'I'm in a helicopter here that costs £550 an hour, okay'...
 

Expensive rant...

To the OP, are you aware of this regular poster to Rotorheads?

JTobias

No, why...?
His last post here was 2 weeks before his rant, silent since.
Think he'll rock up and comment??!:}

His profile here has a link:
Jetbox
The link leads to this, good ad for a Cyber Security expert...! :p

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....1be5137e87.jpg

JT himself has regularly stated on this forum that he is not all that wealthy, which could probably explain why he got so upset. But rules are rules no matter how deep or shallow your pockets are.

Lifted off a trolley in a 350 once only to be left hanging when a learner plank driver dawdled onto the taxiway in the direction I needed to go and motored along at a snails pace. I was counting the dollars being burnt by the second in my head - but what can you do?

I am not taking sides but it does seem to me that he is making a fair point . That is not exactly Heathrow and sometimes it feels like ATC are just trying to be awkward with Helicopters!! The busier the airspace generally the better the ATC perform .... look at how efficient Heathrow are at getting traffic across their two actives . I have had to wait 10 mins at a provincial airport for a landing jet when I could have taken off directly away from the runway .... sometimes it may just be ignorance on their part of how Helicopters work .

As I know him, he is a very pleasant person who helps people out when they are in a mess. If he was with his wife and family he would not rant unless he had a good reason.

There’s never a reason to rant on the radio, you’re just making it more difficult for everyone else.
Land, walk to the tower and have a chat.
anything else is just being a tw@t.

Exactly - bite your tongue/count to ten and then transmit concisely and professionally and then bring any grievance up later by phone.

See the mail has caught up
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ontroller.html

Good advice to just bide your time and wait to go and talk to them in person once you land. You can simply ask for the manager and politely request to listen to the tapes I guess. If there is a disagreement then the truth is all recorded. Getting arsey with ATC certainly won’t help you at all.

I have on more than one occasion argued with ATC about a clearance and eventually won !
If they give you a departure clearing via a point which is completely in the wrong direction and there is no reason for it I don’t see any merit in blindly following orders . ( maybe that’s a good reason for me not going through the mil route !! )

all well and good but you don’t then just go where you fancy because it doesn’t suit you. You request clearance and maybe even state your reason why. It’s not rocket science. But to just enter an ATZ without permission, or ignore an ATC instruction within a zone? then surely you can expect some come-back and hardly be surprised.

Nigel, it’s one thing not complying to a poor instruction. It’s another losing your rag because your approach in an obsolete Flying bus wasn’t as expeditious as you’d hoped.
if the cost of the delay is material to you, rather purchase a super cub or R22.
There’s no excuse for a tantrum.
Delays occur, sometimes because they need to other times not.

Helimutt ...... yes of course I agree . I was not aware of that other part of the story !! In general though we are very lucky to have such unrestricted airspace ( for now ) and helpful ATC . I am guessing he must have been stressed maybe due to fuel or weather issue .... it can be frustrating sometimes!!

BBC have also got the story

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lancashire-51063010

Bell Ringer
The first picture in the Mail shows him in front of a helicopter with a gun in one hand and a bottle of champagne tucked under the other arm.

Does he plan to go hunting, drink the champagne, then fly away?


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e5fa458e6b.png

I thought he shot the jetbox, then intended starting it with the cork discharge.

You do know you don't always need permission to enter an ATZ right?

Thread is starting to deviate into suggestions the pilot may be inclined to fly under the influence are absurd.
Perhaps the thread starter has an axe to grind with the gentleman involved.. seems that way.

There’s two sides to consider with this story guys.. it’s not all it seems

JTobias is a personal helicopter pilot friend of mine and anybody who knows him, knows how utterly professional he is in the air and most pilots will never obtain the experience he already has. The articles do not portray the knowledgeable, skillful, generous and charitable man we all know. His personal success is unrelated and nobody’s business but he is undisputably professional there too and any suggestion otherwise is ludicrous.

His silence is merely because of the regulatory procedure pending as I am sure you can appreciate, that is his main priority and concern.

