Who Wouldn't You Fly With?

"Montblack" wrote:

Anyone belonging to a wacko religious cult is on my "no go" list.


Are we speaking aviation or the L.Ron Hubbard thing? :-)


Hmmm....I see your point.

Glass houses, eh?

--
Dan

"Notice this rent in my garment; I am at a loss to explain its presence!
I am even more puzzled by the existence of the universe."

- Jack Vance: _The Eyes of the Overworld_

I had an experience earlier this year right after passing my checkride
that gave me pause...

After ferrying my bird over to a local field for Mx, The shop offered
to fly me back to my home field.

The kid who came in to take me was this young Vietnamese kid who does
odd-jobs for the shop... We walk out and jump right in to a waiting
aircraft on the ramp... not even an oil or gas check (I started taking
off the caps myself, but he told me no, he was in a hurry, and the
plane was pre-flighted earlier that morning...)

We get in to this earlier warrior and... Uggh, that's all I can say.
The plane has 12 grand worth of avionics (All Garmin, GNS430/MX20,
SL20 and New Xponder), but _everything_ else in the cockpit creaked
(and all the old radios were still in the plane, evidently inop). The
primer sounded like it was driving sand into the cylinders, The six-
pack instruments barely worked. The electrical switches flipped and
flopped any which way, long ago having lost any friction... Nothing in
that plane looked right, nothing in it sounded right...

Then we started up and went to Taxi out... The kid took several
minutes to request a basic VFR departure to the neighboring airport...
Then, when he did get it, he started taxing to the wrong runway.

Run up was equally scary... that poor engine had seen or heard better
days, one of the mags clearly had a dead plug.

At this point, I realized I should have declined the ride... but the
'too late' trap set in.

Three attempts at take-off clearance later (and after througoughly
confusing the controller asking for "VFR Class-C Transition TO
Oakland" and for clarification on "Hold short of Runway"), we were
rolling down the runway... and the door latch fails. "Don Worry bout"
he said.

At this point we had to juggle a few airspaces in quick succession to
make it back to my home field, so I told him I would take the radios
(I was kind of rude about this, but judging what I had just seen, I
figured it was a matter of safety). We arrive into OAK's pattern, and
the kid doesn't understand what "Overhead entry to right downwind for
27R means", proceeding to turn up-wind after crossing over the
field... At that point I just took the yoke and put that bucket-of-
bolts back on the ground.

After we shut-down, he asked me if I was taking Instrument Students...
When I told him my ppl was only a few weeks old, he seemed
astounded... "You so confident, I feel safe with you".

Never... Again...

Those little nagging voices are there to keep us pilots alive... I
should learn to listen to them more

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 22:54:22 -0400, Dudley Henriques wrote:

I'll usually know
from the way the preflight is handled whether or not I want to fly with
that pilot.

I wish I'd known that. But, from my own experience, I agree: a
problematic preflight is a good indicator of what's to follow.

But I was slow, and the fellow was a friend. The final straw was being a
minute or two from entering a pattern on a 45 to downwind having just
observed someone take off that had indicated he'd be staying in the
pattern. I suggested to my friend that we turn a bit so we'd fall in
behind that plane. My friend demurred, claiming that the [class D] tower
would prevent any collision.

More recently, there was a midair in that downwind with exactly that
scenario. Just to emphasize the point.

There were other symptoms too, looking back at it. The person was (and
probably is) a fine "stick", but just a little too "trusting" of his
environment.

- Andrew

"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...

"Montblack" wrote:

Anyone belonging to a wacko religious cult is on my "no go" list.


Are we speaking aviation or the L.Ron Hubbard thing? :-)


Hmmm....I see your point.

Glass houses, eh?


An aviation cult isn't wacko, just....different.

Matt Barrow wrote:
"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...

"Montblack" wrote:

Anyone belonging to a wacko religious cult is on my "no go" list.


Are we speaking aviation or the L.Ron Hubbard thing? :-)


Hmmm....I see your point.

Glass houses, eh?


An aviation cult isn't wacko, just....different.

You may have hit on the answer to the lack of folks interested in aviation.
We need to form a cult around it. If we can become classed as a church the
tax savings alone will be great. The only problem is finding the virgins
that will be required to cut off shirt-tails.

On Jul 11, 7:11 am, Andrew Gideon wrote:

The final straw was being a
minute or two from entering a pattern on a 45 to downwind having just
observed someone take off that had indicated he'd be staying in the
pattern. I suggested to my friend that we turn a bit so we'd fall in
behind that plane. My friend demurred, claiming that the [class D] tower
would prevent any collision.

Isn't that what they're there for? I'm based out of a Class D field,
and if I were in that situation (2 minutes on the 45 with a plane on
the upwind, which I've been in more than a dozen times) I sure
wouldn't take it upon me to sequence myself. At the very least, I'd
ask the controller if he wants me in front, or behind the traffic.
Most likely, the controller would make the upwind guy extend his
upwind, then have him follow me.

("Matt Barrow" wrote)
An aviation cult isn't wacko, just....different.


http://www.wacoairmuseum.org/
An aviation cult isn't wacko, ...it's Waco!


Paul-Mont

buttman wrote:
On Jul 11, 7:11 am, Andrew Gideon wrote:

The final straw was being a
minute or two from entering a pattern on a 45 to downwind having just
observed someone take off that had indicated he'd be staying in the
pattern. I suggested to my friend that we turn a bit so we'd fall in
behind that plane. My friend demurred, claiming that the [class D]
tower would prevent any collision.

Isn't that what they're there for? I'm based out of a Class D field,
and if I were in that situation (2 minutes on the 45 with a plane on
the upwind, which I've been in more than a dozen times) I sure
wouldn't take it upon me to sequence myself. At the very least, I'd
ask the controller if he wants me in front, or behind the traffic.
Most likely, the controller would make the upwind guy extend his
upwind, then have him follow me.

And what happens if the controllers attention is aimed somewhere else for a
moment or he just plan screws up? It is the pilots responsibility to see
and avoid traffic. I'd do exactly what Andrew suggested.

"Gig 601XL Builder" wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net wrote in message
...
Matt Barrow wrote:
"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...

"Montblack" wrote:

Anyone belonging to a wacko religious cult is on my "no go" list.


Are we speaking aviation or the L.Ron Hubbard thing? :-)


Hmmm....I see your point.

Glass houses, eh?


An aviation cult isn't wacko, just....different.

You may have hit on the answer to the lack of folks interested in
aviation. We need to form a cult around it. If we can become classed as a
church the tax savings alone will be great. The only problem is finding
the virgins that will be required to cut off shirt-tails.

We need a High Priest -- I recommend Dudley Henriques (if his wife will let
him).

"Montblack" wrote in message
...
("Matt Barrow" wrote)
An aviation cult isn't wacko, just....different.


http://www.wacoairmuseum.org/
An aviation cult isn't wacko, ...it's Waco!


You say tom-may-toe, I say tom-mah-toe.

(We're all sorta nuts or we wouldn't be here)

Matt B.