Worth posting again:
http://www.aopa.org/AOPA-Live?watch=%7BCCA30EA1-A94D-4E45-ABCD-3AD4074403E0%7D
Seeing that film probably saved me and two of my kids about a month later.
- oldman
Good video! I have known two people in the 7 years in which I was a full time flight instructor, who killed not only themselves, but their nice wife's also. Both were doctors, one a heart surgeon and one a Neosugeon. The first one had a Cherokee 180, which I taught him how to fly on and he had about 160 hours if I remember correctly and wanted to get his instrument ticket! He had "flunked" the PPL flight exam twice, but he convinced me that he wanted the IFR ticket, so that he would be comfortable flying at night. OK, I said, but instrument flying is not something to "fool" with, unless you fly enough to remain proficiency in flying on the gauges! Oh, no problem said he and off we went into the training curriculum, but after 10 hours of mostly unusual attitude recovery procedures, I still did not have enough confidence in his ability to keep the aircraft right side up while executing instrument procedures and approaches. So I sat him down and tried to explain to him, you are going to have life saving decisions to make in instrument conditions and I just don't think at this point in your flying career, that you need to be in IFR conditions. Get a couple of hundred more hours and come back and we will continue working on your ticket! OK, he said, I agree!
Two weeks later, he shows up with a new Cherokee "Six" and said he would like to continue working on his ticket. I went to the man who owned the flight school I was working for and explained my concerns and ask that he put another flight instructor with him. OK the boss said, I will give him his instrument instructions from now on! Two months later, he was sent up for a check ride with a designated examiner and after two failures, finally passed the ride.
Three months after that, he was going into Gainesville Fla, IFR, with no thunder storms around, just low ceilings. The floor of the overcast was 1500 feet AGL, with tops at 9,000. Witnesses on the ground reported seeing the aircraft coming down out of the clouds with no wings. Need I explain further?
The second guy was just as bad, but he insisted on a Cessna 310, now instead of one engine to handle, now has two and he was having difficulty just flying the aircraft VFR, but as soon as one engine was idled back simulating single engine flight, a lot of bad things begin to happen for him, as he just couldn't handle the aircraft in a safe manner on one engine. So again, I sat him down and told him I didn't think he needed to be trying to get a instrument ticket until he had a couple of hundred or more hours in the aircraft. He left that day in a "huff", muttering something about a young smart aleck flight instructor who didn't know how to teach.
About 3 months later, he was on a approach to Valdosta Ga and landed about a 100 yds short of the active runway, the only problem was, he was inverted when he hit the ground.
I don't want to knock doctors in general, but they seem to have a "utopia" about death, its always going to happen to the other guy, not them!
there "old pilots" and there are "bold pilots", but no "old bold pilots"!
