Basic Airmanship and common sense.
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Join Date: Dec 2006
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Basic Airmanship and common sense.
This is probably going to open a hornet's nest, but I feel it needs saying.
I have just spent a week (thanks to local customs issues) in a general aviation airport doing an engine change on a helicopter.
During this time I have witnessed numerous aircraft, both prop jobs and jets taxi past where I was working on the edge of the hangar with their wingtips OVER the cones that demarkate the edge of the chopper not caring that they were UNDER the blades of the chopper or that the blades had tie-downs on that had nice bright red tags on them or that there were quite likely to be rags, tools or any manner of things lying around that could damage a prop and get hit across a hangar and through a bubble in another aircraft.
The scary thing is that this happens many times a day.
To cap it all, a pilot got upset with me because I had a gantry that had an engine hanging on it in front of the chopper so I could get the engine out of the crate and he had to SLOW DOWN from his normal very fast walking speed to navigate his way past me.
I have spent considerable time working in Africa and I thought I had seen it all, but the goings on in this country actually scared me. I wonder if it even occurs to these guys that the total disregard they show to BASIC airmanship translates to their behaviour in the cockpit with regard to procedures and safety.
Probably not, because there is a pretty healthy attrition rate in this country.
It's a sad thing to have to say, especially to "professionals" but safety starts long before the engines start and if you are TOO LAZY to tow your King Air 20 meters to the end of the hangar then you should not wonder what happened when your buddy fell out the sky for no apparent reason.
I have just spent a week (thanks to local customs issues) in a general aviation airport doing an engine change on a helicopter.
During this time I have witnessed numerous aircraft, both prop jobs and jets taxi past where I was working on the edge of the hangar with their wingtips OVER the cones that demarkate the edge of the chopper not caring that they were UNDER the blades of the chopper or that the blades had tie-downs on that had nice bright red tags on them or that there were quite likely to be rags, tools or any manner of things lying around that could damage a prop and get hit across a hangar and through a bubble in another aircraft.
The scary thing is that this happens many times a day.
To cap it all, a pilot got upset with me because I had a gantry that had an engine hanging on it in front of the chopper so I could get the engine out of the crate and he had to SLOW DOWN from his normal very fast walking speed to navigate his way past me. I have spent considerable time working in Africa and I thought I had seen it all, but the goings on in this country actually scared me. I wonder if it even occurs to these guys that the total disregard they show to BASIC airmanship translates to their behaviour in the cockpit with regard to procedures and safety.
Probably not, because there is a pretty healthy attrition rate in this country.
It's a sad thing to have to say, especially to "professionals" but safety starts long before the engines start and if you are TOO LAZY to tow your King Air 20 meters to the end of the hangar then you should not wonder what happened when your buddy fell out the sky for no apparent reason.
