Good pilots/Bad pilots
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Liverpool
Age: 35
Posts: 35
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Good pilots/Bad pilots
Bit of a strange question this, but hear me out...
I know all pilots go through a LOT of training. I know that they have check pilots. I know that their is a culture of checking each other's work whilst in flight. I know there are six monthly sim checks. But...
Are there still incompetent pilots out there?
For instance, everyone driving has passed a driving test. But some people shouldn't be on the roads. I know driving is a lot simpler and easier to pass the test, but the theory remains that some people will have the ability to pass tests but not truly have the aptitude.
I'd be curious to know if this is something anyone has any views on...
I know all pilots go through a LOT of training. I know that they have check pilots. I know that their is a culture of checking each other's work whilst in flight. I know there are six monthly sim checks. But...
Are there still incompetent pilots out there?
For instance, everyone driving has passed a driving test. But some people shouldn't be on the roads. I know driving is a lot simpler and easier to pass the test, but the theory remains that some people will have the ability to pass tests but not truly have the aptitude.
I'd be curious to know if this is something anyone has any views on...
Last edited by TShan1; 2nd Sep 2015 at 13:34.
Aviator Extraordinaire
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma USA
Age: 76
Posts: 2,394
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Well, I don't think this guy is still flying anymore, but here is a story from the book I'm writing, about the worse (bad) pilot I ever flew with. His name has been changed to protect the guilty as hell.
About a month after Biff and I had returned from FE school there is a trip in the Kingair 200, the one that was later stolen from us, yes really stolen. Ever since we had returned from FE school both of us had been riding side saddle in 727s, which was about to drive me to death from boredom, but ol' Biff really enjoyed the FE job. To be quite honest, from what I heard from the other 72 pilots he did a real good job at the FE station, probably a lot better job than I did. I flew as co-pilot on the 72 a few times when he was the FE and noticed some things that puzzled me and the other pilots.
First off he loved doing all the radio calls, he'd beg to handle all the en-route ATC radio calls. Well, that didn't bother me or about anybody else, those damn ATC calls kept waking us up. Then one day we are heading out toward the West Coast, I have my seat reclined back where my head is touching the FE panel and I hear Biff calling the FBO at our destination on the number 3 VHF. This was SOP for the FE and should not be a problem, but there was a problem, we were about 500 miles out. So I inquire of ol' Biff, as to just what was he doing calling this far out. By this time the PIC in the left seat had woken up.
Biff replies, with a snotty tone of voice, "I'm working the skip."
The skip, what fukin' skip I think. I look at the PIC and he looks back at me, then shakes his head telling me to handle it. "Un Biff, this skip, you want to amplify what you mean?" I ask him.
He gives me the 'you stupid person look' and says, "I'm skipping the radio signal off the atmosphere."
"Uh Biff, that only works on the HF radio, not VHF,"
"DOES NOT, WORKS ON BOTH!" He practically yells at me.
So I tell him, "Okay, whatever trips your trigger.", turn back around, look at the PIC and shrug my shoulders. So for the next hour or so he keeps calling this FBO. Sure enough, about a 100 miles out, the 'skip' works and he talks to them.
So with that experience with Biff, we are assigned the Kingair 200 trip, together. As Biff has blown so much smoke up the chief pilot's butt, Biff is assigned as the PIC, as he claims to have thousands and thousands of hours in the Kingair 200. I at the time only had about a 150 hours in the 200. There's not much I can say, but I figured I could keep him from killing us no matter which seat I was in. The night before the trip started Biff calls me at home and asks me to do the flight planning and pre-flight as he would be running late, no doubt due to saving the life of a pregnant Nun. I had no problem with that and assured him all would be done when he graced us with his presence. About five minutes before scheduled departure time Biff comes rushing up to the aircraft, out of breath as if he had ran all the way to the hangar.
"Well, is everything ready", he asks me, while he stares up at the low clouds, as if he'd never seen such a sight before.
"Yeah, we're ready to go, I've checked the weather, all of our stops are above minimums, should stay that way or be better by the time we arrive and it should be clear at our RON when we get there."
"What about here, I don't like the looks of those clouds. What do you mean stay above minimums, how bad is it?" Now he's got this wild eyed look on his face and is looking around everywhere.
"It is 500 and 3 here, first stop is 200 and one and forecast to be at least 500 or above by the time we arrive."
"Well I don't like it, there could be embedded thunderstorms."
"If there are, they are stealth thunderstorms because there are none on radar. Now, if you think it is too bad to go, you need to go upstairs and tell the Chief Pilot." I was sick and tired of his nonsense and firmly put the ball in his hands, after all, he was the PIC, it was his call.
"Go upstairs? Oh, huh, well let me see the weather reports." So I hand him the weather printouts, he takes and starts walking around the ramp, he would stop, run his finger on the paper, nod his head from time to time. Then he walks back up to me and the aircraft.
"Okay, it doesn't look that bad now that I have read it. But say, why don't you get into the left seat and fly, while I re-familiarize myself with the old 200's cockpit."
Re-familiarize my arse I think. "Sure thing." I say and I go switch my headsets to the left seat. So I sit there for about five minutes, the 'passengers' were loaded, but still no Biff. So I twist my head around to where I see can behind the left wing and he's just standing there starring at the weather print out. I yell at him to get on board and I swear to God he jumps ten feet into the air. Finally he gets to the cockpit and after knocking me in the head, knocking things all over the cockpit he finally gets settled into the right seat. I ask him to get the clearance while I run the checklist, which he agrees to. Five times he cannot copy the clearance. First he says the controller is talking too fast, she wasn't, then he said it was his headset, the overhead speakers where on, then something else. I finally told him to just sit there and I copied the clearance. Now this was a standard NE departure that all of us had been getting for years, all I needed to do was to write down the initial altitude, which would change from time to time and the transponder code, the routing we all knew by heart.
Anyway, off we go and Biff is now doing a good job on the radios, until we get cleared above 18 thousand.
ATC: "XXX cleared to FL 210."
Biff: "Uh (he always said 'uh' every time he talked on the radio) roger, XXX is cleared to 21 thousand."
It took a minute for what he said to sink in, 'what did he say' I thought.
ATC: "XXX now cleared to FL250."
Biff: "Uh roger, XXX now cleared to 25 thousand."
ATC comes right back and says: "XXX confirm cleared to Flight Level 250."
I waved Biff off and grabbed the mic, "Yes sir, XXX is cleared to FL 250."
