Quality of flight training in USA.

[David MacRay]

Sorry I derailed this one so badly Chuck.

I have found the two times I have went pleasure flying with instructors in 172s in the USA. They are so casual that I felt more confident to just fly the plane. They were both at times when I was not current but the flights went very well, because I just flew instead of pressuring myself to demonstrate I was flying correctly.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

The T.C. exams are an exercise in trying to guess what T.C. thinks is the correct answer is for a given question.

Their goal is to get a certain failure rate and has very little to do with if a student really understands the subject.

I very much doubt that I could pass a PPL written today.

Does that make me less a pilot?

[David MacRay]

I very much doubt that I could pass a PPL written today.

Does that make me less a pilot?

Not directly but it does show we are not current at studying their requested material. Obviously you are not going to be better or worse at controlling a plane, just because you can't remember how long a 23 year old pilot's Cat 3 medical is valid but they want you to know a bunch of things like that if possible.

Part of the point of testing is to prove you are going to be able to find out complex things when you need to later.

Poor buggers just don't have any other means of separating people who can from the ones that just can't. Unfortunately it is a flawed system driven by English scholars.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Unfortunately it is a flawed system driven by English scholars.

The system has been flawed for decades because the drones in charge want it that way.

In the late eighties we were sitting in my flying school waiting out a bad weather day and out of the rain and mist came a TC Bell Jetranger with three TC inspectors in it.

They asked for the Chief Flying Instructor and told her that they were on the way to Victoria for a planned base inspection, but due to the weather decided to inspect my school instead.

Anyhow in short order this guy walked up to where I was sitting on a lounge chair and asked my why I chose to be a flight instructor.

I told him I was not a flight instructor but I did own the company and asked him who he was.

He replied he was the head of flight training in Ottawa and did I have any questions?

Well as it turned out I had a lot of questions and in short order it really went down hill as he proceeded to show his authority and his displeasure with my attitude.

Attitude works two ways and I told him I was not at all impressed with his attitude and told him to take his two trained seals and get the fuck off my property, well he was enraged that I would speak to someone as important as him like that and he refused to leave.....so I said you have exactly sixty seconds to get out of this office or I will call the RCMP and have you removed.

He really had no choice because it was my property and I told him he was trespassing and I had every right under law to have them removed.

Anyhow they said they could not fly because of the weather, I told them the weather was good enough to hover taxi their helicopter the fuck off my property.....

... of course they had no choice and they hovered over to the terminal and I never heard from them again..

As I knew I wouldn't.

[Colonel]

Did I say anything about potential CARs violations?
... caused me a lot of grief

I am still trying to process that.  Did TC phone
you up and shit on you and say that you did not
contravene any regulations but that you were a
BAD PERSON and not to do that?!

Honestly, the difference between public and
private sector is just staggering.  Like when
TC tells you that you are "qualified but not
eligible" - the answer I got about being a
DPE or an ICAS ACE, both of which we
desperately need here but TC refuses to
budge.  How childish and unprofessional
they are.

Whenever I deal with TC, it's is like being
back in grade school.  The taxpayer gets
very poor value for the enormous amount
that is spent on them (salaries, benefits,
pensions, etc).

[Chuck Ellsworth]

because TC enforcement doesn't operate like any other sort of legal body.

The closest I can come to is the Gestapo during Hitlers time.

What I do if they phone me is tell them to fuck off and hang up.

They can try and do what ever they want but if they are just fishing or flat out in the wrong in the end they can do nothing.

However the cost to you can be staggering before it is all over.

N O T E ::

My rule is simple.

If I see a Transport Canada inspector approaching me I know I am in far more danger than if I were being approached by a common street criminal.

[David MacRay]

SSU
1- I already feel bad for making you explain that.

2- I would feel responsible for putting my failure of the stupid test on another persons file even if they don't mind.

3- I would rather be over prepared than under in this case. I think I still feel like if I failed it would be a bigger deal than it actually would be.

Anyway, let's all relax and see if I am still studying in a couple of weeks here and after that if I will even get to a point of seeking a recomend.

[Colonel]

any jackass can accuse you of any sorts of violations of the CARs

Happens to me every day.  As if I could give a shit.

TC takes another run at me with more nonsense,
they know they're in for four fun years of Tribunal,
Tribunal Review, Federal Court and Federal Court
of Appeals.  Done it before, I'll do it again.

I checked a private pilot out on the plow truck last
winter (this is not a subject change).  They spent
years hassling him about his medical - complete
nonsense, he's been flying for decades now - and
he spent so much time in court, he went and got
his law degree.

You want to fly in Canada, you'd better be fucking
prepared to get your law degree.