"Viperdoc" wrote in message
...

I'd be interested in hearing how the group would have reacted to this
situation.

Incidents and pilots like this are unfortunately not uncommon at all in
aviation. I've seen this from the lowest levels of aviation to the
highest levels. You learn after a while in this business that all you
can do is make an attempt to keep someone like this from killing
themselves...and that's all you can do.
In the end, flying is a lot like being alone with yourself on the golf
course. If you cheat, you're only cheating yourself. The only difference
is that if you cheat at flying you can kill other people as well as
yourself.
Flying, and the responsibility that goes with it is one of the most
intensive self motivating endeavors I can imagine. The laws are the
established laws of physics and aerodynamics that govern the environment
we have chosen to live in up there. The rules have been placed there by
us, for us to follow so that we have a fair chance to survive our use of
the laws. The problem is that unfortunately there are those among us,
and always will be those among us, who not only bend the rules, but bend
the laws as well.
You generally don't make it through the entire way to a natural death by
doing this.
So where does this leave us as pilots when we are witness to some idiot
hell bent on bending the rules and defying the laws? If we're decent
people, and most of us are, we make an attempt, directly or indirectly,
to help straighten someone out; but basic intelligence should tell us
that this is the extent of what we can do. If the idiot can't see the
problem as self correct, it's a fool's burden to carry the weight of
their failure on our shoulders.
You do what you can to make people safer as you pass through, but you
can't pick up their failure to comply as a failure by you to change them
if this isn't possible.
Trust me on this one. I have first hand experience!
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/ CFI Retired
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