Hobart count as an 'L'?

[PO dust devil]

Must have forgotten that you were 18 once??? What school age kid doesn't feel great about themselves when something like that happens and they get away with it. The media have a role there too.

I reckon he did pretty well to keep presence of mind to get it down there no matter what. So some speculate he didn't plan his checks so well.........ho hum I know people who have done a lot worse like locking themselves out of a house or car. Never missed a check?

I also recall an NZ EMS pilot who was hailed a hero after crashing a BK into a tree at night while slipping through below MRA/LSALT/MSA then hovering while nursing a broken wrist while a landing cradle of sorts was built for the skidless BK?

I wouldn't necessarily call them heroes but they did cope well in spite of the circumstances.

DD:ok:

[topendtorque]

No PO I haven't forgotten my 18 year age, in fact I was learning to fly in none other than a Victa Airtourer. The aero club that I was with had just got the "hot" model, a full 115 hp no less, up from 100 hp. The big rig is what we were taught spins etc in, which I was /am endorsed to do.

Procedure was, amongst the other checks as pointed out by 212 man, height to recover by 3,000', emergency landing area nominated and pointed to and calculated that it could be reached from EOL 3,ooo'.

The money that I used to learn with was gained from severe hard work with chain saw, sledge hammer, post splitting wedges, axe and adze. There was no room in that psyche to be flamboyant with radical decisions.

Spins in those damn things if you could call it that, dropped off about 2500 feet very quickly, with one and a half turns from memory, we always started at or above 6,000'.

I would suggest that height to recover at 3,000' should have taken an EOL in that type, from Brooker highway to very close to Hobart airport, let alone all the flat ground in between.

Here I am not mentioning anything about non approved aeros above a populous area?????

I take your point as have many others in other threads regarding the turning of totally routine EMS flights into - outside the envelope - hazardous experiences. No one will deny that much work needs to be done preventing that idiocy.

My main point is that how can a youngster with barely formulated theories on anything, and what appears here to be dangerous tendencies, be able to slip past the air force selection panel shrink test. Is the shrink panel a bunch of egotistical blinkered people or what??

cheers tet

[R.OCKAPE]

give it a rest mate ... all we hear from you is how good you are

you think you are the only one who has done it tough advancing in this industry ?

[topendtorque]

No probs r.ockape.
i could take the easy way out and delete the thread or stand, take the criticism and demand better from yourself.

you may have noticed that there are many eminent people on these threads, with much more diversity in their background than mine and many of whom have done it tough. in fact still do.

observing these simple things in life at the helicopter coalface is part of being just dam good enough to be there.

the question is put, do you wish to also put your shoulder to the wheel and stick your chin out for the betterment of standards? or sit back and throw stones whilst the standards that allow many of the accidents that we talk about here go unchanged.

And as far as I am concerned using the standards that people gained from their mentors is fair game.

I perhaps could have mentioned that the "hero" of the thread happened to crash his almost antique aeroplane within 200 metres of my sisters house. that did not colour my comments at all.
cheers tet

[-272.15 degrees Cels]

I don,t want a fallout but this thread should not really be on rotorheads (or pprune) I believe. The young man is a fixed wing pilot. He,s been accepted into the RAAF, so what? Yes he made a mistake (maybe) with his choice of location for his antics but maybe the RAAF looked at his "shrink" test without noting this incident? He may be $hit hot with all of the other tests they put him through? He did walk away without anyone being injured here.
TET.
I detect a little bit of the old "bitter and twisted" opinion here?
I know people who are £70,000 and "plus" in debt for a rotorwing career and I will not tell you what I had to do to get where I am today.
I cannot understand why you would put your initial post here, to be honest??
pprune is being corrupted by poor posts as far as I can see and yours is one of them in my opinion.
Take a chill pill!
:\

[Senior Pilot]

This thread could have developed into a useful discussion on decision making, planning and general airmanship etc, but contributions to date have not taken such a course.

Time to put it to bed :(