I look over at him and he is glaring at me. "What do you mean cutting me off like that?" Boy he's annoyed. Well, guess what, so was I, but I keep my temperature in check. "Biff, you've flown enough on the 727 to know that all altitudes above 18 thousand/FL 180 in US airspace are called flight levels, that why we change the altitude setting to 29.92."
He continues to look at me, then with a sneer on his face he says, and I kid thee not, he really said this, "Well,,,,,I think it is rather tacky for us in a little turbo-prop to use Flight Levels, that's only for jets to use."
How does one respond to that logic? I couldn't.
To humor me (so he says) he decides to use flight levels for the rest of the day. Now this trip had five stops until we got to our last destination which was somewhere in Florida, I cannot remember where. Normally all of us switched seats every leg, so every time we landed I'd unplug my headset and put them up on the top of the right side of the instrument panel and every time I did, Biff would demure stating that I should keep flying as he thought I needed the practice. After one landing he said that it 'felt a little firm'. I told him, "Biff, we're hauling prisoners, that's what we do, I don't care what they think of my landings. If we ever carry the President of the United States, I'll make a lot smoother landings." (Unless of course we had good looking female guards on board. )
Finally on the next to last stop I flat out tell him it is his turn to get in the left seat and fly, I was tired. With great reluctance he moved over the left seat. As he is taxing out he is in high idle and is bring the engines in and out of reverse, separately, trying to steer and as a result we are all over the taxiway. Hell, I'm getting air sick on the ground. Now we're cleared for takeoff, Biff locks the brakes, shoves the throttles to the stops, I move them back to max power, as he had taken his hand off the throttles so now both of his hand are on the yoke, then he releases the brakes and off we go. And we go, and we go and we go, we're still on the runway at about 130 knots and I say, "Biff, I think its time to rotate."
And boy does he. He yanks the aircraft off the runway. However, as clever as I am, at least was back then, I was kind of expecting this and blocked the yoke to limit the rotation to about 15 degrees. Then still hanging on to the yoke for dear life he keeps climbing, as we pass through 5/6 hundred feet I ask him if he would like the landing gear retracted. He gives me a startled look, as if he didn't know that I was in the cockpit with him. Then he came back to what was going on, lowered the nose, retracted the gear and asked for climb power. Then everything was fine until we entered the clouds that were about 3,000 feet AGL.
That's when he lost control of the aircraft. All those years of aerobatics and unusual attitude practice paid off. I still to this day cannot explain how he got that Kingair nearly inverted as fast as he did. Anyway, after I handed the aircraft back to him, he turned the auto-pilot on and it stayed on until short final at our last stop. As for his landing, well we did stay on the runway, barely.
It took a while, but we, all of us other pilots, finally got him fired, but it damn near took an act of Congress to do it, literally.
About a month after Biff and I had returned from FE school there is a trip in the Kingair 200, the one that was later stolen from us, yes really stolen. Ever since we had returned from FE school both of us had been riding side saddle in 727s, which was about to drive me to death from boredom, but ol' Biff really enjoyed the FE job. To be quite honest, from what I heard from the other 72 pilots he did a real good job at the FE station, probably a lot better job than I did. I flew as co-pilot on the 72 a few times when he was the FE and noticed some things that puzzled me and the other pilots.
First off he loved doing all the radio calls, he'd beg to handle all the en-route ATC radio calls. Well, that didn't bother me or about anybody else, those damn ATC calls kept waking us up. Then one day we are heading out toward the West Coast, I have my seat reclined back where my head is touching the FE panel and I hear Biff calling the FBO at our destination on the number 3 VHF. This was SOP for the FE and should not be a problem, but there was a problem, we were about 500 miles out. So I inquire of ol' Biff, as to just what was he doing calling this far out. By this time the PIC in the left seat had woken up.
Biff replies, with a snotty tone of voice, "I'm working the skip."
The skip, what fukin' skip I think. I look at the PIC and he looks back at me, then shakes his head telling me to handle it. "Un Biff, this skip, you want to amplify what you mean?" I ask him.
He gives me the 'you stupid person look' and says, "I'm skipping the radio signal off the atmosphere."
"Uh Biff, that only works on the HF radio, not VHF,"
"DOES NOT, WORKS ON BOTH!" He practically yells at me.
So I tell him, "Okay, whatever trips your trigger.", turn back around, look at the PIC and shrug my shoulders. So for the next hour or so he keeps calling this FBO. Sure enough, about a 100 miles out, the 'skip' works and he talks to them.
So with that experience with Biff, we are assigned the Kingair 200 trip, together. As Biff has blown so much smoke up the chief pilot's butt, Biff is assigned as the PIC, as he claims to have thousands and thousands of hours in the Kingair 200. I at the time only had about a 150 hours in the 200. There's not much I can say, but I figured I could keep him from killing us no matter which seat I was in. The night before the trip started Biff calls me at home and asks me to do the flight planning and pre-flight as he would be running late, no doubt due to saving the life of a pregnant Nun. I had no problem with that and assured him all would be done when he graced us with his presence. About five minutes before scheduled departure time Biff comes rushing up to the aircraft, out of breath as if he had ran all the way to the hangar.
"Well, is everything ready", he asks me, while he stares up at the low clouds, as if he'd never seen such a sight before.
"Yeah, we're ready to go, I've checked the weather, all of our stops are above minimums, should stay that way or be better by the time we arrive and it should be clear at our RON when we get there."
"What about here, I don't like the looks of those clouds. What do you mean stay above minimums, how bad is it?" Now he's got this wild eyed look on his face and is looking around everywhere.
"It is 500 and 3 here, first stop is 200 and one and forecast to be at least 500 or above by the time we arrive."
"Well I don't like it, there could be embedded thunderstorms."
"If there are, they are stealth thunderstorms because there are none on radar. Now, if you think it is too bad to go, you need to go upstairs and tell the Chief Pilot." I was sick and tired of his nonsense and firmly put the ball in his hands, after all, he was the PIC, it was his call.
"Go upstairs? Oh, huh, well let me see the weather reports." So I hand him the weather printouts, he takes and starts walking around the ramp, he would stop, run his finger on the paper, nod his head from time to time. Then he walks back up to me and the aircraft.
"Okay, it doesn't look that bad now that I have read it. But say, why don't you get into the left seat and fly, while I re-familiarize myself with the old 200's cockpit."
