Finished. All gone. Seyonara.

[LewisM]

Aviation career that is.

After 25 years plugging away in the wonderful world of aviation, I sold the last bit of paraphernalia I had left (a Jeppesen Whizz Wheel circular slide rule). All the rest sold, donated, given away, or just thrown out. I gave my father the last of my Jep chart binders, and a week later, he too retired after 45 years at it (TAA, Australian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Jetstar).

All over. I love flying - as in stick and rudder (I do a lot of aerobatics as well as flying vintage stuff), but I LOATHE flying as a job. I even taught airline cadets for 3 years near the end, and it scares me to know that half of them wouldn't know how to fly if you forget to keep putting coins in the computer game - I wouldn't send my family up in a dark stormy night with most "pilots" these days. They know how to work the computers, do what they are told and what is in the book, but when all that goes out the window, well... spine shivers (shades of Air France...).

Plus the fact my first daughter did not even know me for the first 9 months of her life, and my wife saw me 3 times a week if lucky (or unlucky). I'll keep current in a recreational way, but won't even bother with Class I medicals, let alone IR renewals.

Back to lab work. I think I'd rather play with Pseudomonas aeruginosa than do a SID or shoot an ILS any more

[leon]

You have to do what you have to do Lewis, however I'm sure that there are thousands of top pilots out there, seems a bit harsh

Leon

[LewisM]

Lots good, lots bad Churn them out quickly these days. I won't even mention how many were PUSHED through where I worked. Not ONE of them had ever even seen an unusual attitude, and we were forbidden to demonstrate UA's beyond high nose attitde, low nose attitude, and medium bank slip. No incipient spin, no falling leaf stalls, no steep turn beyond 45° AOB, and not even asymmetric stalls.

[acropolite (Phil)]

I have to agree with your sentiments regarding training, often serious flaws in procedure are only found after a plane full of passengers has plummeted to the ground, I watched an air crash investigation where no less than 3 pilots allowed a perfectly good aircraft to pancake in to the ocean (stalled from cruise altitude) because of a frozen pitot tube.

Enjoy whatever it is you do next, most of all enjoy your family.

[avandonk]

I will never forget the time I went for a 'joy' flight in a Pitts Special. I had about 70 hours in Cessnas and Pipers Plus about forty in a Bellanca.

When the pilot found out my flying history he handed control to me at about 200ft after take off.

Once he worked out I was not telling porkies we started on the ride of my life.

He had me do nearly every aerobatic manoeuver known to man.

Fifty minutes later we landed. He was my brothers FI in the Air force in fighters.

The passengers in a bus do not like what we revel in!

As a pilot this makes us far safer!

Bert

[LewisM]

Bert,

Absolutely agree. When I learnt to fly all those decades ago (makes me sound old), part of BASIC flying training pre-restricted private license was advanced stalls (or even spinning if the aircraft was duly certified) and even later, cross country nav-ex dual flights included blind flying including SEVERE UA's and then getting back on track. Before I had my CPL I had my aerobatic endorsement in the license.

By the time I was teaching these youngins navigation, they were not even taught how to do 1 in 60's in their head! None could tell me the time to destination based purely on ground speed (could not figure miles per minute). NONE could fly via compass alone. And we were NOT to teach them either, though I ALWAYS did it (and got pulled over the coals about "loading up their already hectic load" - PURE BS!!!)

Every one of the training aircraft had a GPS. Cadets were told NOT to use them solo (which of course they DID). Company decided to unplug each GPS for a week and see what would happen - imagine how many problems happened that week, including 1 getting hopelessly lost and ending up landing at a small strip 200 miles OFF COURSE). At lease he had the common sense to land the darned thing rather than push on until fuel exhaustion.

Problem is a lot of the old stick and rudder check and training captains are now gone too, replaced by robotic computerised company men.

[Steffen]

And I was under the impression all commercial passenger jet pilots were ex-airforce or navy pilots...

