|
PT6A posted:Absolutely. All runway crossing instructions must be explicit in Canada now, I don’t know how it is in the States. If you haven’t specifically been given permission to cross a runway, you may not do so. Yeah it’s common knowledge here not to. Almost positive the ground controller didn’t even mean to omit it, but so many of them get pissy whether they’re right or wrong if you ask for a clarification.
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2018 15:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 10:14 |
|
|
Rolo posted:I actually did this a couple weeks ago and the dude SLAMMED on the brakes when we had plenty of room to stop. Hundred percent. We pass out pilot deviations to FSDO like candy for crossing runways without a specific clearance. In that case, if there was a mix-up and you had crossed, it would get reported and you'd get to go through all that nonsense. If ATC was complicit in the error, we'd deviate them also but the voluntary reporting program and subsequent handling of operational errors isn't nearly as cumbersome nor career impacting like a pilot getting attention from flight standards.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2018 15:37
|
|
.
|
Always get clearance to cross runways, it’s a requirement, even if it’s NOTAMed closed.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2018 16:32
|
|
|
e.pilot posted:I had a guy like that, I was just blunt with him and told him he really needed to work on radios. He could fly the plane fine just could do fuckall on the radios, he’d miss almost literally every ATC instruction. This went on for like a month and tens of hours, every debrief was the same thing, you’re flying fine but work on radios, go home and listen to live atc. Well, my least favourite student (not the "bush pilot" who is just frustratingly bad at everything, but nice on a personal level -- I'm talking about the guy who is both an awful pilot and a miserable jerkfuck of a person) managed to sexually harass the senior instructor who was evaluating him to see if there's any point in continuing/doing his pre-flight-test (because of course he's Dunning-Kruger personified and thinks he's ready for the flight test), and the boss is still saying we owe this guy another chance. gently caress this, I'm not flying with this miserable creepy rear end in a top hat anymore, and if that means they want to fire me, then so be it. And they wonder why they have a loving morale problem.
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2018 05:04
|
|
|
PT6A posted:Well, my least favourite student (not the "bush pilot" who is just frustratingly bad at everything, but nice on a personal level -- I'm talking about the guy who is both an awful pilot and a miserable jerkfuck of a person) managed to sexually harass the senior instructor who was evaluating him to see if there's any point in continuing/doing his pre-flight-test (because of course he's Dunning-Kruger personified and thinks he's ready for the flight test), and the boss is still saying we owe this guy another chance. Yikes, I never had anybody that bad thankfully.
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2018 05:14
|
|
|
e.pilot posted:Yikes, I never had anybody that bad thankfully. Yeah well I guess I'm just really lucky, innit? It's a failure of the leadership. Give me the responsibility to be the hatchet-man, and pay me accordingly, and I'd do it. The last thing the world needs is another poo poo pilot who's high on his own delusions. I love a lot of parts of my job, but I just can't deal with this poo poo, and if they'd rather lose an instructor rather than deal with the unpleasantness of kicking this fucker to the curb, I guess it's their choice to make. We've got near 200 students on a waiting list, it beggars belief that they'd entertain this man's delusions and poor behaviour for even a brief moment. What the gently caress are they even afraid of if they kick him out? Ultimately, we rely on the company to act responsibly and care for our safety at least to some degree, and if they're overlooking this, what the gently caress else are they willing to ignore? PT6A fucked around with this message at 05:42 on Oct 18, 2018 |
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2018 05:33
|
|
|
PT6A posted:Yeah well I guess I'm just really lucky, innit? Welcome to aviation, it doesn’t get any better at the airlines.
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2018 06:50
|
|
|
PT6A posted:It's a failure of the leadership. Get used to saying this.
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2018 11:04
|
|
|
Rolo posted:
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2018 11:53
|
|
|
I’m gonna be the first one to say it this year, I feel almost honored: Don’t go to your flying job if you are sick. You are being a major dick to the guy who has to sit next to you for 3 hours. I’ll be quoting myself in 5 days when I can only breath through my mouth...