Re-familiarize my arse I think. "Sure thing." I say and I go switch my headsets to the left seat. So I sit there for about five minutes, the 'passengers' were loaded, but still no Biff. So I twist my head around to where I see can behind the left wing and he's just standing there starring at the weather print out. I yell at him to get on board and I swear to God he jumps ten feet into the air. Finally he gets to the cockpit and after knocking me in the head, knocking things all over the cockpit he finally gets settled into the right seat. I ask him to get the clearance while I run the checklist, which he agrees to. Five times he cannot copy the clearance. First he says the controller is talking too fast, she wasn't, then he said it was his headset, the overhead speakers where on, then something else. I finally told him to just sit there and I copied the clearance. Now this was a standard NE departure that all of us had been getting for years, all I needed to do was to write down the initial altitude, which would change from time to time and the transponder code, the routing we all knew by heart.
Anyway, off we go and Biff is now doing a good job on the radios, until we get cleared above 18 thousand.
ATC: "XXX cleared to FL 210."
Biff: "Uh (he always said 'uh' every time he talked on the radio) roger, XXX is cleared to 21 thousand."
It took a minute for what he said to sink in, 'what did he say' I thought.
ATC: "XXX now cleared to FL250."
Biff: "Uh roger, XXX now cleared to 25 thousand."
ATC comes right back and says: "XXX confirm cleared to Flight Level 250."
I waved Biff off and grabbed the mic, "Yes sir, XXX is cleared to FL 250."
I look over at him and he is glaring at me. "What do you mean cutting me off like that?" Boy he's annoyed. Well, guess what, so was I, but I keep my temperature in check. "Biff, you've flown enough on the 727 to know that all altitudes above 18 thousand/FL 180 in US airspace are called flight levels, that why we change the altitude setting to 29.92."
He continues to look at me, then with a sneer on his face he says, and I kid thee not, he really said this, "Well,,,,,I think it is rather tacky for us in a little turbo-prop to use Flight Levels, that's only for jets to use."
How does one respond to that logic? I couldn't.
To humor me (so he says) he decides to use flight levels for the rest of the day. Now this trip had five stops until we got to our last destination which was somewhere in Florida, I cannot remember where. Normally all of us switched seats every leg, so every time we landed I'd unplug my headset and put them up on the top of the right side of the instrument panel and every time I did, Biff would demure stating that I should keep flying as he thought I needed the practice. After one landing he said that it 'felt a little firm'. I told him, "Biff, we're hauling prisoners, that's what we do, I don't care what they think of my landings. If we ever carry the President of the United States, I'll make a lot smoother landings." (Unless of course we had good looking female guards on board. )
Finally on the next to last stop I flat out tell him it is his turn to get in the left seat and fly, I was tired. With great reluctance he moved over the left seat. As he is taxing out he is in high idle and is bring the engines in and out of reverse, separately, trying to steer and as a result we are all over the taxiway. Hell, I'm getting air sick on the ground. Now we're cleared for takeoff, Biff locks the brakes, shoves the throttles to the stops, I move them back to max power, as he had taken his hand off the throttles so now both of his hand are on the yoke, then he releases the brakes and off we go. And we go, and we go and we go, we're still on the runway at about 130 knots and I say, "Biff, I think its time to rotate."
And boy does he. He yanks the aircraft off the runway. However, as clever as I am, at least was back then, I was kind of expecting this and blocked the yoke to limit the rotation to about 15 degrees. Then still hanging on to the yoke for dear life he keeps climbing, as we pass through 5/6 hundred feet I ask him if he would like the landing gear retracted. He gives me a startled look, as if he didn't know that I was in the cockpit with him. Then he came back to what was going on, lowered the nose, retracted the gear and asked for climb power. Then everything was fine until we entered the clouds that were about 3,000 feet AGL.
That's when he lost control of the aircraft. All those years of aerobatics and unusual attitude practice paid off. I still to this day cannot explain how he got that Kingair nearly inverted as fast as he did. Anyway, after I handed the aircraft back to him, he turned the auto-pilot on and it stayed on until short final at our last stop. As for his landing, well we did stay on the runway, barely.
It took a while, but we, all of us other pilots, finally got him fired, but it damn near took an act of Congress to do it, literally.
Aviator Extraordinaire
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma USA
Age: 76
Posts: 2,394
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Great story. Had me chuckling. Would love to read the book when you have it finished.
Biff and I were hired at the same time. Biff was a very popular fellow in the local aviation community, was married to a local celebrity and they were always in the local newspaper society pages attending this event or that event. A very striking couple they made. In fact I had attended a few of the same events with my wife. He was always talking about his flying experiences, most as a bush pilot in South America. Soon a trend appeared, nearly every flight he took was with a lousy, cowardly co-pilot as he bravely flew in mountainous terrain, in the dark of night in horrible weather (thunderstorms and all that) to save a very sick child, pregnant woman, sick Nun, well take your pick. He claimed to have thousands of hours in a wide multitude of aircraft, none of which, strangely enough, required a type rating. Clue number one that I was, at the time, totally oblivious to. Oh, one more thing about ol' Biff, he was always dressed to the nines and there was never a hair on his head out of place.
Moving on now. We were scheduled to attend FE school at the same time, which was fine by me. But ol' Biff had a different idea, he went to the chief pilot, who had hired Biff, and explained that he, Biff, could not attend FE on the scheduled date as it interfered with his busy social schedule. The chief pilots, who was enamored with Biff and his wife cause they took him to fancy parties, instantly agreed. At first the chief pilot was going send both of us, but when Biff found out we were both still going at the same time, he ran to the chief pilot and told him that it would be much better if he went alone as he did not want to 'get saddled with someone like me and have to teach me everything'. Of course the chief pilot agreed and off he went. Really didn't bother me, I didn't want to go to the damn school anyway. As one of the other chief pilot's 'pet' pilots had failed the FE school that had been used in the past, Biff and I would be the first to attend a new FE school in California. So off Biff goes, I stay and fly.
Two weeks later Biff comes back with a brand new FE (Jet) ticket in his back pocket and now I go. The first day in class I am called to the Chief Instructor's office for a meeting with the Chief Instructor. Now I was really confused, hell I just got there, just what could I have done to get into trouble that fast? No, I was not trouble, but things turned very interesting, to say the least.
I go into the Chief Pilot's office where he meets me and asks me to have a seat. He starts talking, "Now if I intrude into any area of confidence or secrecy, please stop me, as I don't want to cause you any problems?"
Areas of confidence or secrecy, what the hell is he talking about, I think. "Uh, just what is it you are asking about?" Is my not so witty reply.
"Well, it is about your radio monitoring duties."
