This was in today's Telegraph obituries.

Molly Rose, Spitfire pilot ? obituary

Interesting connection with the Marshall family, but what an amazing lady! The only award she got was the ATA Veterans Badge in 2008 when she was 88 years old.

T C-T if you are reading this, or anyone from your team, this was a woman who really did things for both aviation and her country. A true aviatrix and adventuress. By your behaviour you defile the memory of this lady and so many others like her.

Frankly; you are a disgrace.

SND

Why is EG claiming so many P2 hours in the Stearman on the incident form?

Note that TCT medical has lapsed to a LAPL at the time of the accident. And doubt that her instructor rating is/was current.

As I mentioned earlier, if you hold a valid pilot's licence and sit in a pilot's seat, you are generally regarded as a crew member by the relevant aviation authority.

Seems they have shot themselves in the foot by claiming those flight hours. They declared in writing that she wasn't solo. Both of them couldn't claim to be PIC/P1 at the same time so presumably one of them claimed P2 or P1/US.

How has Ewald logged more hours than TCT?
I would have expected those figures to be the other way around.

Ewald having more hours is to be expected if they were for air tests following reassembly of the aircraft. He does however appear to have logged every hour on the trip.

I see that TCT gives her principal occupation as "pilot". (Wot no CPL?)

Would that be valid for a 61.75 FAA certificate, then? Presumably she would no longer have an ICAO compliant licence/medical combination.

Returning to this, her previous Class 2 Medical was on 5 May 2015, so it would not have expired until the end of the month 1 year later. That is, the end of the month of the accident.

Further Edit: As deefer dog points out below, EASA Class 2 medicals do expire on the day the anniversary of the medical exam falls, not the end of the month as I wrongly thought.

Oops for me; a bigger oops for someone else.

Still says she's an SEP instructor. Can anyone confirm that it is still valid? And how many instructional flights ha she done? Are they all with a certain 20000hr CPL?

I'd sure like to see where that's written.

The accident report tells us quite a bit:

Both logging same flight time (sorry I credited megan, but it was B.Fraser who spotted this), completely counters what TCT stated publicly recently.

In the aircraft information section TCT ticks she confirms that the aircraft has two seats, of which BOTH are “Flight Crew Seats.” Again this shows that her claim published most recently in The Times is incorrect.

Both TCT and Ewald listed as crew.


As noted by twothree TCT’s last medical was on 5th May 2015. I was not able to find any record of her having taken an FAA medical, so I assume that she renewed her EASA one. As she is over 50 any medical she had must therefore be an expired Class 2, which would only have been good to 4th or 5th May 2016, ie it expired before the accident flight. This is notable because her FAA licence is a “Foreign Based” one, and is only valid if the licence it is based on (her UK issued EASA PPL) is valid. This needs to be checked, but it may be the case that she had no medical and no licence when conducting the accident flight. (Her PPL dropping down to a LAPL is irrelevant – she may only fly an N in the USA if her EASA PPL (not LAPL) is valid).

Surely not AGAIN??

I think Megan and I were typing at the same time.

My understanding is that a medical exam for revalidation of an EASA medical certificate can be taken up to 45 days before the expiry date, so potentially if the actual exam was on 5 May 2015 the expiry date of the existing certificate could be anything up 19 June 2015 and the new certificate would then be valid to a date between 5 May 2016 and 19 June 2016.

Hi Zimbo, yes that's true, and that may well be the case. Maybe I jumped the gun there. I'll look into it though. Thanks

I agree with Noflymore - I flew as a test pilot on a PPL quite extensively - but was employed as an airworthiness engineer.

I did do a CPL, as much as anything before anybody asked the sort of questions being asked here about TCT, about me. I've certainly been glad of the CPL, which opened other doors, and gave me additional knowledge and skills I've used extensively, but it's not clear that I ever strictly needed it.

And, frankly, there's quite enough already to criticise about TCT's integrity, it's not a useful addition.

G

Well, now I have sight of official documents, one of Weejeem's Niggles is immediately answered.


Document 1, "Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident Report", page 2, first section "Registered Aircraft Owner" clearly states...but another document, STATEMENT OF EWALD GRITSCH, clearly states...so at least one of them is lying.
.
.

Weejeem

I'm afraid that it's entirely normal for the registered owner of an N-reg aircraft to be a US corporation if the beneficial owner is not a US citizen. My own aircraft is owned using exactly this mechanism.

Jonzarno, I am indeed aware of this :ok: - my point is that Gritsch did not use the term "beneficial owner", only the phrase "is owned by", and the registered owner is very clearly a legal entity in its own right.

But I do take your and airpolice's point - perhaps there is/was no lying, rather just yet another terminological inexactitude. :ugh:

Although I carry no torch for Miss Curtis-Taylor (and I'm still waiting for an answer to the three questions I posted earlier in this thread!) I don't think this particular case is a conscious attempt to deceive.

As I said earlier, my own aircraft ownership is structured in exactly the same way and anyone would describe it as being mine without mentioning the corporation that is the registered owner.

So, Ewald, as an FAA CFI could legally log PIC time under the FAR's even if not the nominated PIC as long as he was instructing. Interesting...

Wasn't there an FAA rule saying an ATP could log any flight time in an aircraft they were qualified in at one point, even if not the handling pilot? Maybe that was a possibility?

https://www.aopa.org/training-and-sa...mmand-pic-time