The case covers what was a 15-20 sec agitated incident with a controller which we’ve all had at one time or another, and by no means describes the professionalism he exhibits normally. He has had no problem whatsoever apologising and admitting what he did was out of character and wrong, but it happened. End of.

However, you should also understand that there was an unreported and significant run up to the ‘rant’ being sensationalised in the press, which inevitably lead to the nature of the call. There was absolutely no confliction with other aircraft either.. Blackpool isn’t exactly Gatwick!

The controller stated she was ‘shaken up’ which, if accurate, leads me to think that Blackpool is where her ATC career stops, and maybe the real world of ATC may be too stressful for her to cope with. She should try a bird-strike in a helicopter!

This is nothing more than a ‘speeding ticket and a ticking off’ by a copper in the air.. and if you saw the size of the infringement in inches you’d be shocked! But that doesn’t sell papers…!

Many of us are professional pilots with someone else footing the bill. When it comes out of your own pocket you look at things differently. Was on an IFR checkride in a 206 and asked the pilot what speed he was going to fly the ILS, “why, Vne of course” he replied, “unless you want to pitch in for the rental”. All of us share JTobias sentiment to avoid unnecessary costs from oblivious ATC.

Rule 11 not apply to ATZ entry?

Err... No. Really...? :yuk:
It's a story of interest to this forum I thought, it popped up in my news feed.
Please cite where I've made 'suggestions the pilot may be inclined to fly under the influence'...

Good evening Mrs Tobias...! :ok::}:D

Haha I wish! But nice try.. :=

You remember a random ATC call from back in July 2019.. wow. Your facts are incorrect Sir

Why does it matter for us know that the ATC controller was a woman?

There are more ATZs that do not have ATC than do have ATC...

no, not in over 11,000 hours on 4 continents have I lost control on the radio. I may have sworn a bit with the PTT button not pressed in between calls a few times!

Helibabe 1,

This is nothing more than a ‘speeding ticket and a ticking off’ by a copper in the air.. and if you saw the size of the infringement in inches you’d be shocked! But that doesn’t sell papers…!

If the infringement was that small and perhaps insignificant to you then surely it shouldn’t have been a big deal and big cost (£20) to go around it?

I have spent a fair bit of time in the air myself and experienced good, bad and maybe the ugly controllers but if I had spoken to a controller like that I would have to have a word with myself.

Helicopters don’t have a great name in this industry as it is and we don’t need bad press such as this.

Have you heard the recording? I have. There was no loss of control, no swearing, no obscenities, raised voices etc. Give yourself a badge and dont believe everything you read

So is the reported conversation not accurate?

Helibabe,

can you answer my questions please? Surely your job is to answer my questions first before replying to somebody else. I am sitting here charging the client £600 p/h waiting for your response.
What’s your name, this really isn’t good enough.

How have you heard the recording? The ‘tapes’ would have been impounded once the event had gone ‘official’ the controller wouldn’t have access to them, and only the investigation team would prior to the prosecution. The pilot pleaded guilty by letter so he didn’t attend any court to hear any evidence that may have been played there.

So so how did you hear the recording?

Trust me, cost has nothing to do with it. The reference to money was an attempt to put the time waiting in a helicopter into prospective as opposed to waiting in a fixed wing aircraft, nothing else. I'm not sure why helicopters have bad name?
Really, there is no news here other than a slap on the wrists for stepping out of line - which is undisputed and fully admitted. There is however, another issue relating to the way the CAA has handled many minor infringements this year at local airfields, and in a lot of peoples opinion, it is unnecessary to take it to this extreme and a little heavy handed, but this is not my battle so I will just sow the seed and leave it here. Pretty sure JTobias will be back very soon.

Correct! Lived every day of it by his side, as have a lot of others. I cannot comment specifically and so I wont be.

Huh? I don't quite understand what you mean?

315B
My comment on the champagne and helicopter was meant as humor, not to imply he actually drank before flying.

Clearly it is a "Look at me!" photo intended to show off his hobbies and achievements.

NumptyAussie
Not being a helicopter pilot I think she means she was in the other seat at the time of the incident.

BK