Nice Guys Die Too....

[Paul K]

It's really hard to confront a pilot who is well known on the field, with tons of hours, who has flown just about everything built, and who everyone looks up to as a "really experiannced" good old boy who everyone likes. I am facing this situation now. This good old boy has only 9 hours on his new RV and tried to get me to go with him to a dawn patrol breakfast about 60 miles away. I politely turned him down and created an excuse as to why I had to be some place else. He did go and nothing happened. After today, no more excuses, only the truth. Sorry good old boy, I won't fly with you if you dont follow the rules and fly safe.

[Ironflight]

I agree that it can be hard to criticize others, and even when you do, they very well might not listen to you. And sometimes, as pointed out, we may not even be smart enough to criticize others (they might have a very good reason for doing what they are doing that we might not understand). But in the end, that is not my point.

The point is....who we choose as role models. There are thousands of people who look at those more experienced as role models. We, as a community, can set the standards for role models by accepting or rejecting their behavior. If we allow those with poor judgement (as evidenced by their actions and results) to be used as role models, we have failed everyone looking to learn.

It is true that "There are countless aviators who have far more experience than I/us that have unfortunately perished due to various circumstances." Unfortuantely, the statistics show that most of those circumstances were of their own making. Those are just facts.

Every individual has the right to accept whatever risks they wish for themselves - but they do not have the right to put others at risk without their knowledge and informed consent. And that includes those who might be emulating their actions.

Paul

[RickWoodall]

I will make no excuses for those that do dumb things. We have all been trained, we all claim to be good pilots, and we all for the most part keep working to improve our skills...but i think all of us have made really dumb decisions at one time or another. Be honest here.

In aviation like motorcycles, or like snowmobilers or backcountry down hill skiers, or any other "riskier" hobby when we love the speed and the freedom there is always a price someone pays. We just go one hoping its not us. I know many guys who are quick to cut up a guy getting caught for a dui, or talking trash about some student that killed a friend after a night at the bar..but many of those same guys drove home once or twice in their lives when they really shouldnt have. It could have just as easily been them...just the luck of the draw and you learn from your dumb mistakes.

Make educated choices, know when to walk back to the car, know when to take another training/upgrade flight, know when to ask for help/advice...and live your life to the fullest and hope that is enough.

RV's are great machines, have a blast...just keep your head on straight and your fingers crossed.

[TSwezey]

I don't mind being a jerk when somebody is doing something stupid. I have to do it weekly in my job. If they get mad at me "Oh well!"

[David-aviator]

but it has to be said. Some people do not belong in an airplane. Period.

Nice guys do die in this business for all kinds of reasons. It could happen to anyone no matter what his back ground because sitting in a moving airplane is risky any day, any where. We attempt to manage the risk from assessing the risk of every flight before take off to not believing anything could go wrong.

It is my belief for many years that there are people born to fly and there are people flying who were not born to be there. Some even make it into the left seat of a major airline and except for the money and days off, hate it. People born to fly will do it for nothing, they simply love it.

Same holds true in general and experimental aviation. There are people here who were sold an image or a product not ever having a desire to fly except it seemed like a cool thing to do. It is they who do some of the dumbest things, not ever knowing or believing how dangerous it can be. They frequently know it all and will pay no heed to sound advice from anyone.

If a person was meant to fly he will fly no matter what. If he was not meant to fly it is better that he doesn't because this is not like riding a bike, it is not a casual endeavor, it is not something you do once a month, and above all, it requires a sense of continuous self criticism. Some personalities are most reluctant to be self critical, reluctant to accept advise and that is a major problem.

[John Clark]

David, Like you, I did the aviation thing for money and have seen plenty of cases like the ones you describe. It is almost worse in GA, as a CFI I had a couple of students that needed to be washed out/fired. Hard to do in for money flight instruction. I once gave up on a student. nice guy, intelligent, big ego, and hopeless in an airplane. I refused to solo him, and frankly felt like I had failed as an instructor. That ended when, after another instructor signed him off for solo, he wrecked an airplane in a light crosswind.

John Clark
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA

[rv6ejguy]

Paul, great post (as usual). Had to be said and totally true IMO. Some people just bend or break every rule they can it seems. Usually it catches up with them at some point. Many of these pilots exhibit personality traits which make them also show poor judgment time after time in aircraft until...

David- yep couldn't agree more.

It is very hard to talk to a friend sometimes about risk and judgment, easier to tactfully bring to light a mechanical issue like Paul mentioned perhaps. We should be doing more of both. When I fly with another pilot, I usually ask him during the passenger briefing to point out anything I'm getting sloppy with. I want to know how I can improve.

[the_other_dougreeves]

We're all going to "go" sometime. The trick is not to go early by doing something stupid, and there are plenty of examples of aviators (and others) doing just that.

I'm happy that I live in a (mostly) free country where I'm allowed to take risks that I deem appropriate. However, if you take risks, please evaluate the risk to others as well and try not to endanger them.

TODR

[kentb]

In regards to some comments on stalls. Everyone needs to do stalls on a routine basis. Even though these planes stall very nicely. The pilot needs to practice the stall recovery after phase I.

Kent

[rvbuilder2002]

Originally Posted by Paul K

It's really hard to confront a pilot who is well known on the field, with tons of hours, who has flown just about everything built, and who everyone looks up to as a "really experiannced" good old boy who everyone likes. I am facing this situation now. This good old boy has only 9 hours on his new RV and tried to get me to go with him to a dawn patrol breakfast about 60 miles away. I politely turned him down and created an excuse as to why I had to be some place else. He did go and nothing happened. After today, no more excuses, only the truth. Sorry good old boy, I won't fly with you if you dont follow the rules and fly safe.

I am generally pretty blunt with people when I know they are doing this sort of thing (or any other rule breaking that reflects poorly on us pilots and homebuilders but RV builders in particular). I don't care who they are.
I tell them that I don't appreciate them blatantly breaking the rules because of the repercussions it can have on me and others like me.
As demonstrated time and time again...if Government decides that the current rules are not being followed, the solution is to make more rules (or further toughen the current ones).
It is in all our best interests to point out to others that the rules are not just for "everybody else", and if they will not follow them it will effect "everybody else".