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Tsb Aviation Investigation Report A12W0031


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The sad thing is a person died and others were injured. And the direction the industry and coustmers are goin with hour minimums is scary. Then add the cluster$@ of the most hard core SMS users and your heading for disaster. And what I mean about that is when something happnes usually the actual problem is not dealt with and the SMS kicks in and you end up with another rule or reg trying to protect the person (or us). We're getting away from what I like to call the industry's Natural Selection process. People who would normally be fired or in the first 10 hours of a good school would have been told to take there money and pick another career option. This is the part of SMS that I'm scared of and think this is the direction were heading. But I'm gone a little off topic now ranting.

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S-s-sorry! The system was playing around. But those guys are not the only ones sending inexperienced people off - I once worked for a company that was very happy to send a 100-hour pilot from Calgary to Penticton with no briefings whatsoever, or a safety pilot, even though I volunteered.

 

Low time pilots don't bother me at all, provided they are properly supervised, but I thought that was a bit much.

 

The problem with kicking students off courses (which we have done more than once) is that provided they meet a minimum standard, there's no real justification for it.

 

Phil

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- I once worked for a company that was very happy to send a 100-hour pilot from Calgary to Penticton with no briefings whatsoever, or a safety pilot, even though I volunteered.

 

 

Phil

 

I once worked for a company that sent a 100 hour pilot off into the mountains with a stack of maps, flight report book and a Hughes 500 ........ the only briefing was: Rule #1 - Don't crash, Rule #2 - make sure the customer signs the flight report.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I had started for this company as a low time pilot in the past and worked for quite a few seasons and at the time it had a good mentoring program. We were brought into it really slowly, even took a couple seasons just to get anywhere. But over the years as it expanded and there was always a demand for pilots, the training and the mentoring were rushed quite a bit more, would be no different at any other company. And the pilots didn't always say no when they were bumped up too quickly. We were trained all the same and learned by experience where not to be and what to do, i experienced from the backseat many uncomfortable times that it was the pilot putting themselves in that situation and not properly listening to the training. This pilot may have lied about his experience but he had allot more time time then many of us had when working there, i don't believe that is the reason for this happening. It is just one of those times of someone being in over their head not knowing their limit and being at the wrong place. I'm sure many of us can think of many times where we were in similar situations.

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But over the years as it expanded and there was always a demand for pilots, the training and the mentoring were rushed quite a bit more, would be no different at any other company.

 

Sorry flyguy13 but I don't think it's fair to say that any other company would compromise safety by accelerating training. I have worked for a few different operators that have redirected customers to a different operator because a pilot (me) did not meet the "company requirement" to do the work. This at the time upset me because I really thought that I could to the work safely. Looking back I see now the wisdom of the decision. I know I could have done the work but I did not have the training to recognize the nuances of the job and, in this industry, the little things turn into big things fast.

I would think that the company in question would recognize the significant level of exposure to risk involved with having such a large percentage if low time pilots on staff and ensure that there is more training and constant mentoring to mitigate the risk. I think it would be in the best interest of this industry to limit unilateral statements that shed poor light on operators with exceptional training programs by saying that most operators would respond to an increase of work by cutting corners. That is the fundamental problem with few in the industry that makes us all look bad. If you can't provide the training to do the work, that is the product of poor management business decision making.

I feel like we are clouded by our ambition in some respects in this industry and we tend to forget that aviation is a business and supply a service that is demanded by our customers. We are all reasonably educated and we know that supply and demand is the basis of any industry. It is our responsibility to provide a quality product (properly maintained aircraft and ops gear operated by a adequately trained pilot) to our customers. Unfortunately the word "adequately" is subjective and as a result it allows operators with either limited experience or funds to interpret this word to the best of their abilities. This however is not an excuse to hide behind. This is your customers life and your aircraft as well as your flight crew. The name of the company has worth and to put an unprepared pilot or piece of equipment on the flight line is risking your name and the quality of service you provide.

I am proud to work for a company that is prepared to put as much money as possible in training and maintenance to ensure a quality product. If you work for an operator that doesn't do the same you should as if your ambition is worth your life and the life of you passengers and further more, if your company can't be the best then why are you here?

Sorry about the rant but I love my job and I want to protect it with everything that I have so I can continue to do it for the rest of my life and I wish you all the same.

Cheers,

R

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I do agree with your comments Rotor, I believe no company should hold out on any training needed to complete the job in a safe manner. The company i am with now are professional in that manner and couldn't be happier working here. In my comment about no company being any different i guess i didn't mean it in the way that all companies do it, but i wouldn't be surprised if at one time they have.

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