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2018 15:50
|
|
|
e.pilot posted:Welcome to aviation, it doesn’t get any better at the airlines. The weirdest thing is I can't imagine the mindset that leads someone to think having an awful student, who only flies once a week, who's also unpleasant to deal with and sexually harasses people, is some kind of good idea. At least with most leadership failures, there's a badly flawed thought process that at least makes sense in some regard (if you're working off faulty assumptions such as "decreasing pilot quality of life will have no negative consequences") but this just seems like a situation where the correct course of action to make money, improve instructor morale, and maintain a safe and respectful working environment is 100% clear and I don't know why the boss is not on board. I'm not seeing a downside to turfing this dude -- what's he going to do, leave us a bad Yelp review?
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2018 16:38
|
|
|
PT6A posted:At least with most leadership failures, there's a badly flawed thought process that at least makes sense in some regard 
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2018 17:33
|
|
|
e.pilot posted:You've clearly never been in the military. Correct!
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2018 17:37
|
|
|
Normally I'd say that its because his checks clear but apparently you have a waiting list so thats not it? Is the owner friends with him or his parents or something?
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2018 17:39
|
|
|
hobbesmaster posted:Normally I'd say that its because his checks clear but apparently you have a waiting list so thats not it? Yeah, that would be the usual thought, but we are certainly not hurting for students and he's only flying once a week anyway. He had a habit of cancelling his flights just outside the window in which we could charge him a no-show fee. Also, he's doing this on a line of credit and is not presently employed, and hopes to recoup his investment by getting a commercial license and flying professionally, and even if I didn't dislike him on a personal level due to the poor attitude and sexual harassment, I'd still feel bad about taking his money when it's obvious he's never going to fly commercially. hobbesmaster posted:Is the owner friends with him or his parents or something? As far as I can tell, no. He seems just as frustrated with this guy as the rest of us, and he doesn't want to fly with him either, except he's the one with power to actually do something about the issue and we don't have that power. This guy's already been asked to leave another flight school, and he's threatened to sue us for the fact that he's taken too long and spent too much money -- that's the only thing I can think of. Plus I believe he's First Nations, so maybe he's worried about being accused of discrimination, but we've had plenty of First Nations and other visible-minority students and instructors who've done just fine because as it turns out, ancestry does not affect one's ability to be a pilot -- this is a problem with him personally.
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2018 17:47
|
|
|
PT6A posted:This guy's already been asked to leave another flight school, and he's threatened to sue us for the fact that he's taken too long and spent too much money -- that's the only thing I can think of. Plus I believe he's First Nations, so maybe he's worried about being accused of discrimination, but we've had plenty of First Nations and other visible-minority students and instructors who've done just fine because as it turns out, ancestry does not affect one's ability to be a pilot -- this is a problem with him personally. As both a Native American and a pilot, this makes me feel bad. gently caress that guy.
|
|
#
?
Oct 18, 2018 18:33
|
|
|
On a less awful note while on the subject of student pilots, I did my first landing* today!  Very slight, short bounce and some swerving about the centerline, but no structural damage, no instructor desperately lunging for the controls and and no sick bags used, so I count it as a win. Also, I had all my pattern speeds and altitudes and configurations memorized and it all promptly vanished into the ether as soon as my instructor said "alright, we're on the downwind, go for it". Looking forward to becoming more proficient. Flying is fun enough as it is so it must be a blast when you're not futzing around like a fool chasing the proper attitude, trim and power settings to coerce the airplane into doing what you want. *As in there was minimal to no interference from the CFI on the controls and it counts on my logbook.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2018 05:03
|
|
|
Rolo posted:I’m gonna be the first one to say it this year, I feel almost honored: ....and to the next guys who touch those controls.... in nonpressurized aircraft we literally can’t fly sick. Having any sort of sinus or inner ear issue could cause permanent damage. I did a pretty fast descent from like 20k and one guy in our crew had a sinus blockage. We leveled to see if his sinus pressure would equalize but it didn’t. I can still hear him screaming (from the back, through double hearing protection).
