Not that it matters to that guy, but I'm thankful he isn't paid to carry passengers.
This, I think we all can agree with. Although even if someone hired him, they’d beat the behaviors out of him or he’d wash out hopefully.
I lost interest and compassion in whether or not he splats himself, after hearing multiple very good instructors have reached out to him to help him learn better habits.
The only people I would shed a tear for are his passengers, if he takes one out with him, and secondarily the loss of aircraft that we are no longer building any of.
And of course the insurance rate increases for the rest of us.
All this “I don’t want to see him harm himself” silliness. Who cares once he’s ignored offers to learn from true professionals?
He’s settled into his roll of providing solid examples of questionable decision making and got stuck there by the internet fame that started all the way back when he flew under a bridge a long time ago.
He actually treated his wife like a human being, instead of berating her on camera in this one. That was what actually surprised me. A new trick from the old dog. Nice. We’ll see if that continues. He’ll probably use the sterile cockpit comments from this one to beat her up with, in the next one.
If he splats without a passenger I’ll feel more sorry for the loss of the airframe than anything. Sorry if that bothers anybody, but just being honest. Long ago I thought maybe he was just clueless and a good CFII could reach him.
Multiple videos and years later, I’ve realized he’s not built that way. Ohhh well. Here’s hoping he doesn’t destroy a nice twin or kill a passenger. That’s about all I can hope for now.
What do you suppose his wife has read late at night that causes her to question every knob he touches or lever he throws? She knows him far better than any of us do. She just doesn’t understand the standards of flying cabin blast twins that he regularly busts. She seems like a nice lady, she likely knows she’s taking some additional risk flying with him at this point.
“Oh just ignore those comments on YouTube honey, they’re just jealous.” Or whatever he tells her. There’s no way she hasn’t seen some. And her questioning constantly in this video, appears to confirm that.
If he truly is BSing her at home, he’s fully invested in the public persona and won’t be dropping it, although as Mark has said, the self-deprecating humor tends to indicate he knows he’s doing it now for the gathered internet crowd, watching him walk the tightrope and spotlight he created for himself.
Tough thing to extract yourself from, lying to yourself that what you’re doing is “fine” and you don’t need any offered professional help doing it better. Lots of us do that in other less public ways.
I’ve learned I’m bad at plumbing. Took three bad jobs to get me to hire a pro every time. He’s way over three now. The chances he reverses his stubbornness are very low.