Finally......

[sparky127]

Alright fellas, this has gone on long enough,

Shut er' down skuzz!

[Meatwad]

I've never taken a pilot's test but I it's anything like a building inspection, they're more in the business of collecting fees than actually making sure everything is good to go.

Like "I found some things that you need to correct before you pass inspection, BUUUUUUT I might be able to find a way to make it pass *wink wink*"

[TyFoo]

The accident rate for U.S. General Aviation has actually been trending downwards for quite a few years - at a snails pace grant you.

The Private Pilot license, Instrument rating, the initial CFI, and your first Type Rating are the hardest tickets to get. Each one requires learning something new and unique. Any person that earned any of those tickets, put in countless hours of book time, physical effort, and sweat getting em. In other words I think TNFlyGirl earned it.

Sure, there will always be bad pilots, CFI's, and easy DPE's. To imply they are being pumped out like widgets in a factory making the sky unsafe?? Not in my experience, and the numbers do not suggest that.

If a person earns their CFI, they have more knowledge about the fundamentals than most, regardless if they are good/ bad instructor. The good thing about Aviation, most of these "bad people" attempt to move up, and either get screened out, put in their place, or they get better.

When a person earns their Private Pilot License it use to come with the disclaimer: You just earned your "License to learn".

Although I didn't care for TNFlyGirl putting out videos that say "look at me, look at me". For better or worse, she appeared to be doing things right. She sought out advanced training, she learned to fly different, bigger, and faster airplanes, eventually purchasing one. She took extra instruction and time to learn her plane. She hired CFI's to help her with things she did not understand. Kind of hard to blame a person for tryin to improve their skills and learn more.

Was she a safe pilot? I dont know that. Was she a bad Pilot? I dont know that either. From the videos I watched, she racked up 400+ hours in less than 18 months. Thats on average of 20 hours a month which isnt too bad. She clearly showed enthusiasm to fly, to learn, and be better. She demonstrated a lack of knowledge, and clearly showed inexperience, however, there is a difference between an inexperienced pilot and a bad pilot.

I would prefer an inexperienced Pilot thats willing to learn, over a Pilot that thinks there is no room for improvement, not open to suggestion, critique, or simply think they know all they need to know. A poor attitude that IMHO can make for a bad pilot.

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

The problem with some bad teachers is that they're teaching subjects where failing while being "passed" often has fatal results.

I don't fault TNflygirl for trying, for hiring CFI's, for trying to find one who could teach her, or even trying to get her plane "fixed". I do fault her for moving up to a much higher performing and complex aircraft, knowing full well she had not mastered an entry level aircraft. And I fault her for trying to use an autopilot instead of mastering hand flying. She created a tragedy, with plenty of help. It's fortunate that the tragedy was as limited in scope as it was, even thought it was tragic enough, on its own. Honestly, an inexperienced pilot who knows they haven't mastered all the skills, but decides to move to a more advanced aircraft, absolutely is a bad pilot.

[AKIron]

Was she a safe pilot?

The jury is in. No.

[Shuffler]

In any case, the plane hit at such and angle and with such force, much of the evidence was destroyed. They did recover some cameras,