Is there a purely civilian career path, can you actually start as an apprentice to become a Qantas or JetStar pilot?

Cheers
Steffen.

[avandonk]

Originally Posted by LewisM

Bert,

Absolutely agree. When I learnt to fly all those decades ago (makes me sound old), part of BASIC flying training pre-restricted private license was advanced stalls (or even spinning if the aircraft was duly certified) and even later, cross country nav-ex dual flights included blind flying including SEVERE UA's and then getting back on track. Before I had my CPL I had my aerobatic endorsement in the license.

By the time I was teaching these youngins navigation, they were not even taught how to do 1 in 60's in their head! None could tell me the time to destination based purely on ground speed (could not figure miles per minute). NONE could fly via compass alone. And we were NOT to teach them either, though I ALWAYS did it (and got pulled over the coals about "loading up their already hectic load" - PURE BS!!!)

Every one of the training aircraft had a GPS. Cadets were told NOT to use them solo (which of course they DID). Company decided to unplug each GPS for a week and see what would happen - imagine how many problems happened that week, including 1 getting hopelessly lost and ending up landing at a small strip 200 miles OFF COURSE). At lease he had the common sense to land the darned thing rather than push on until fuel exhaustion.

Problem is a lot of the old stick and rudder check and training captains are now gone too, replaced by robotic computerised company men.

I had to do an annual check with an instructor. None of the usual instructors were available so I went up with a total stranger.

Bottoms of the clouds were at about 2200ft. We were at 2000ft when the instructor asked me if I could do a steep turn without a visible horizon. I promptly cranked her over and applied more throttle and held attitude. The altitude did not change yet we were doing a 60 degree turn without a horizon. When we came back on original course and levelled out spot on, he asked if I could do it again in the other direction. I did that. He was amazed and said 'I cannot do what you just did'. It was then he said 'are you are the Bert that flies the Bellanca'.

He could not fly the Bellanca! He was actually scared of it. Too over controllable was his last comment.

Bert

[LewisM]

Originally Posted by Steffen

And I was under the impression all commercial passenger jet pilots were ex-airforce or navy pilots...

Is there a purely civilian career path, can you actually start as an apprentice to become a Qantas or JetStar pilot?

Cheers
Steffen.

In the USA Steffan, absolutely correct, but the ratio of ex-ADF pilots here is a LOT less. I reckon it's be at least 60% civilian trained.

Several airlines have cadet programmes. Some better than others Even some regionals have it. My father started as a TAA Cadet way back in the '60's. They dropped it for a long time. QANTAS started a cadet programme again a while back - don't even know how it is going or if it even closed up.

The level of cadet is interesting - one airline cadet merrily plowed the wing of his Cessna 172N through the fin and rudder of at least 2 other aircraft (he decided to taxi down a parking bay rather than the taxiway). Totally oblivious, he still continued to the holding point, before of course ATC stopped him. He recalled at his investigation that he thought it odd he had to apply so much power to taxi at that point. [shivers]. Thankfully, he at least was scrubbed.

[avandonk]

There is NOTHING that is as good as a vertical 6G pull and gently pulling back the throttle and apprehensively wait for vertical airspeed to almost come to a stop and then kick the rudder hard to do a 180 degree turn into a vertical dive and then pull out at 6G and roll hard into a horizontal steep turn and then climb to do something else.

Bert

[Peter Ward]

Funny...got my 25 year service pin with QF last year, after having flown 4000 hours in Metro's and Saab's with Kendell before that...

I suspect I'll also pull the pin in about 4 years. No Jepp-wheel to sell, but the company will probably want their i-pad back

Have to say the vast majority of long haul QF pilots that I've flown with in that time have been consummate professionals and would happily trust them to take my family to LHR or LAX.

I only despair for the younger guys due management's decimation of the QF route structure......

