THAT'S THE UNDER-STATEMENT OF THE YEAR.

FNFAL, thanks for the genuine input from your perspective. I certainly appreciate it.


atp

 

Just to change the thread slightly and reveal the darkest side of aviation to our enthusiastic brothers........

How many of you guys have had friends killed doing this? I went 15 years 1978-1991 and lost one friend or co-worker **PER YEAR** in instruction, charter and freight. I also eye-witnessed three deaths in two separate accidents. I quit recreational flying after a seaplane tried to send me to hell.

"The drive to the airport is the most dangerous part of the flight" only applies to Part 121 Airline Ops.

"An airplane is an elegant and well-mannered machine in that it has the kindness to show you the method it has chosen for your demise. The difficulty is that by the time you realize it has done this, you are well past the point where the laws of physics have removed you from the control loop. The only thing you can do is sit and observe until the situation reaches its silent end."
L. Manofsky
"Three-Out-Blue"

 

I would say i have known about one for every 18months to 2 years. Those are just guys that i knew on a day to day basis. as far as friends of friends its much higher. If i die doing this stupid crap i promise you all i will find the wright brothers in hell and deliver a stern beating. They are the ones who started this whole cluster F.

 

by the way ATP sorry for the negative reply to your thread, I would love to tell you its great and have a good time, but it would be a huge disservice to you. There is nothing wrong with your thought process, its the same one that got the rest of us a front row seat at this industries funeral.

My first airline flight as a kid came at a time when flight attendants were nice pretty ladies and we called them stewardesess, and if the adults felt like lighting a cigarette after the meal, the good people at Pan Am (maybe i was on a NWA flight, can't remember) wouldent complain. One of my earliest memories was from an airline flight. I wanted be a pilot and nothing else since then, gods honest truth. But the cost is way way higher than the returns.

 

I think that the number of friends you lose to accidents will vary greatly depending on the type of flying and environment you spend most of our time in.

Yes, aviation isn't 100% safe. However people that fly freight in single pilot IFR, or cropdust, or do flight test are probably more likely to lose friends than those that fly for airlines or corporate departments.

I have hundreds of friends and aqcuaintances that fly for a living. Of them, only 3 have had serious accidents, and in my 11 years of flying, I've only lost one person in an aircraft crash, and that particular unfortunate event wasn't an accident.

 

My father was in the AF in the 60s - 80s. Funerals were a routine part of the daily ritual on base. His service dress was always ready. My wife spent more time with new widows than with her kids. My mom knew one day my father would not return from work. Last May @ 0950 she got a call from my father's co-worker. She knew what had happened and simply ask how / and where can she ID the body if there is anything left.

Fortunately, there was a body and the passenger with my father was alive because the old man got one more helo landing off-shore before his heart attack took his life at 59.

My father never left the 135 world because he knew he had ruined his body while in the military (he was one of those guys that never turned down a mission..I mean never...)and he would never be able to hold a class 1. He avoided the doctor at all costs. He went to the same old doctor for 24 years as a civilian pilot - they would have a drink and the doctor would sign the paperwork.

Until I joined this site I had no idea the abuse pilots go thru to have their view of the world at 35,000 feet.

-LAFF

 

I still want to fly for a living...I can't explain the urge. I sometimes think I'm trying to please him...I miss him everyday - it was cool to say my father is a pilot but you could never introduce him to your friends - he was never around.


Many of our neighbors saw him for the first time at his funeral - they just knew he left early in the morning and got home late and was gone for days at a time...



I can count the number of conversations we had about important things in person on one hand.

-LAFF

 

That would be unfair, since the Wrights gave us this cautionary advice: "If you desire perfect safety, you would do well to sit on a fence rail and watch the birds. But if learning to fly is your aim, you must take the machine up and learn its tricks in the air."

 

ROFLMAO!!!!

 

LAFF:

Man, my heart really goes out to you. Having gone through all of that with your Dad and still have the fortitude to still want to fly for a living is something to be admired.

My hope is that you have had some form of closure.


Marcus

Btw, FNFAL, I didn't take your post as being negative. It's good to get a fresh and different perspective on being a pilot .