What duties? Radio monitoring? "Hmm just what about my, err, our radio monitoring?"
"Well Biff told me that you are required to monitor the radios in the mornings, as we have morning and afternoon class secession and the same with the simulator secessions, he could only attend the mid-afternoon secessions for both. So should I schedule you the same?"
About that time the old cartoon light bulb came over my head. Well hell, seems I underestimated ol' Biff, go to afternoon secession, party, sleep in late, go to class/sim, etc. "Uh yes sir, the same schedule will be quite adequate."
"Well good, glad we could work that out. Now the next matter is, hmm, rather delicate, but I need to ask anyway."
Oh God now what, "Yes?"
"It's about your weapon, your hand gun, you know, pistol."
Now I'm clueless, I've not a clue about what he is taking about, I don't have a pistol. "Yes?"
"Would you mind not bringing it into the sim, Biff did and it kept falling out of his belt onto the sim floor. It made the instructors and other students nervous. I can lock it up in a drawer in my desk."
How I am keeping a straight face at this point, I've not a clue, I'm about to bust a blood vessel trying to keep from laughing. "Not to worry about a thing, I promise not to bring a gun to class or the sim."
The Chief Instructor smiled, stood up and shook my hand saying, "I'm really glad we worked this all out, I hope you enjoy your time here with us.
I replied, "I already am sir, I already am."
Next will be Biff's and my first Kingair 200 trip together. You ain't going to believe it, but it's all true.
Last edited by con-pilot; 25th Jul 2014 at 19:06.
Aviator Extraordinaire
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma USA
Age: 76
Posts: 2,394
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
PS was a fox.
I saw a photo of her on a billboard for some cable TV station in southern California after they left Oklahoma City, then after that I heard that they were living in Florida. Lost track after that.
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: 23, Railway Cuttings, East Cheam
Age: 68
Posts: 3,115
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Are there still incompetent pilots out there?
Anyway, back to Con-Air who I think should write a book. I would buy it.
I saw a photo of her on a billboard for some cable TV station in southern California
I'll buy your book, but I want it autographed.
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Between a rock and a hard place
Posts: 1,267
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hilarious
For the OP, you will be delighted to know that occasionally some of the most incompetent pilots try to teach the competent - "If you can't do it, teach it".
For the OP, you will be delighted to know that occasionally some of the most incompetent pilots try to teach the competent - "If you can't do it, teach it".
Con Pilot, I will certainly buy your book when it is published! It is rare in these forums to see stuff so well written.
Downunder in the Land of Oz, your old mate Biff had a soul mate. This guy (who we will call Bob to avoid a lawsuit) had been a First Officer on the B737 for over 20 years when I hired him. I should have known better (no one remains a F/O in this part of the world for that long) but at the time we were desperate for type-rated pilots due to over-rapid expansion.
Of course Bob wanted a command, and given our shortage, I agreed to let him have a go at it. Well, I won't fill the page here with his shortcomings, other than to say he got lost within ten minutes of commencing every simulator detail - even when the scenario was within his local area and had been carefully drawn on the whiteboard during briefing.
However, senior management really had the pressure on me to check him out, despite his Training Captain having grave reservations. So, despite the lack of a recommendation from his Trainer, after some 75 hours of supervised line training, I agreed to give him a check-to- line, on the basis that he would get one go and one go only (after such an amount of line training I thought that a fair challenge). Bob was quite antsy to get the check done and reckoned he could ace it.
An initial command check-to-line required the candidate to fly two sectors with the checkie in the right seat, then if he scrubbed up OK, four more sectors with a line F/O in the right seat and the checkie in the observer seat.
Now, this was post 9/11 and all the razzmatazz with reinforced cockpit doors had taken effect. We had strict requirements about cockpit entry in flight, and of course a requirement that if one pilot needed a toilet break, a F/A had to be on the flight deck. Standard stuff covered in all safety training and on the line and diligently observed by all (one never knows who is covertly doing surveillance in the cabin).
So, on the first sector, an hour into the flight, Bob needs a break. He is the 'Captain' right? So he departs the cockpit, leaving me alone. OF COURSE he has just handed me the perfect line check situation. I lock the door with the non-electronic lock (a split deadbolt system which on half lock could be overridden with a key) , call the senior F/A on interphone while he is in the toilet and wise her up to play along The pax are all geriatric and dozing anyway, so they are not likely to feel any alarm.
After his leak, Bob comes forward to the cockpit door but can't get in. Of course I have gone to 'sleep'. Well, you can imagine it all going pear-shaped from there. He panics, attempts to call me a couple of times, asks the F/A to do the same from the other interphone station (the only half intelligent thing he did in 20 years, I reckon), quickly gives up and rapidly advances to the thumb-sucking stage. Not quite in the foetal position, but almost - from the description I got later. No thought of how he could gain entry (the key was in the galley and the toilet wall was not reinforced, so could have been forced in a really dire situation).
After eventually letting him in, I said nothing other than "you won't do that again, will you?" We carried on to a very unstable approach and marginal landing at our destination. The return sector was no better.
Despite this, management still wanted him to have that command, but no way was I going to vacate the seat and let him fly with a F/O until after we headed overseas for a considerable amount of remedial simulator. Which did no good whatsoever. Eventually, I got rid of him by having a CASA Inspector observe his Instrument Rating renewal in the simulator, with another checkie running the panel to keep it impartial. I stayed well away in an attempt to put Bob at ease.
Apparently it was so bad that the Inspector called a halt to proceedings within 15 minutes because Bob was so totally disoriented during a simple departure. CASA pulled his IR. Whether for life or not, I don't know, but hope so. He was that bad.
So you ask, are there any bad pilots out there? Unfortunately yes. Fortunately, most airline check pilots have sufficient integrity to see that they do little harm, in the airline world at least. Unfortunately, some unscrupulous flight schools are all too willing to renew ratings for these characters and all too often, later we get to read of their demise in light aircraft.
Downunder in the Land of Oz, your old mate Biff had a soul mate. This guy (who we will call Bob to avoid a lawsuit) had been a First Officer on the B737 for over 20 years when I hired him. I should have known better (no one remains a F/O in this part of the world for that long) but at the time we were desperate for type-rated pilots due to over-rapid expansion.
Of course Bob wanted a command, and given our shortage, I agreed to let him have a go at it. Well, I won't fill the page here with his shortcomings, other than to say he got lost within ten minutes of commencing every simulator detail - even when the scenario was within his local area and had been carefully drawn on the whiteboard during briefing.