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2018 14:39
|
|
|
I had a guy cancel with four hours notice on our lesson, just saying "I can't fly today, I have to cancel" so we charged him the cancellation fee. I talked with him the next day and it turned out he had an asthma attack or something, and I asked "uh, did you tell dispatch about that? If you cancel for no reason, we charge a fee, but if you're having a severe medical issue that's a completely different situation." It turns out he hadn't told anyone, so we got the cancellation fee refunded. In other news, I am no longer flying with my Problem Student, but he's not actually being kicked out because the CFI wants to give him another chance for some reason. I think I owe a bottle of Scotch to whichever poor fucker takes over from me... EDIT: And it turns out my "self-identified 'bush pilot'" ultralight cowboy has seriously pissed off my supervising instructor. Apparently he contacted the flight school's management to complain about how cruelly and unfairly she attempted to hold him to things like "Transport Canada's defined flight test standards." So apparently it's not just my imagination, which is good because I really don't want to get a reputation as some kind of high-maintenance rear end in a top hat of an instructor and it feels like I've been complaining about an awful lot even if I'm pretty sure I'm justified. PT6A fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Oct 19, 2018 |
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2018 16:46
|
|
|
It's never high maintenance to insist on things like "not killing yourself" and "no, for real, this poo poo will be on the test, so how about you do it right?"
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2018 13:30
|
|
|
DrDork posted:It's never high maintenance to insist on things like "not killing yourself" and "no, for real, this poo poo will be on the test, so how about you do it right?" Oh yeah, I know that on an intellectual level, it's just strange that both these problems have been allowed to fester for years without anyone doing anything about them, and now they've both landed in my lap at approximately the same time -- at a time, in fact, where I have relatively little experience instructing and am unsure of the usual rate of progress and level of proficiency I should expect, and have my own self-doubts about my skills. I was thinking about it last night, and these are really the only two people I've met in relation to aviation that are just unrepentant, crazy assholes. That's still a pretty good ratio when you think about it, but the timing is frustrating. Maybe I've just been dwelling on this too long, but it seems like part of the problem is both society's general message that you just have to work hard and your dreams will come true, and the aviation-specific messaging of "You Can Be A Pilot!" combined with the current "pilot shortage" that the CBC mentions every time they don't have enough drivel on their website. I believe that most people, with hard work and dedication, could become pilots. But it's a very demanding hobby or job; it requires skill, knowledge, judgement, and lots of practice in order to be a safe and proficient pilot at any level, and anyone who is not committed to obtaining those things and exercising them regularly absolutely must not be a pilot. PT6A fucked around with this message at 13:53 on Oct 20, 2018 |
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2018 13:34
|
|
|
One of the biggest things to learn as a CFI, is that not everyone can, in fact, be a pilot.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2018 16:43
|
|
|
PT6A posted:Oh yeah, I know that on an intellectual level, it's just strange that both these problems have been allowed to fester for years without anyone doing anything about them, and now they've both landed in my lap at approximately the same time -- at a time, in fact, where I have relatively little experience instructing and am unsure of the usual rate of progress and level of proficiency I should expect, and have my own self-doubts about my skills. This is another flaw to the 1500 hour rule. Conceivably, you could have a chucklefuck like this make it all the way to a regional with mediocre performance, while somebody who is a solid pilot may not actually get there because they either can't afford it or just quit.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2018 17:32
|
|
|
e.pilot posted:Fatigue is a hell of a thing. PT6A posted:But yeah, mistakes happen. Expecting humans to do things perfectly every time is stupid, it's not a reflection on ... skill. Hi, I'm a maintainer, and I just got tasked to work four 14-hour days in a row on the road to hang the engines on your airplane. I think they're fine, the guy who's working the same schedule as me looked over my work and he thinks they're fine. They just ran up fine and no large pieces came out of the tailpipe, nor did abnormal quantities of smoke nor flame. Please don't complain about the fingerprints on the cowlings. Or the fact that the snack box is empty. Seriously, two guys to take two engines from crates to installed in four days. Not engine quick-change kits. Stuff that other people disassembled weeks ago and left the parts therefor in sandwich bags on tables they had to buy from Staples. Everything's guaranteed not going to be 100% perfect the first time these things fire up. Absolutely do not bitch about it. We do not get crew rest.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2018 03:42
