What The **** Am I Doing?

[Phil Croucher]

All the above comments make me think of the guy with no legs on top of a ship mast in a Force 9 in Forrest Gump - "Call this a storm?"

 

Go do some pleasure flying for kids with terminal illnesses. That will put everything in perspective.

 

Good luck to all

 

phil

[GoldMember]

Enough with the soul searching already!! A great man once said, okay maybe he wasn't so great....maybe it was just me feeling the effects of our 3 day Christmas party, but what the ****, I said it anyway; "Put down your purse and drive!"

[happyfeet]

Enough with the soul searching already!! A great man once said, okay maybe he wasn't so great....maybe it was just me feeling the effects of our 3 day Christmas party, but what the ****, I said it anyway; "Put down your purse and drive!"

 

Thanks for showing up when you did GM, thought for a minute there I was starting to grow a ******.

[Hello-bird]

All the above comments make me think of the guy with no legs on top of a ship mast in a Force 9 in Forrest Gump - "Call this a storm?"

 

Phil, that was Bubba on the mast. Popcorn shrimp, shrimp creole, shrimp cocktail...

 

...

 

Happyfeet, see Rob's post under Helicopter Down In Victoria:

 

"Despite the accident, trainee Hatfield said he remains determined to finish his pilot-training course.

 

"I'm going to stick with it and keep flying," said Hatfield. "As long as we know accidents happen, it keeps your cockiness down."

 

...

 

Cockiness... purses.... hm, interesting how it all comes back to gender slang.

 

Thanks GM, now I know why I've never liked carrying a purse. No wonder I've been so confused... No c*ck-iness, no purse...

[Freefall]

I think that was LT. Dan on the ship with the no legs not bubba

 

I like that quote about the cockyness though haha.

[Hello-bird]

I think that was LT. Dan on the ship with the no legs not bubba

 

I like that quote about the cockyness though haha.

 

Funny, I went out to walk the dogs and thought Oh poohp !! That wasn't Bubba... and couldn't get back here fast enough to try and correct myself before someone noticed !!

 

"Forrest meets his commanding officer, Lieutenant Dan Taylor, in Vietnam..."

 

Thanks for the correction

[Skidmark]

Interesting topic.

 

Being constantly aware of the risks makes you a safer pilot. You'll fly higher, slower in bad weather (or not go at all), not give the drillers a "fun ride", and you will not take that short cut across the lake to get back to camp. To be constantly afraid in day to day operations is not a good thing. A clear mind makes better decisions, and thats what a VFR heli pilot is, a decision maker. Its constant.

 

Is the fear coming from a lack of training? Seek more. Over the last few years I've seen a bunch of young pilots "thrown to the wolves". They've been put in over their heads and doing things that still make me nervous to do with thousands of hours.

 

Some jobs or environments I've been exposed to have also had me wondering if I was ****** nuts and stacking the deck against myself. Ever been to the arctic in the dead of winter?? I'll use seismic as an example too, I've been on jobs were it seems those doped up morons are out to kill you everyday.

 

"Every man dies, not every man truly lives", Braveheart movie

[dimit]

Just cuz yer scairt a sumthin dunt mean its buggin ya all da time. But ya do tryin void it!

 

Dim It

[Skids Up]

Hold on a second! Don't they call it the dead mans curve ??? . May want to limit exposure to this type of activity in the future.

 

 

Maybe you shouldn't have a shower in the morning (more people injured there than anywhere I think) before you head out to do "dangerous

work", or be careful when you are just driving to work, and don't have to go flying...

 

How many pot head, coke heads, drunks etc., do you think you pass on the average commute?

 

Or people that are mad at their bosses, wives, mistresses, family, the world and just about everybody else.

 

So when I set up to spend a bit of time in the "Dead Man's Curve", at least I know that none of the above are going to get me. Puts the odds quite a bit in my favour...

 

Just some thoughts from the last 30+ years...

 

[dammyneckhurts]

For the last 10 years pretty much all my time is spent looking down a line, yes I do worry a bit about a stove quitting just as the drill is about to clear the trees on some steep mountain side but it's not something I dwell on. It also obvious to me that if I do this long enough the odds of something nasty happening go up quite a bit.

 

Working for a reputable company that has good equipment and good engineers reduces my concern. While on the job my focus is all work, check and recheck, stay focused, if you have a few things stacked against you recognize this and make a go or no go decision etc... If I ever got to the point where I am looking down the line and I am thinking more about something nasty happening than I am about flying then its time to quit...or get out of longline work at least....

 

Having said that every time I get off the plane on the trip home this is the thought that goes through my mind "whew...survived another tour"