However, senior management really had the pressure on me to check him out, despite his Training Captain having grave reservations. So, despite the lack of a recommendation from his Trainer, after some 75 hours of supervised line training, I agreed to give him a check-to- line, on the basis that he would get one go and one go only (after such an amount of line training I thought that a fair challenge). Bob was quite antsy to get the check done and reckoned he could ace it.
An initial command check-to-line required the candidate to fly two sectors with the checkie in the right seat, then if he scrubbed up OK, four more sectors with a line F/O in the right seat and the checkie in the observer seat.
Now, this was post 9/11 and all the razzmatazz with reinforced cockpit doors had taken effect. We had strict requirements about cockpit entry in flight, and of course a requirement that if one pilot needed a toilet break, a F/A had to be on the flight deck. Standard stuff covered in all safety training and on the line and diligently observed by all (one never knows who is covertly doing surveillance in the cabin).
So, on the first sector, an hour into the flight, Bob needs a break. He is the 'Captain' right? So he departs the cockpit, leaving me alone. OF COURSE he has just handed me the perfect line check situation. I lock the door with the non-electronic lock (a split deadbolt system which on half lock could be overridden with a key) , call the senior F/A on interphone while he is in the toilet and wise her up to play along The pax are all geriatric and dozing anyway, so they are not likely to feel any alarm.
After his leak, Bob comes forward to the cockpit door but can't get in. Of course I have gone to 'sleep'. Well, you can imagine it all going pear-shaped from there. He panics, attempts to call me a couple of times, asks the F/A to do the same from the other interphone station (the only half intelligent thing he did in 20 years, I reckon), quickly gives up and rapidly advances to the thumb-sucking stage. Not quite in the foetal position, but almost - from the description I got later. No thought of how he could gain entry (the key was in the galley and the toilet wall was not reinforced, so could have been forced in a really dire situation).
After eventually letting him in, I said nothing other than "you won't do that again, will you?" We carried on to a very unstable approach and marginal landing at our destination. The return sector was no better.
Despite this, management still wanted him to have that command, but no way was I going to vacate the seat and let him fly with a F/O until after we headed overseas for a considerable amount of remedial simulator. Which did no good whatsoever. Eventually, I got rid of him by having a CASA Inspector observe his Instrument Rating renewal in the simulator, with another checkie running the panel to keep it impartial. I stayed well away in an attempt to put Bob at ease.
Apparently it was so bad that the Inspector called a halt to proceedings within 15 minutes because Bob was so totally disoriented during a simple departure. CASA pulled his IR. Whether for life or not, I don't know, but hope so. He was that bad.
So you ask, are there any bad pilots out there? Unfortunately yes. Fortunately, most airline check pilots have sufficient integrity to see that they do little harm, in the airline world at least. Unfortunately, some unscrupulous flight schools are all too willing to renew ratings for these characters and all too often, later we get to read of their demise in light aircraft.
Last edited by Mach E Avelli; 26th Jul 2014 at 08:15.
Aviator Extraordinaire
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma USA
Age: 76
Posts: 2,394
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Ah yes, the ol' locked cockpit door situation. Okay, this story is one on me, kind of.
We landed someplace, can't remember where now, and after we parked I went out down the aft air-stair door, walked past the guard perimeter to a grassy area to have a cigarette. A few minutes later the guy that was co-pilot that week joined me to have a smoke as well. As we were standing there the guy playing as FE that week came out, did his en-route exterior walk around and went back up into the aircraft. Just a couple minuted later the FE came back down and hurried over to us.
"Hey Con, you got your cockpit door key on you?"
I checked all the pockets on my flight suite, no keys, "No, they must be in my jacket pocket in the cockpit." then we both look at the co-pilot.
"In my briefcase, in the cockpit."
Oops. So I look around and see the lead deputy, wave at him and he comes over, I ask him the same question, surely he will have his keys, nope, "No, they are in my briefcase that I put in the cockpit this morning when we left."
'Well hell, we're in for it now' I think. So all four of us go back into the aircraft and go to the cockpit door. I grab the door knob, like it had miraculously come unlocked, twist and turn it, no good.
I send the lead deputy to check the other back end crew members to see if any of them 'accidentally' had a cockpit door key on them or a pocket knife. Now let me tell you something about prisoners, especially the old cons, they have a sixth sense when it comes to something that is out of the ordinary. I hear this mummer coming from the back of me, I turn around and every set of eyeballs in the cabin are looking right back me, they're not friendly looking eyeballs either. Houston, we got a problem. Well I decided, time to do some of that command stuff I had been vested with.
I leaned over toward the forward cabin door and grab the PA handset, then standing in the middle of the aisle I key the hand set button. "As probably all of you have noticed, were having a bit of bother with the cockpit door," No sense lying to them, they could see what was going on, "now I know that every single one of you are innocent, it was some other guy or lady" as I nodded to the female prisoners "but, if anyone just happens to know how to B and E. Please let one of the deputies know, thank you."
Not a word, just vacant stares, then the head of a prisoner in the back pops up in the back and he yells, "Not me personally, but if you let me go, I'll go for help."
In an heart beat the whole cabin erupted in laughter. The lead deputy finally got the door open with a pocket knife and we continued the trip, but the prisoners kept chuckling all day. Months later I'd have prisoners calling to me when I would get on the aircraft, "Hey Cap, ya got your keys with you today?"
We landed someplace, can't remember where now, and after we parked I went out down the aft air-stair door, walked past the guard perimeter to a grassy area to have a cigarette. A few minutes later the guy that was co-pilot that week joined me to have a smoke as well. As we were standing there the guy playing as FE that week came out, did his en-route exterior walk around and went back up into the aircraft. Just a couple minuted later the FE came back down and hurried over to us.
"Hey Con, you got your cockpit door key on you?"
I checked all the pockets on my flight suite, no keys, "No, they must be in my jacket pocket in the cockpit." then we both look at the co-pilot.
"In my briefcase, in the cockpit."
Oops. So I look around and see the lead deputy, wave at him and he comes over, I ask him the same question, surely he will have his keys, nope, "No, they are in my briefcase that I put in the cockpit this morning when we left."
'Well hell, we're in for it now' I think. So all four of us go back into the aircraft and go to the cockpit door. I grab the door knob, like it had miraculously come unlocked, twist and turn it, no good.