|
|
|
CBJSprague24 posted:This is another flaw to the 1500 hour rule. Conceivably, you could have a chucklefuck like this make it all the way to a regional with mediocre performance, while somebody who is a solid pilot may not actually get there because they either can't afford it or just quit. You could have a guy like this make it to a regional, but not this guy because I believe him to be completely incapable of obtaining a license. Closing in on 130 hours, I fully believe he's not safe to solo, and also he's unemployed and doing this entire thing on a line of credit. I'd almost feel bad for him if he weren't such an awful human being on a personal level as well as being a terrible pilot, but his history of being a raging rear end in a top hat and, among other things, asking our senior instructor if she was a virgin, takes any sort of pity I feel for him right away. My other difficult student has apparently also talked about lawyers and lawsuits, also because we're taking too long with him, because apparently I just bring that out in people. I actually had to stop and think yesterday about how it's influencing how I deal with my other students, because one's feeling a bit too hurried, and one guy wanted to go to another airport to do some circuits and I felt bad about it because it wasn't an "efficient use of time" and then I had to remind myself that not everyone is dead-set on doing this thing in the absolute least amount of time and money possible. Most of my students are actually really nice to deal with and just want to be safe pilots and have fun 
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2018 13:18
|
|
|
PT6A posted:asking our senior instructor if she was a virgin He should have been shitcanned that day.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2018 14:02
|
|
|
Animal posted:He should have been shitcanned that day. No poo poo! Now you see the problem... the boss doesn’t want to pull the trigger on tossing this loving lunatic out. I’ve been given the all-clear not to fly with him again, though. It’s not a complete or ideal solution but I’ll take what I can get. EDIT: I really am glad that people here are backing me up that my instincts on this appear to be right. I don't know where this attitude of "roll your eyes, giggle, and then things continue as normal" came from at my work, but I could really loving do without it. It's absolute bullshit that anyone is putting up with this, and I'm starting to think this goes beyond the normal "no place is perfect" sort of stuff that happens everywhere. PT6A fucked around with this message at 14:59 on Oct 21, 2018 |
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2018 14:23
|
|
|
Animal posted:He should have been shitcanned that day. Wow I missed that part. He’s lacking in the non-lunatic requirement of flying people in an airplane.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2018 15:22
|
|
|
I don't want to turn this thread (too much) into PT6A's Adventures in Flying With Lunatics, but I need some place to bitch about this nonsense  Honestly, a few of us have "joked" that we're just happy he didn't show up and cause a scene, or bring a weapon and start some poo poo, and the fact that we all came up with the same "joking" worry independently makes me think what the hell were we doing in a plane with this guy??? and also what if it's not just a joke? On the plus side, to all student pilots in this thread: just know that, in all likelihood, even on your very worst day, your instructor didn't mind flying with you unless you were a raging rear end in a top hat of this caliber, so that's something to feel good about! PT6A fucked around with this message at 15:36 on Oct 21, 2018 |
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2018 15:32
|
|
|
My workplace is nice because after a guy cancelled a few times with good reason but no notice, and then cancelled with no notice because he got arrested on suspicion of DUI and THEN went ballistic when I told him we were going to charge the noshow fee, it was suggested to him to find a different flight school. Ninja e: there could be a whole thread for CFI bitching but I don’t want to take over this one
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2018 16:52
|
|
|
I'm enjoying the horror stories but if you really want to take it somewhere else, https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3198184&pagenumber=812&perpage=40
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2018 16:58
|
|
|
Today I flew with good students who listen to what I tell them and actually make observable progress and don't make the lives of everyone around them a living hell, and it was extremely cool and good! None of my co-workers were sexually harassed or belittled by racist, sexist fucks! No one threatened to sue me or the flight school even one single time! One guy was actually under-confident after his last flight and we had an excellent flight and now he feels a lot better about things