[LewisM]

Peter, agree - lots of good ones, but some of the "furrin" airlines scare me. Being intimate in SQ matters, I won't be putting my family with them for a while - the good jockeys are long gone elsewhere (mainly Qatar). The robots remain. And what I witnessed with the "opposition", CZ, in those 3 years of instructing truly SCARED me - no thought processes whatsoever, and the English was non-existent besides what they had been programmed with.

Never had a beef with any Aussie airline at all - QF been great always. Even Greyhound Airlines (aka Jetstar) have been great. Virgin USED to be very Ansett-esque, now, well...

[Wavytone]

Hi Lewis,

I am now flying a paraglider which IMHO is the best decision I've made in a long time. People talk about 60-degree turns at 2000 feet. Try that at 20 feet, with the wing tip touching the sand ! Wingovers and 4G spiral dives ... standard technique to lose an angry crow or eagle.

I understand you very well - for 25 years i was addicted to sailing competitively, often saturdays and sundays with perhaps as few as 4 weekends a year off - anything from skiffs and 29ers, 49ers to high-performance 40 footers - then at the end of one season I gave it up and went cold turkey. Sold the boat, all the gear the following winter.

Subsequently, friends knew I had been a top sailor and tried to get me out occasionally socially; I went along with that a couple of times but its just not the same and I realised I really had lost interest in it completely. Admittedly going from a top racing yacht to stepping onto the tubs most sail on the harbour is like going from a F1 car to driving a Toyota Prius, and about as boring. Haven't been near a boat in 15 years and have no desire to do so.

[casstony]

That's surprising Lewis. I imagined all airline pilots would know how to fly manually and would have to practice wingovers and various types of stalls during training, in preparation for emergency situations.

[guggle (Michael)]

Originally Posted by casstony

That's surprising Lewis. I imagined all airline pilots would know how to fly manually and would have to practice wingovers and various types of stalls during training, in preparation for emergency situations.

I agree. I was somewhat disappointed and saddened to read your account Lewis. I got my PPL in 1999, but due to the onset of family life and other commitments, I never really could get my teeth into flying. While I never had any plans to go commercial, I always dreamed about what it would be like to be an airline pilot.

Once, on a flight to Perth, I used my air crew license to sit in the cockpit for a while and was a little surprised to see that flying the big aircraft was largely a hands-off affair.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Something I thought was relevant to this thread re:pilot training.

"This pilot should never have taken off," said attorney Ilyas Akbari, whose firm represents 14 of the passengers. "The fact that the pilot was stressed and nervous is a testament to the inadequate training he received, and those responsible for his training and for certifying his competency bear some of the culpability for the tragedy of this crash."

[guggle (Michael)]

Another interesting point:

Lee was nervous about attempting to land using "stick and rudder" flying skills. Pilots spend more time managing computer systems than manually flying planes, systems that are more precise and use less fuel than a human pilot.

[BlackWidow (Mardy)]

Hi Lewis.. You say you still fly recreational. What are you currently flying? I own a 2 seat Jabiru that I fly out of Gawler in Adelaide. Have not flown it for a rew months due to the bad weather and really hot days. My aircraft doesn't like the heat a great deal, and I am not a lover of rough air when flying for fun. I like the cooler months for flying and I tend to not be as busy with work. Come from a flying family and first learnt in tail dragsters. Dad owned an J4 Piper Cub that is now in a flying museum in Queensland. I also flew Drifters for a while and Microlights. Real seat of ya pants flying. Now I like a bit more comfort. I wanted a heater and a cup holder in my aircraft and a few more mode cons like transponder and glass cockpit flight computer. Still have mainly steam gauges as I don't rely on the computer, but it does add with additional backup and conformation of fuel burn etc...


Mardy

[LewisM]

Mardy,

These days it's Tiger Moths, Chipmunks, the occasional CT4.

[BlackWidow (Mardy)]

Should have proof read my post.. The autocorrect on these things change my post a little... Not sure I have flown a taildragster before LOL.. would like to try one if they exist.