I send the lead deputy to check the other back end crew members to see if any of them 'accidentally' had a cockpit door key on them or a pocket knife. Now let me tell you something about prisoners, especially the old cons, they have a sixth sense when it comes to something that is out of the ordinary. I hear this mummer coming from the back of me, I turn around and every set of eyeballs in the cabin are looking right back me, they're not friendly looking eyeballs either. Houston, we got a problem. Well I decided, time to do some of that command stuff I had been vested with.
I leaned over toward the forward cabin door and grab the PA handset, then standing in the middle of the aisle I key the hand set button. "As probably all of you have noticed, were having a bit of bother with the cockpit door," No sense lying to them, they could see what was going on, "now I know that every single one of you are innocent, it was some other guy or lady" as I nodded to the female prisoners "but, if anyone just happens to know how to B and E. Please let one of the deputies know, thank you."
Not a word, just vacant stares, then the head of a prisoner in the back pops up in the back and he yells, "Not me personally, but if you let me go, I'll go for help."
In an heart beat the whole cabin erupted in laughter. The lead deputy finally got the door open with a pocket knife and we continued the trip, but the prisoners kept chuckling all day. Months later I'd have prisoners calling to me when I would get on the aircraft, "Hey Cap, ya got your keys with you today?"
Per Ardua ad Astraeus
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 18,579
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Not forgettig, of course, that the 'flying' is just a small part of successfully operating an aircraft, and the 'operating' bit is often woefully ignored by companies in the progression of co to captain.
Dare I suggest, based on those eloquent tales, that Con Pilot and Mach E Avelli are describing two different types of incompetents. One is, with the best will in the World, just not that great at what they do. The other lives in a strange half fantasy-world in which they cast themselves as hero.
They crop up in all walks of life, not just aviation and I (like most I would guess) have seen my share of both types. However it has always been the delusional type that I have found the more unnerving - usually because it can take quite a bit longer to spot than the simple incompetent.
In the normal way of things, dealing with these people is just part of life. However the idea of either of them getting command of a passenger aircraft is quite scary. Thankfully the tales of Biff and Bob had "happy" endings. But how likely is it that there is someone like that actually in command of commercial flight at this very moment?
They crop up in all walks of life, not just aviation and I (like most I would guess) have seen my share of both types. However it has always been the delusional type that I have found the more unnerving - usually because it can take quite a bit longer to spot than the simple incompetent.
In the normal way of things, dealing with these people is just part of life. However the idea of either of them getting command of a passenger aircraft is quite scary. Thankfully the tales of Biff and Bob had "happy" endings. But how likely is it that there is someone like that actually in command of commercial flight at this very moment?
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: australia
Age: 48
Posts: 118
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Good stuff, Con. I'm guessing your book will be hugely discounted for all pprune posters?
Any chance you could mention me in your book? Maybe describe me as the incredibly handsome and popular with the ladies Aussie that you know.
It's ok, I don't want royalties.
Aviator Extraordinaire
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma USA
Age: 76
Posts: 2,394
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Okay, here is a story about a good pilot, or how
Hangar flying in a bar can save your life.
I was a part time pilot for a company that had a Convair 300 and a MU-2. The company had previously owned a Howard 350 that I had flown co-pilot on, which was replaced by the Convair.
There was an early morning flight on the Convair and I had been scheduled to be on the flight, but another trip had come up on the MU-2 and I had been pulled off the Convair. Which pleased me, as I would get to build up more turbine time and I could get an extra hour of sleep.
When Tony*, the chief pilot, and Rick**, the other part time pilot, took off in the Convair it was just before sunrise and before the tower opened, remember this later. They were headed northeast to Michigan, deadhead, to pick up the owner's family, it was a big family. After leaving about 3,000 feet in the climb it was SOP for one of us to leave the cockpit and go back into the cabin to check that all the caps were still on, fuel/oil and to make sure there was no unusual oil leaks. Then to go to the galley and get a couple of cups of coffee.
Personally I always figured the real reason for this after takeoff/climb inspection was to get a cup of coffee for Tony, the chief pilot. Well, not on this flight, as it rapidly turned out, the after takeoff/climb inspection was vitality more important. They had taken off just as the sun was coming up and as they headed northeast bound the daylight increased. So by the time Rick got up, did the external inspection, got the two cups of coffee and returned to the cockpit, it was nearly daylight on a beautiful clear VMC day.
After Rick gave Tony his coffee and got back into his seat, he asked Tony, 'When did those dents on the leading edge of the right wing happen, I didn't notice them in the dark when I did the pre-flight?' Tony looked over at Rick and asked. 'Dents, what dents?' Rick replied that there were dents along the leading edge of the right wing and now that he thought about it, the color of the right leading edge looked darker than the left, but he wasn't sure because it was not quite full daylight when he looked at them.
At that point Tony put his coffee cup in the cup holder, got out of his seat and went back to the cabin. He came back a minute or two later, got back into his seat, reduced power and started a slow left turn. He looked at Rick telling him to declare an emergency and that they were returning to the airport. Rick complied as ordered and when ATC asked what the nature of the emergency was, Rick looked at Tony with a WELL? expression on his face. Tony told him to tell ATC that they had possible structural damage.
Possible structural damage ! Well that got Rick's attention, he related to me as he was telling me what had happened in the cockpit that day. So now Rick's eyes are as big as cup saucers as he relays the message to ATC while staring at Tony. Then ATC asked them if they would like vectors to the closest airport or to airports with longer runways. Now Tony holds a hand up, indicating to Rick that he would talk to ATC. Tony tells ATC that none of the close airports are long enough to land the aircraft with flaps up, that the departure airport was the closest that had a long enough runway to land with no flaps and that he did not want to be in the air one minute longer than they had to be.
Well WTF had not been invented back then, so Rick just said 'What the fu<k is going on?' and Tony told him this story.
After the company decided to sell the Howard 350 and buy a Convair, Tony was going around looking at Convairs that were for sale. One night when he was staying at a hotel near an airport that he had looked at a Convair that was for sale, he was sitting at the bar in the hotel bar. As he was sitting there he struck up a conversation with a guy that was sitting near him. As they talked it turned out that the man he was talking to was an American Airlines captain that was also staying in the hotel. While they were talking, about aircraft of course, Tony told him that he was looking at piston powered Convairs and inquired if he had any experience in the Convair or knew much about them.
It turned out that this pilot he was talking to not only was familiar with Convairs, his first position at American was as a co-pilot on Convairs. So he started telling Tony the ins and outs about flying Convairs. Then he told Tony about something that was very important to know and to watch out for in the Convair. There was a American Airlines Convair that after takeoff they noticed that one of the leading edges had what looked like dents, had turned a dark brown and that there were streaks of what looked like smoke stains aft of the leading edge. Suspecting that they had a fire, however, there was no evidence that there was fire at the time. So they declared an emergency and headed for the closest airport. Everything was looking fine as they were on final until they put down full flaps.