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2018 02:47
|
|
|
My worst students tended to be one-off situations. The worst pilot was a guy doing an instrument proficiency check (in his own airplane) who managed to get into several unusual attitudes while trying to track a VOR radial or a localizer. Needless to say, I didn't sign him off, but he at least understood why. The most "WTF?" was a guy who had some connection to the House of Saud, and after prop-striking the airplane on landing at another airport, flew it back with a bent propeller, and then put it back in the hanger and assumed we wouldn't notice the prop having some new bends in it. When the damage was discovered, he paid the $8k overhaul bill in cash, but finally left after it became clear none of us trusted his judgement enough to sign anything off.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2018 05:29
|
|
|
PT6A, is your flight school tied into a college program? If so, have the chief flight instructor file the Canadian equivalent of Title IX against him for asking if she was a virgin and that'll make him disappear quickly.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2018 18:01
|
|
|
CBJSprague24 posted:PT6A, is your flight school tied into a college program? If so, have the chief flight instructor file the Canadian equivalent of Title IX against him for asking if she was a virgin and that'll make him disappear quickly. We're trying to get that started, and frankly it's not going to go well if this is the current management culture. The problem isn't that we can't kick him out as a flight school -- we have no obligation to let anyone fly our planes and work with our instructors ever, as far as I can tell -- but rather that the chief instructor appears to want to give this guy another chance, which is stupid and bad and I can't figure out why he's doing it. In my view, we have a responsibility to make sure the flight school is a safe and respectful place for instructors, students and staff, and I don't know why anyone in a position of responsibility would put this sad-sack's delusions above maintaining that.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2018 18:27
|
|
|
PT6A posted:We're trying to get that started, and frankly it's not going to go well if this is the current management culture. If the Chief Instructor is so concerned with this guy, then he/she should have to deal with instructing him.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2018 00:01
|
|
|
Arcella posted:If the Chief Instructor is so concerned with this guy, then he/she should have to deal with instructing him. I know, right??? But when have you ever seen poo poo roll uphill?
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2018 00:12
|
|
|
In the last week, I've been within a couple minutes of being forced to divert to Yakima, WA (known for growing many of the hops used in the US, and cooking most of the meth for central Washington) on two separate occasions, so clearly the universe thinks I need more beer and amphetamines in my life. The first time was with a medical emergency, which thankfully got better enough that we could continue to Seattle, and the one today was caused by Seattle stopping all arrivals after the weather dropped below CAT III minimums, which had us holding down to within 5 minutes of when we'd have to divert before the field opened up again. Also, whoever decided "close a runway in Seattle in the fall" was a good plan needs a swift kick in the groin, since it makes everything at that airport even more of a disaster than it normally is.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2018 05:35
|
|
|
azflyboy posted:In the last week, I've been within a couple minutes of being forced to divert to Yakima, WA (known for growing many of the hops used in the US, and cooking most of the meth for central Washington) on two separate occasions, so clearly the universe thinks I need more beer and amphetamines in my life. Since I no longer seem to fly anywhere west of Denver anymore what's up with SeaTac?
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2018 16:00
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 10:14 |
|
|
Butt Reactor posted:Since I no longer seem to fly anywhere west of Denver anymore what's up with SeaTac? It's similar in business to EWR, LGA, BOS and the other big city airports that aren't a mega-hub for some airline. It also averages about 4 VFR days between October and May. Now some rear end in a top hat has apparently closed one of it's runways so during peak times they're trying to handle 3.5 runways worth of traffic with only 2 runways. PT6A posted:We're trying to get that started, and frankly it's not going to go well if this is the current management culture. Students, even terrible ones, pay the bills. They're going to be very reluctant to kick anyone out. I hate to say it but you're probably in for a hard fight. Good luck and remember to not let yourself be coerced into signing off anyone who isn't ready to be signed off.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2018 17:00
|
|
