Richard Morgan
Heliman
Location: Virginia Beach, Virginia USA
| A moment of poor judgementI am a retired commercial pilot (ATP/FE/A&P/IAA) with several thousand flight hours and have seen and experienced physics at work in the form of both mechanical and physical malfunction. None of these malfunctions were in any way expected. The fact is, due to the physics at work on our model helis one should always approach flying them with the upmost of respect and safty. I go over my heli's carefully before each flight and still have had failures of the mechanical system some times resulting in a crash. I almost put my docile flying Scale Jet Ranger in because of a bead of sweat that went into my eye causing me an instance of blury vision and discomfort. Even dumb thumbs can result in a crash with blades and parts going in all directions as we all know! We have to remember that anything can happen at any time. Even to the "best of the best", of which I am not.
Someone in this thread said that maybe Align told Alan that he had to perform this demo in this manner. I maintain, whether it be a full scale or model aircraft the pilot in command makes all the decisions concerning how the aircraft is operated and is the sole person responsible for the outcome of the flight. I assure you in my 30+ year career as a professional pilot, had my Chief Pilot or an owner of the company told me that I had to operate an aircraft in a manner that had obvious safty issues I would have said no, or even walked away. Harming someone due to my negligence or pride is never acceptable in any manner.
It is not a question of Alans skill as that is indeed evident. However, even a momentary lapse in judgement, or skill (not to mention mechanical failure) can result in something terrible happening. We enjoy a great hobby and there is no doubt the pleasure it brings us. Safty should never be bypassed for any reason. So have fun but be smart.
In closing, there is one other issue here, and it has alot to do with the old saying,"Monkey See Monkey do". What young aspiring heli pilot that was at that demo now thinks that it is okay to operate a model heli like that around people, with or with out the skills required. The bottom line.........
Alan made a bad call, but luckily all went well.
"We learn by doing, but desire to do by what we see".
Richard L. Morgan |