As soon as the flaps came down, the damaged wing failed and departed from the aircraft. Then the aircraft rolled inverted and crashed short of the runway killing all onboard.
Now at this point I'm a little hazy about the events leading to the damage that caused the American accident and Tony’s incident, as this happened so long ago, so if I recall what happened in error, any old Convair drivers that are around, please feel free to correct me.
The wing de-ice on the Convair was by diverting exhaust air from the engines. A valve opened in the augmenter exhaust tubes that diverted the exhaust to the wings. Either some sort of device controlled the exhaust temperature or just the size of the valve to prevent overheated air going to the leading edges.
What had happened these two times was that the exhaust manifold had failed, collapsing and forcing all of the engine exhaust to flow to the wings through the wing deice tubing. Causing an intensive high overheat condition/fire, which burned the skin in the back of the nacelle and into the wing skin outboard of the engine/gear nacelle, including seriously damaging the outer wing spars. As soon as the power was reduced from max takeoff power, the fire went out.
The damage was so severe to the wing, that in the case of the American accident, when full flaps were extended, the stress on the wing caused wing separation and the crash.
Well Tony recalled this story he had heard from that American Airline’s captain in that bar that night and as soon as he gone back to the cabin and looked at the wing, he suspected that they had the same thing happened to them. So after relating the story to Rick, on their way back to the airport, he briefed Rick on the landing.
They would make a flap ups approach and landing. They would keep the gear up until very short final and until they were very low over the approach end of the runway. If he (Tony) felt anything unusual as the gear extended, he would pull the power off and land right then and there with partial gear extended. That way he felt that if the wing did fail, they had a fighting chance of hitting the ground somewhat upright and survive crash. He hoped.
And that is exactly what they did. I was watching. They came in over the end of the runway at about 10 feet as the gear was extending. It looked like they landed as soon as they had three green lights. They rolled to the end of the runway, with Tony using moderate braking and no reverse thrust, Tony was worried that the reverse thrust could cause the wing to fail. He told me later that he would have felt like an idiot if he did everything right over the approach end of the runway, then by doing something silly like using the reversers and die in a fireball at the other end of the runway, he’d feel pretty foolish.
They used all of the runway of course and then pulled off on the taxiway, where they stopped and shut down. As the fire trucks were surrounding the aircraft, Rick lowered the forward airstairs and the two of them left the aircraft. I arrived about the same time they were under the right wing/gear area. As I was walking to where they were I saw Rick run over to the grass and throw up. After looking at what happened to the wing and gear area, I understood why he did.
Just after the right main gear, there was a hole burned into that area that one could fit a large size office chair into, the fire had continued to burn most of the lower skin next to the nacelle and into the wing and severely burned and damaged the wing spars. A report later by a structural engineer stated that he really did not understand how the wing remained attached, as badly as the spars were damaged. I think Rick threw up again when he read that. I know I damn near did.
If the tower had been open at the time they took off, early that morning in the dark, there would have been an excellent chance that controllers would have seen the fire before they left the ground. Controllers looked out the window of the tower back in those days.
So, the moral of the story is; hang around airport bars, you might save your life.
*/** Both Tony and Rick have gone west now.
* Tony was killed in Alaska flying a DC-4.
** Rick later went to work for a major cargo airline, became a DC-10 captain and died in an non-avaition related incident.
I was a part time pilot for a company that had a Convair 300 and a MU-2. The company had previously owned a Howard 350 that I had flown co-pilot on, which was replaced by the Convair.
There was an early morning flight on the Convair and I had been scheduled to be on the flight, but another trip had come up on the MU-2 and I had been pulled off the Convair. Which pleased me, as I would get to build up more turbine time and I could get an extra hour of sleep.
When Tony*, the chief pilot, and Rick**, the other part time pilot, took off in the Convair it was just before sunrise and before the tower opened, remember this later. They were headed northeast to Michigan, deadhead, to pick up the owner's family, it was a big family. After leaving about 3,000 feet in the climb it was SOP for one of us to leave the cockpit and go back into the cabin to check that all the caps were still on, fuel/oil and to make sure there was no unusual oil leaks. Then to go to the galley and get a couple of cups of coffee.
Personally I always figured the real reason for this after takeoff/climb inspection was to get a cup of coffee for Tony, the chief pilot. Well, not on this flight, as it rapidly turned out, the after takeoff/climb inspection was vitality more important. They had taken off just as the sun was coming up and as they headed northeast bound the daylight increased. So by the time Rick got up, did the external inspection, got the two cups of coffee and returned to the cockpit, it was nearly daylight on a beautiful clear VMC day.
After Rick gave Tony his coffee and got back into his seat, he asked Tony, 'When did those dents on the leading edge of the right wing happen, I didn't notice them in the dark when I did the pre-flight?' Tony looked over at Rick and asked. 'Dents, what dents?' Rick replied that there were dents along the leading edge of the right wing and now that he thought about it, the color of the right leading edge looked darker than the left, but he wasn't sure because it was not quite full daylight when he looked at them.
At that point Tony put his coffee cup in the cup holder, got out of his seat and went back to the cabin. He came back a minute or two later, got back into his seat, reduced power and started a slow left turn. He looked at Rick telling him to declare an emergency and that they were returning to the airport. Rick complied as ordered and when ATC asked what the nature of the emergency was, Rick looked at Tony with a WELL? expression on his face. Tony told him to tell ATC that they had possible structural damage.
Possible structural damage ! Well that got Rick's attention, he related to me as he was telling me what had happened in the cockpit that day. So now Rick's eyes are as big as cup saucers as he relays the message to ATC while staring at Tony. Then ATC asked them if they would like vectors to the closest airport or to airports with longer runways. Now Tony holds a hand up, indicating to Rick that he would talk to ATC. Tony tells ATC that none of the close airports are long enough to land the aircraft with flaps up, that the departure airport was the closest that had a long enough runway to land with no flaps and that he did not want to be in the air one minute longer than they had to be.
Well WTF had not been invented back then, so Rick just said 'What the fu<k is going on?' and Tony told him this story.
