Nice Guys Die Too....
 

This will sound a bit harsh, but sometimes, we just have to talk straight. Aviation has been a part of my life since I was a kid, and I have lost friends due to mistakes made by them, and the mistakes of others. I have seen a lot of accidents, read about a lot of accidents, and investigated accidents. In general, we know what causes them, and usually, it is not the fault of the machine, but rather, the soft, squishy thing in the pilot?s seat. That?s the hard truth.

After every accident, we read reports from friends that tell us how great a person the pilot was. They were wonderful friends, caring parents, generous with their time, knowledgeable in their work. They were always willing to help others, built carefully, asked questions ? or answered the many questions of others. They were great at fly-ins, or in the evening at the hangar ? laughed a lot, were great promoters of aviation. In short ? they were great, nice people. They are frequently put out there as "role models", people to be emulated, pilots to be admired?

And still, they died. And their friends ?can?t understand how it happened?.?

Well, it?s usually pretty simple. Good guys ( nice guys, wonderful guys...) are not immune from doing something dumb! They made a mistake ? or more usually, a string of mistakes. They screwed up. Sometimes, it?s a single, tragic lapse of attention or error. More often, ?we all knew? it was coming. There is a whole list of character traits that are indicative of a person going down a path that can lead to an accident ? the list isn?t secret; you can find it in magazine articles, safety classes, and most pilot training programs. Yet still ? we see people all the time who we KNOW are going to go and do something stupid someday with an airplane. And we let them go. And when they die, we talk about what nice guys they were. Yeah, they were nice ? but they were also WRONG - and now they are DEAD! We need to stop deifying those who are not good examples, period.

I try to be a nice guy. In fact, if I am remembered for nothing else when I am gone, I would like people to remember me as a nice guy. But maybe sometimes, we have to be a little less ?nice?. Maybe we need to challenge one another, and when we see someone doing something dumb, we need to tell them so. We don?t have to be jerks about it. ?Hey Bill, you might already be aware of this, and I don?t want to sound like a know-it-all, but that fuel line looks awful short to me ? when the engine moves, it could pull that end right off!?

Aviation is dangerous, but no more dangerous than any other activity that accelerates a human being to speeds where they will be mush if they come to a sudden stop. What is more dangerous is bad judgment, and that is shameful. But what is more shameful is when we let bad judgment pass unchecked, and later talk about ?what a nice guy he was??.

Paul

Paul,

We were just discussing this recently. The course of action in the future will be telling somebody point blank "if you continue to do this, the likelihood of you dieing in your airplane is high". No sugar coating. I think if it happened to me I would get defensive at first, but after dark lying in my bed, I would give it some serious thought. We owe it to ourselves and GA in general if for no other reason that if people keep doing stupid things with such shocking regularity it will effect us all directly.

Thanks Paul.
 

We all will die, that is truth.

What we should be making a stronger effort is that ourselves and our comrades do not cease from life prematurely.

Their must be a balance between being cautious and being brazenly foolish.

Knowledge should be our mediator, and we better pay attention.

Thanks for sharing all your knowledge, reminders are just as important as the initial lessons.

I am getting closer to flying every day, and I feel like I cant wait, but I will.

Our patience may save someones life, most likely our own.:eek:

The Stall Warning is Very Clear on My Plane
 

After finally doing stall training, all my thoughts of installing a stick shaker fell away... The RV's have a built in stick shaker! (the ailerons buffet & shake the stick before you stall). There is no reason to stall these airplanes.

Hans

In my role as flight advisor I have unfortunately come across a few individuals who just would not listen to anyone. Several people usually did tell them point blank that they were way out on the risk spectrum but they some how knew better. Unfortunately I don't think there is any help for that type of personality. We have all known them, and unfortunately for their friends and families they are no longer with us. I wish it could be different, but it doesn't seem to be.

Gary Specketer
RV10 flying
Flight Advisor, Tech Counselor

Paul & Paul; I understand your point, but...
 

It is very much easier to say afterwords that (I/you/we) should have made a better effort at setting someone straight. We should protect the our follow aviators, but at what cost.
Just because someone looks at risks different that I, I can't be telling them that they are wrong. It is just that it would be wrong for me to do that.

Don't know the right answer is, it just that each of us need to judge for ourselves what is correct.

Kent

totally agree, than again, how many actually do the stalls? After reading the post on the RV10, I wonder how many people actually do any test for themselves. I hope that was an isolated incident with a pilot that was to lazy to do anything. Some of the fun of flying my airplane in phase1 was doing my stall test. I really liked the stalls that were on a turn, drop out and went level and shake shake shake, shake my booty. Nice airplane, got to love it.

I too have seen friends die from doing stupid airplane things AFTER I told them to stop. They just stopped talking to me, but I can live with that. It has been my experience that people with these types of personalities exhibit the same traits outside of flying as well, and we most likely aren't the only ones trying to change/affect a behavior. Of course, being pilots we think everyone should listen to us. :) At the end of the day I have to feel that I can look myself in the mirror and know I tried. After that, it is up to the individual.

Thanks Paul for sharing your thought
 

I'm very impressed about yor considerations because .... they are true.

As a mountain climber I'm used to break the chain of mistakes and I try to do the same in aviation, sometimes people don't agree but I fly because I love it not because I'm brave!

On july, 12 I'll be the spokesman in a italian eaa chapter meeting about safety aviation and experimental first flight and test program, I'll use your thought as a good start point.

Thanks Paul.

Be Slow to Criticize others
 

I certainly understand what you are saying Paul and I agree with you for the most part, but you and I and all the other RVer's and pilots throughout the world are "nice guys".

My point being that I am always slow to criticize because I know that no matter how careful, safe, cautious, and self smart I think I am being, I assume a certain amount of inherent risk when I go flying. I hope this never happens, but I could potentially have a very bad day, one that I thought would never happen. There are countless aviators who have far more experience than I/us that have unfortunately perished due to various circumstances.

Now, having said that, I truly believe that much of the risk can be mitigated.
I really believe that. But, aviation is at times unforgiving, even when we think we bring our "A" game. Obviously, we can all speak up when we see unsafe practices.

Fly safe out there.