About Good Pilots and Bad Pilots

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message

I've always been convinced that it's the pilots who "think" about what
they're doing.... who have the best chance at a higher level of flight
safety.

I agree. Almost 40 years ago now, a long passed fellow named George Day
started my commercial certificate training with a very short flight wherein
he asked me to demonstrate a left bank.....right bank....pitch up......
pitch down........ok, let's go back and land.

That's good, he said after we shut down. Now, everything else you need to
know and do to fly professionally is mental. Thinking is what seperates the
professionals from the amateurs. Get the right attitude to start, and keep
it right, and you'll be fine. He then handed me a book called "Song of the
Sky", by Guy Murchie, and told me to come back next week. [the book dates
from the early fifties, and may be overly sentimentalized for today's
tastes, but is still worth the read, in my view, if you can find it.]

I have subsequently flown 22 years professionally without a catastrophic
failure of anything, without ever having to declare an emergency. I am
convinced that George, although a world-class curmudgeon, had it right about
thinking and professionalism. His advice, along with a very healthy
allotment of good luck, got me through.

John Gaquin

"John Gaquin" wrote in message
...

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message

I've always been convinced that it's the pilots who "think" about what
they're doing.... who have the best chance at a higher level of flight
safety.

I agree. Almost 40 years ago now, a long passed fellow named George Day
started my commercial certificate training with a very short flight
wherein he asked me to demonstrate a left bank.....right bank....pitch
up...... pitch down........ok, let's go back and land.

That's good, he said after we shut down. Now, everything else you need to
know and do to fly professionally is mental. Thinking is what seperates
the professionals from the amateurs. Get the right attitude to start, and
keep it right, and you'll be fine. He then handed me a book called "Song
of the Sky", by Guy Murchie, and told me to come back next week. [the
book dates from the early fifties, and may be overly sentimentalized for
today's tastes, but is still worth the read, in my view, if you can find
it.]

I have subsequently flown 22 years professionally without a catastrophic
failure of anything, without ever having to declare an emergency. I am
convinced that George, although a world-class curmudgeon, had it right
about thinking and professionalism. His advice, along with a very healthy
allotment of good luck, got me through.

John Gaquin

I think those of us who had a George Day somewhere in our past are
fortunate.
My George Day was named Jim Shotwell. :-)
Dudley Henriques

On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 19:37:32 -0500, John Gaquin wrote:

I have subsequently flown 22 years professionally without a catastrophic
failure of anything, without ever having to declare an emergency.

Next time you are at your airport, be sure to thank your A&P.

All the good piloting is only as good as the reliability of the equipment
you fly.....

Allen

"A Lieberman" wrote in message
news:l3utdxp6k9u6.8nu4f8z2h9p3

Next time you are at your airport, be sure to thank your A&P.

All the good piloting is only as good as the reliability of the equipment
you fly.....

You'll recall my post referred to "...a very healthy allotment of good
luck...". That good luck was, in great part, in the form of professional
airline maintenance staff and required routine maintenance.

Remember, when the aircraft operator or owner takes his
aircraft in for an inspection or to troubleshoot a squawk,
unless you fix what they find, it isn't corrected and the
plane may not be safe. Ask a few mechanics at the airport,
how many times they have not been allowed to fix a problem
because of cost or the need to fly a scheduled trip and
they'll do it later?


--
James H. Macklin
ATP,CFI,A&P

--
The people think the Constitution protects their rights;
But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome.
some support
http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/secondamendment2.htm
See http://www.fija.org/ more about your rights and duties.


"John Gaquin" wrote in message
...
|
| "A Lieberman" wrote in message
| news:l3utdxp6k9u6.8nu4f8z2h9p3
|
| Next time you are at your airport, be sure to thank your
A&P.
|
| All the good piloting is only as good as the reliability
of the equipment
| you fly.....
|
| You'll recall my post referred to "...a very healthy
allotment of good
| luck...". That good luck was, in great part, in the form
of professional
| airline maintenance staff and required routine
maintenance.
|
|

"Jim Macklin" wrote in message
news:tITJf.98200

Remember, when the aircraft operator or owner takes his
aircraft in for an inspection or to troubleshoot a squawk,
unless you fix what they find, it isn't corrected and the
plane may not be safe. Ask a few mechanics at the airport,
how many times they have not been allowed to fix a problem
because of cost or the need to fly a scheduled trip and
they'll do it later?

My conclusions are based upon many years of Part 121 airline experience.
What are your opinions based upon?

Going on 35 years as a professional pilot and aircraft
mechanic. My eldest son now also works as a full-time A&P.
Both of us have had owners refuse to fix squawks, saying
they would do it later or just skip it all together because
"we" were just trying to pad the bill.
Even worse, some shops management think that a fast job
keeps the customer happy and the shop manager may tell the
mechanic to stop working on a plane.
We have seen airplanes with landing gear ready to collapse
because rather than fix the motors and linkage, adjustments
have been made that would get a light even though the gear
was not properly locked. When the owner of that airplane
was actually told about the shoddy work that he had been
paying for he was grateful for the proper and more expensive
FIX.
Airlines are generally better at fixing things, but when
they fail to do the job, such as lubricating the elevator
jack screw on a DC 9 [Alaska] because it takes time to get
the grease in the tail. The result of that management
policy failure killed a bunch of people. The crew also
failed to reject flying the airplane even though it was not
really right for some time before the crash.

Remember people, the money you save on maintenance will not
pay for the funeral.



--
James H. Macklin
ATP,CFI,A&P

--
The people think the Constitution protects their rights;
But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome.
some support
http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/secondamendment2.htm
See http://www.fija.org/ more about your rights and duties.


"John Gaquin" wrote in message
. ..
|
| "Jim Macklin" wrote
in message
| news:tITJf.98200
|
| Remember, when the aircraft operator or owner takes his
| aircraft in for an inspection or to troubleshoot a
squawk,
| unless you fix what they find, it isn't corrected and
the
| plane may not be safe. Ask a few mechanics at the
airport,
| how many times they have not been allowed to fix a
problem
| because of cost or the need to fly a scheduled trip and
| they'll do it later?
|
| My conclusions are based upon many years of Part 121
airline experience.
| What are your opinions based upon?
|
|

So, I take it your experience has nothing to do with Part 121, to which I
was referring.