The Power of No; Difficult Decision Making

I downed three E120s in a row, for the exact same MX item. When I got called into the CP office to explain why, I told them, "Is the part MCOable? No, then fix it."
When it was suggested I didn't have to inspect the planes that closely, I suggested he repeat himself in front of the POI. Never heard another thing about it.
 
flyslow_va said:
Agreed, but when you see the damage, it is fairly obvious what happened.
IMAG0031_BURST002_zpsifbicoij.jpg
Click to expand...
What would you attribute these tears to? Is the airplane not airworthy as a result?

20160109_155518.jpg
 
You are right. This is just normal wear and tear and something I would be very excited to spend my hard earned dollars to rent. I am sure the rest of the aircraft is in immaculate mechanical condition.
 
flyslow_va said:
You are right. This is just normal wear and tear and something I would be very excited to spend my hard earned dollars to rent. I am sure the rest of the aircraft is in immaculate mechanical condition.
Click to expand...
Since it's a '51, it wouldn't be unreasonable for it to be. But it has no bearing whatsoever on the condition of the rest of the aircraft, which has 5 year old fabric and a very new engine.

The tears in the back are unfortunately from fishing poles. The big one has been there awhile yet has had no effect at all on its ability to fly. You could say it'd be well within the NEF realm.
I could tear the interior out like a lot of people do, still no indication on the rest of the aircraft, except that you can actually inspect many items easier.
 
Eeesh, I've never had a "no" get any negative attention, ever. Well, except for when I asked for a crew car in Burbank once. There are a metric poop ton of D-bags on the west coast and one particular Midwest base at said freight operator though
 
ppragman said:
Aren't you the guy who was mad at people for wearing the approved company uniform?
Click to expand...
Mad? No. You'd have to see where we spend the majority of the day as to why I'm very very annoyed at anything other than bars and a tie though.

Are we going to hijack this thread, and are you implying that I'm a D-bag? :)
 
flyslow_va said:
I was terminated as a 12 year flight instructor for raising cain about maintenance issues. The weak knee'ed chief instructor for the location had zero maintenance experience and was incapable of standing up to the owner when issues were raised. Flights were cancelled regularly and the aircraft were in a deteriorating state.

As an example, three aircraft were VFR only due to each having a different gyro instrument removed and sent off for maintenance. This led to a 6 week IFR training down time and several students were delayed check rides and otherwise progressing in their course of study.

One aircraft, the "flagship" of the fleet had holes in the headset liner over the rear seat! Only one of two events could have caused this occurrence: severe turbulence in flight, or, a really poorly executed negative G-push over. In either case, the aircraft and wing attach fittings should have been inspected for any unseen damage! No action was taken and the aircraft continued in service.

The thing that amazed me was the chief pilot actually put this in the termination letter!

Dear Michael,

Your employment with Aviation Adventures is terminated effective 3 February, 2015. Please return your office key and security access card to the Leesburg office.

This action is the result of your behavior in the Leesburg offices over the past several weekends when you became extremely angry over maintenance issues. While I understand your concerns and frustrations, such displays in our office during business hours is completely unacceptable.

Michael G. Gilbert Chief Flight Instructor (KJYO)​

If you are pushed to do something that you feel is wrong or unsafe, and those over you are disregarding your feelings and intuition about the situation, save your ass and get out of there as soon as possible. Do not allow others ineptness to make you a statistic!

Am I worried about this affecting my future employment? Not at all!
Click to expand...

LOL, it really is a small world. I used to fly there. Mike was well known for this sort of stuff. Fired a friend of mine because some yahoo non-pilot thought he saw them over run the south departure end of the runway in a 172 from the terminal.
 
ozziecat35 said:
What a great read. As a "young" pilot, it's important to know saying "no" isn't going to end your career, even if it ends your current job, you'll still be alive to know you did the right thing.
Click to expand...

Yep. I had the newly minted CP at my last job tell me I'd regret it when I told them I was definitely leaving. No man, I don't. Not one bit. Future employers will understand for the most part.
 
Like journalism, where you wonder if the press is as wrong about everything as they are about aviation, one wonders if non-aviation employers make things as miserable for their employees.

Richman
 
Richman said:
Like journalism, where you wonder if the press is as wrong about everything as they are about aviation, one wonders if non-aviation employers make things as miserable for their employees.

Richman
Click to expand...

They don't. My wife, a manager in her department, tells me daily that if she behaved like airline managers she'd be terminated and would never be able to find another job in her field again.
 
Luigi said:
I'm not quite sure you and jtrain understand the point I was making. I was simply saying that myself (in dispatch) and my coworkers at mx ctrl are safety minded. That's all I'm saying...we are not the bad guys I sometimes feel we are made out to be.
Click to expand...

I think the point that myself and that piece of crap...I mean @Hacker15e, are trying to make, is that when you have skin in the game (as in, you're attached to the pointy end of the 80,000 pound machine that is happy to end your life without a second thought), "safety minded" has different definition than someone sitting in a cubical. It's not that you don't want to be safety minded, or that you're trying to not be safety minded, it's that when you're strapped into an airplane without enough gas in a hold without an alternate and few good options, you start to realize that you have to actually be there to understand what crews are concerned about sometimes.

Because situations like this DO happen: http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/loca...-diverted-to-non-commercial-airport/29378001/
 
jtrain609 said:
I think the point that myself and that piece of crap...I mean @Hacker15e, are trying to make, is that when you have skin in the game (as in, you're attached to the pointy end of the 80,000 pound machine that is happy to end your life without a second thought), "safety minded" has different definition than someone sitting in a cubical. It's not that you don't want to be safety minded, or that you're trying to not be safety minded, it's that when you're strapped into an airplane without enough gas in a hold without an alternate and few good options, you start to realize that you have to actually be there to understand what crews are concerned about sometimes.

Because situations like this DO happen: http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/loca...-diverted-to-non-commercial-airport/29378001/
Click to expand...

Planes you fly break all the time because you are a bad luck magnet. Every chieftan you ever sat in with me ended up breaking somehow. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top