After the company decided to sell the Howard 350 and buy a Convair, Tony was going around looking at Convairs that were for sale. One night when he was staying at a hotel near an airport that he had looked at a Convair that was for sale, he was sitting at the bar in the hotel bar. As he was sitting there he struck up a conversation with a guy that was sitting near him. As they talked it turned out that the man he was talking to was an American Airlines captain that was also staying in the hotel. While they were talking, about aircraft of course, Tony told him that he was looking at piston powered Convairs and inquired if he had any experience in the Convair or knew much about them.
It turned out that this pilot he was talking to not only was familiar with Convairs, his first position at American was as a co-pilot on Convairs. So he started telling Tony the ins and outs about flying Convairs. Then he told Tony about something that was very important to know and to watch out for in the Convair. There was a American Airlines Convair that after takeoff they noticed that one of the leading edges had what looked like dents, had turned a dark brown and that there were streaks of what looked like smoke stains aft of the leading edge. Suspecting that they had a fire, however, there was no evidence that there was fire at the time. So they declared an emergency and headed for the closest airport. Everything was looking fine as they were on final until they put down full flaps.
As soon as the flaps came down, the damaged wing failed and departed from the aircraft. Then the aircraft rolled inverted and crashed short of the runway killing all onboard.
Now at this point I'm a little hazy about the events leading to the damage that caused the American accident and Tony’s incident, as this happened so long ago, so if I recall what happened in error, any old Convair drivers that are around, please feel free to correct me.
The wing de-ice on the Convair was by diverting exhaust air from the engines. A valve opened in the augmenter exhaust tubes that diverted the exhaust to the wings. Either some sort of device controlled the exhaust temperature or just the size of the valve to prevent overheated air going to the leading edges.
What had happened these two times was that the exhaust manifold had failed, collapsing and forcing all of the engine exhaust to flow to the wings through the wing deice tubing. Causing an intensive high overheat condition/fire, which burned the skin in the back of the nacelle and into the wing skin outboard of the engine/gear nacelle, including seriously damaging the outer wing spars. As soon as the power was reduced from max takeoff power, the fire went out.
The damage was so severe to the wing, that in the case of the American accident, when full flaps were extended, the stress on the wing caused wing separation and the crash.
Well Tony recalled this story he had heard from that American Airline’s captain in that bar that night and as soon as he gone back to the cabin and looked at the wing, he suspected that they had the same thing happened to them. So after relating the story to Rick, on their way back to the airport, he briefed Rick on the landing.
They would make a flap ups approach and landing. They would keep the gear up until very short final and until they were very low over the approach end of the runway. If he (Tony) felt anything unusual as the gear extended, he would pull the power off and land right then and there with partial gear extended. That way he felt that if the wing did fail, they had a fighting chance of hitting the ground somewhat upright and survive crash. He hoped.
And that is exactly what they did. I was watching. They came in over the end of the runway at about 10 feet as the gear was extending. It looked like they landed as soon as they had three green lights. They rolled to the end of the runway, with Tony using moderate braking and no reverse thrust, Tony was worried that the reverse thrust could cause the wing to fail. He told me later that he would have felt like an idiot if he did everything right over the approach end of the runway, then by doing something silly like using the reversers and die in a fireball at the other end of the runway, he’d feel pretty foolish.
They used all of the runway of course and then pulled off on the taxiway, where they stopped and shut down. As the fire trucks were surrounding the aircraft, Rick lowered the forward airstairs and the two of them left the aircraft. I arrived about the same time they were under the right wing/gear area. As I was walking to where they were I saw Rick run over to the grass and throw up. After looking at what happened to the wing and gear area, I understood why he did.
Just after the right main gear, there was a hole burned into that area that one could fit a large size office chair into, the fire had continued to burn most of the lower skin next to the nacelle and into the wing and severely burned and damaged the wing spars. A report later by a structural engineer stated that he really did not understand how the wing remained attached, as badly as the spars were damaged. I think Rick threw up again when he read that. I know I damn near did.
If the tower had been open at the time they took off, early that morning in the dark, there would have been an excellent chance that controllers would have seen the fire before they left the ground. Controllers looked out the window of the tower back in those days.
So, the moral of the story is; hang around airport bars, you might save your life.
*/** Both Tony and Rick have gone west now.
* Tony was killed in Alaska flying a DC-4.
** Rick later went to work for a major cargo airline, became a DC-10 captain and died in an non-avaition related incident.
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: glendale
Posts: 819
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Dear Con Pilot.
A sincere thank you for sharing that story. Yes, Hangar flying is just one of those things that takes time, call it simmering the stew which really makes a pilot. Rushing through a 250 hour course and jumping into a little jet doesn't make you a pilot.
It is stories like that which makes you think and thinking leads to good flying.
There is a story about leadership I would like to share. It is told in the US Army sometimes...even in the officers manual. IT has to do with telling the truth.
A very popular (with his men) new lieutenant was in charge of his platoon
and marched them a good long way in a peacetime exercise. He was supposed to get them to point X instead he got them to point Y and let them rest, they were exhausted.
A radio call asking him his position and he told them Point X. Fine.
5 minutes later the whole platoon was killed by friendly fire. The LT had lied about his position to let his tired men rest. But point Y was where the artillery was aimed for a peace time exercise.
Great to be popular. Great to help a guy out. But he told his colonel a lie or untruth and his men paid for it. He could have said: COLONEL we are tired at I am resting my men at POINT Y. But he didn't.
He could have forced marched his men to Point X and had them talking behind his back, but he didn't.
So, some good men died.
Its all about good intention vs being a good officer.
A sincere thank you for sharing that story. Yes, Hangar flying is just one of those things that takes time, call it simmering the stew which really makes a pilot. Rushing through a 250 hour course and jumping into a little jet doesn't make you a pilot.
It is stories like that which makes you think and thinking leads to good flying.
There is a story about leadership I would like to share. It is told in the US Army sometimes...even in the officers manual. IT has to do with telling the truth.
A very popular (with his men) new lieutenant was in charge of his platoon
and marched them a good long way in a peacetime exercise. He was supposed to get them to point X instead he got them to point Y and let them rest, they were exhausted.
A radio call asking him his position and he told them Point X. Fine.
5 minutes later the whole platoon was killed by friendly fire. The LT had lied about his position to let his tired men rest. But point Y was where the artillery was aimed for a peace time exercise.
Great to be popular. Great to help a guy out. But he told his colonel a lie or untruth and his men paid for it. He could have said: COLONEL we are tired at I am resting my men at POINT Y. But he didn't.
He could have forced marched his men to Point X and had them talking behind his back, but he didn't.
So, some good men died.
Its all about good intention vs being a good officer.