Marion says (quoted by Tina in
Post #20)
" If you do not have respect for the gyro the gyro will get your attention sooner or later"
That reminds me of something an old friend says, "Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment."
Doug says
There was a discussion on this or Norm's forum in the past about the advisability of wearing a fire-protective suit when flying.
Nomex gloves, etc. will buy you seven seconds or so to get clear of the vehicle. Back in the 80s and early 90s we used to use military flight suits when door-kicking, because an explosive flash in an enclosed area is bad news (for whatever version they fell out of fashion for that). The problems with air crashes are (1) the survivors are often in shock or disoriented for longer than that, and (2) even if the survivors' minds are clear, their bodies may be physically trapped or physically damaged, preventing egress.
There was one a couple years ago with a Cherokee on Hampton Airfield. The guy tried a take-off on a runway too short for the day and the weight. Cherokees have two bad design features, a single door and fuel tanks in the leading edges of the wings.
Note that while ex-military flight suits are usually still protective even if well-worn, surplus store new flightsuits may be made of cotton, or worse, poly. Cotton burns like the wick of a candle (you can be your own tallow!) but poly melts into your skin while burning -- the docs hate working on victims done like that.
Mil-issue Nomex gloves are not just safe, they're also pretty comfortable. About $30. (Or join up and you get 'em for free!)
Jonathan says
Either you police yourself or someone will do it for you.
Heh. Could say, either you police yourself or someone will "police you up" (Army slang for picking up trash or debris).
Doug (again) says:
I used to be libertarian but
Yeah. if not for all us fourteen-year-old "rebels," would Ayn Rand sell any books?
I am still mostly small-l libertarian in political outlook. I don't want the government to mess with me or with you, but I define the scope of society's interest more expansively than I did as a youth. The unpleasant fact is that a truly libertarian society works only in an society of rational actors... which as long as we are human beings is an ivory-tower construct, ungrounded in reality.
There are some people in whom some entity, such as the state, needs to take a custodial interest. The sociopathic, homicidal, and suicidal individuals spring immediately to mind.
Human societies are in some ways self-organizing (as we saw here at El Mirage, with in informal committee trying to save Lukas or Luca (?) from himself). I have known many cases where we nudge one another and say, "one of these days that guy..." and in some cases we've seen it come to happen. Having felt the heavy hand of the FAA safety cops on my collar as a young man, I always was reluctant to "drop a dime" and still am -- to some degree.
A couple years ago several individuals who "dimed" an individual to the FAA. Unfortunately this man, who loved to fly, developed medical problems that were reflected in cognitive deficits. He had just upgraded his instrument panel and was unable to learn the switchology of the new avionics -- that was the first hint anyone had of his problem, even his kids hadn't picked up on it.
Unfortunately the same cognitive problems that erased his ability to learn new things going forward (I think they call it anterograde amnesia?) made it impossible for him to appreciate the seriousness of his situation. It was a lead-pipe certainty that the situation would reach a bad end absent intervention (and no intervention direct with the individual could have any effect -- in this case, not because of stubbornness but because of a physiological problem).
Fortunately, several phone calls to the FAA produced an effect. Mike (not his real name) was checked on his skills, and found unable to safely exercise his privileges. He was required to surrender his medical certificate. To ease the sting of his loss, several of our instructors volunteered to fly with Mike as PIC at no charge to him. They found it difficult to deal with his dementia, but one of them did hit it off with Mike and flew many hours with him. Mike also took on a partner in his well-kept plane, and John (the partner) also had the patience to fly with Mike.
In the long run Mike's prognosis is poor. He has a progressive disease which is destroying the organ in which memories, behaviors, and much of the "self" is encoded, and for which medicine offers empty hands. But thanks to a strategically dropped set of dimes (and some very deft handling by the local FSDO and regional air surgeon), Mike was able to enjoy years of flying he otherwise might not have lived to experience; his adult children had their Dad a little bit longer; his airplane will pass on to another lucky owner; and our vocation/avocation has been spared the inevitable black eye.
Most of us are strongly biased against "informing." The indoctrination against "squealing" begins on the playground and never really stops (I don't think you can watch a night's TV without seeing characters keep mum about numerous antisocial acts or even crimes -- although, I haven't watched TV since '98 so maybe it suddenly became socially positive -- naaah). So if you reach the point of turning over in your mind, the question of whether to dime somebody out or not, the mere fact you are concerned enough to ask ought to be your answer.
Of course, in Mike's case, the FAA (and the FBO & instructors, working together) were able to be effective. In the case of the El Mirage mishap pilot, they might not have been. Hopefully the el Mirage survivor understands how fortunate he is to be alive, and will now exercise the good judgment that should result from the experience that resulted from his bad judgment.
cheers
-=K=-
