TP Bureaucrats
 

I'm not a TP or an ex-TP. But out of naive curiousity, am I correct in thinking that today's chappies are equally endowed with their predecessors' analytical flying skills, but less so in their life habits be it leadership/managerial skills or empathy with hangar-men. I ask from a lowely observation point that suggests there remains great skill, but a touch more black leather jacket?

SBALBTP

From my experience you're wrong - the average TP today has, if anything, better people skills than yesteryear. Flight test nowadays is so complex - large chunks don't even happen on the aircraft - that pilots, engineers, mechanics and all the FT personnel down to the lowliest clerk have to work together to accomplish the task safely & economically.

As Self Loading Ballast on a program that used pilots from all over North America & Europe, I came to have a fine appreciation for the Pre-flight briefing. The better the brief (think CRM) the easier & more productive the flight.

It would be interesting to know the reason for the question.

One of the things that is definitely not stressed in test pilot schools is how to survive in the real world of making decisions that are not strictly technical or specification-oriented -basically how to know when to die in a ditch over a problem or issue, and when to back off. I have several friends who have sacrificed their careers in companies or militaries over what was really not an issue (it was to them, at the time).

Technical stuff is easy. Admisitrative stuff is more difficult. People issues are bordering on impossible sometimes, and political (whether it is inter-office, or national-politician level) is insurmountable.

Agreed Shawn.

In my view it is likely that the demands on a tp's professional integrity will exceed those on his physical courage.

Thanks chaps. My query was not intended as being playful - it was a reaction to views expressed by a couple of third parties who work in that environment. I agree your opinions, but I guess there will always, and in this profession infrequently, be the odd exception to the norm.

I am not a TP in the usual sense but I do get involved by request of the PFA in evaluating prototype aeroplanes of many varieties for initial issue of a permit to fly in the UK under the auspices of the PFA. Types vary form a total rebuild of a 1931 Great Lakes 2T1 fitted for the very first time with a Kinner vintage radial up to the first UK trigear GlasStar and the first Kitfox 5 fitted with the absolutely magic Rotec 100hp radial engine from down under. There have been many interesting moments. For one read the next CHIRP for GA if Peter Tait prints it...!! They have all been totally rewarding, both for me as the chance to get a new type to add to over 350 types and variants in 13,000 odd, some very odd, hours and the owners of some fine, and some not so, aeroplanes. As an amateur member of the TP fraternity I bow to all those fantastic TP's of both past and present who have contributed so much to the first 100 years of powered heavier than air flight. A happy and, especially, safe New Year and new century of progress to you all - fuelled by the skills of so few for so many.:ok:

>>In my view it is likely that the demands on a tp's professional integrity will exceed those on his physical courage.<<

The point is nicely made. The issue, however, cuts right accross society.

The following Human Factors Report for the JAA made the following observation in the Executive Summary:

http://www.icon-consulting.com/study...s/reportv2.pdf

'Captains are increasingly being required to make economic decisions, which is often counter to their traditional role of safely flying the aircraft. There is sometimes a dilemma between safety and economics: a Captain has the responsibility for the safety of a flight but may be blamed by management if he or she is thought to have taken a commercially detrimental decision. If a pilot succumbs to commercial pressure and as a result is involved in an incident, he cannot, in law, defend his position by saying that the company pressured him to take the actions that he did.
Some pilots find this dilemma difficult to resolve on a day to day basis'.

Our profession is not alone in suffering these types of pressures. A hospital local to me has cut back on office cleaners. Consultants have been told by the Hospital Administration to empty their own dust bins and clean their own offices.

Now, of course they are not going to do that are they? However lack of hygiene is a health risk and now who is to blame?

Penny wise and pound foolish. A society which knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.