Snaggletooth, ignore Steve here. He thinks he's got the only proper views on aviation safety, and anyone who disagrees with him is automatically unsafe. This even goes for things where he's the only one who believes as he does.
No, I don't...in fact, not even close. There are a lot of people I disagree with on many things that I still think are fine pilots whom I would fly with. In fact, you're one of them. Actually I agree with YOU on a lot of things (the grounding of your precious Zodiacs for example...it's not a problem with the design that is causing the crashes, it's a problem with the people making and maintaining those particular examples...) but I also disagree with you on others, yet you are one of maybe two people I know and would fly with in a homebuilt.
The reason I called the kid out on what he said was simple and basic: the last thing anyone (you, me, the EAA, the AOPA, etc) wants is another private pilot getting himself killed by pulling the wings or tail off a Cessna, Piper or homebuilt while trying to roll or loop it because he thinks he's Chuck Yeager. If we are not going to learn from, teach others and marginalize those who refuse to learn based upon what causes prior accidents, then what is the point of investigating crashes?
Granted, the way I worded it wasn't the nicest possible, but I get tired of seeing the same mistakes getting people killed and being "polite" doesn't seem to do the trick reducing the rate at which we seem to get ourselves killed. If thinking that perhaps we should not have an open door policy for anyone and everyone flying anything they want and advocating a very proactive stance at minimizing these accidents (even if means being a little harsh at times) makes me a self important little ass who is the "only one who thinks this way", I cheerfully plead guilty.
Pilots differ greatly in abilities, and the last thing we need to do is discourage anyone who honestly wants to fly
As I said, the open door policy is
part (a small part) of what gets 700+ people killed every year in GA accidents: If you can't fly commercial aircraft, you can fly Cessnas. If you can't pass your PPL, have too many medical problems or a psych history, there's sport pilot. If you already think you know it all and don't need any training (which could indicate a psych history) or just have too many DUIs, there's ultralights. This is simply the thing I chose to complain to you all about rather than beating my chest and whining about how the "security" measures are ruining general aviation like so many people on here do.
If someone is overtly expressing overconfidence and hubris in regards to their flying- especially before they even get off the ground- then they need to be put in their place, just like you attempted to do to me because we have our disagreements on some aspects of aviation safety. You would do exactly the same to someone who told you "I think I can spin my Zodiac despite the fact that I'm not supposed to!". I don't know a person in this field that cares about their fellow pilots who doesn't speak up. The difference is that I don't care if I hurt his "feelings" by doing so, so I am quite blunt in doing so.
Some folks do indeed learn bad habits from flying flight simulators. Not all do. If he has, his instructor will train them out of him. That's his job.
I've learned a few bad habits that way and my instructor called me on them. Then again, we can't solely rely upon an instructor to correct these attitudes. What if he doesn't mention it to his CFI? What if he just came up with the idea right before his solo? Do we not have a moral obligation to a fellow pilot to do our best to keep him form doing something best described as natural selection at work? It's no different than seeing someone carrying a case of beer towards their plane and giving them the benefit of the doubt.
There's a chance they won't kill themselves or a passenger, but do you want to have to look back if they do and think "Damn, I should have said something".
I found the ability to fly / land without an airspeed indicator quite handy when the ASI failed. It was your basic non-event.
Yes, but introducing that to someone who was still learning to do turns, etc seemed a bit much.
