Clearly you did not understand, nor did you read very well. I never said people don't do it for kicks. They do. I stated that doing so, and getting hurt, is stupid. The person who is the subject of this thread did so for kicks, and is dead. The results, as you so succinctly put, speak for themselves.
You take exception to my statement that those of us who fly low level professionally don't do it for kicks. As a professional who has been professionally trained and flies professionally at low level, I don't do it for kicks; I do it for money, for a living. Do I enjoy it? I wouldn't do it if I didn't, but there's a big difference between thrill seeking among powerlines, and working at low level for a valid, professional reason.
Flying low level for kicks and the thrill is a little like taking recreational drugs. I have a hard time holding out much sympathy to one who does it, and buys the farm. Those of us who are employed to do it in the day to day life, who have the training and experience to be there and still fully understand the risks, see it in a different light. It's not a playground. Flying low, working low, isn't about getting cheap thrills. If I were not being paid to perform a function that requires low level flight, I wouldn't fly low. Yes, I enjoy it, but I have a legitimate, valid reason to be there, and I'm not there for thrills. Big difference.
You find that arrogant? You gotta be kidding.
Do you find the fact that I flow low arrogant? That I do it professionally as arrogant? The fact that I know the risks arrogant? The fact that I believe those who do it simply for a thrill to be stupid, arrogant? Or the fact that as a professional with low level training and experience, who understands the risks and believes that it isn't something to be doing for a thrill, to be arrogant? In other words, you really find someone who has a leg to stand on regarding the topic, who speaks from experience regarding someone who paid the price for thrill seeking with a clear, difinitive public result, to be arrogant for stating the facts? That's rich. I guess you got me there, TonyC. Ouch.
Of course they do it for kicks - - it can't be for their good health!
Dunno about you, but that pretty closely matches my definition of stupidity. People knowing something is bad for them, do it anyway. Stupid.
And you call that arrogant. Interesting...
If I'm assigned to work in a field, I drive to the field. I walk in the field. I look it over. I drive around it. I look for obstructions, paths in and out, susceptible materials or crops nearby. Animal life. Prevailing winds. I make an experienced observation of what will be required to fly that field. Upon arrival at the field, I fly around the field, noting obstructions, noting any changes that may have occured (illegal taps into powerlines, tractors or circle irrigation equipment that's recently been placed, drilling rigs, whatever) since I was there, check the perimeter, and then when satisfied, fly a preplanned pattern in the field based on current meteorological conditions, and the requirements of that particular assignment. This, as opposed to busting down over somebodies house and buzzing for a thrill. See the difference? Probably not.
When dispatched to a fire, I check charts for local hazards. I coordinate with those on the ground for hazards, and often for a dedicated aerial platform over the fire that's checking it for hazards. A NOTAM is put up over the site. I fly to the site, in contact with a dispatch center that will immediately start a search for me every 15 minutes or less if I don't communicate, who is talking to whatever agency has the airspace where I'll be flying. I'm also talking at the same time to ATC. I'm also talking at the same time to ground units, as well as talking at the same time to air units. I may have four or five different radios going. My head is on a swivel for traffic. I arrive at the site and begin looking, even before getting on scene, for winds, ingress, escapes, hazards. I overfly the site, look it over, fly around it, and fly my line and escape route. I arm my systems to be ready for an emergency situation immediately. I often fly a dry, practice run with supervision, and then I go in. All this for one quick run.
Is it a thrill? Sometimes my feet are numb when I come out, from pressing on the rudder pedals. Sometimes, when it's really rough, my legs are shaking from the workout when I come out. Sometimes it's a no-brainer, often as not it's a rattler; I get shaken from beginng to end, and I've come away from the drop shaking. I don't call it a thrill. It's not an emergency, it's not a thrill, it's not a joy ride. It's my job, and one which I believe, and those who evaluate me regularly clearly believe, I do very well. That's the nature of being a professional.
You see this as arrogant. I see it as something else, and couldn't give a stuff what you think. I have a leg to stand on. I see someone who busts into a scene or location and dives down to impress friends or family, who shrieks over the ground for a thrill, who decides to go play tom cruise wannabe or show off what he or she really doesn't know and then kills himself, his wife, family, spectators, whomever, as someone who is demonstrating stupidity. And so it is. As you noted, the facts speak for themselves. That's not arrogance, mate. It's calling a spade a spade, by someone who knows what he is talking about. And I do. You read about it in an article on the internet. I know friends and associates who die every year on the job down low. Every year. It's not academic. It's not arrogant. It's personal.
I don't like seeing people die. I don't like reading about people dying. I don't like people doing stupid things that kill other people or themselves. I don't know if you've ever stood over a burning wreckage and put it out with your own hands after a low level crash, or watched your friends go in, burn, before your very eyes. I don't know you. Perhaps you have. But I have experienced those things. And it's personal. I don't care to watch any more of them, or read about them. And yes, when I see someone do it for a thrill who then loses their life and takes that of others, I very much believe it's unnecessary, it's stupid, and I'm not going to play politically correct and say otherwise. Stuidity kills.
Perhaps after you've stained your hands and your clothing in blood, smoke, fire, burning fuel, cut yourself trying to get into the wreckage, and seen the carnage first hand, awakened n the middle of the night in a cold sweat because you suddenly realized for the first time that you're not going to see Steve or Jeff or Clarence again, and why...it won't be academic, and you will have the moral high ground to look down on your nose at me for feeling the way I do. Perhaps after you go year after year losing friends and co-workers and associates to this very same thing, after you've done it yourself and know what's involved and the risks and rewards, you'll have the credibility to step up and call me arrogant.
Until that day, mind your own business. You think the dead become saints because they're dead? I don't. I don't care about political correctness. Stupidity is stupidity, weather the dead are gone or not. You want touchy feely, go join a rainbow group or chain yourself to a tree in the forest or throw vials of blood on fur stoles. I'm more interested in seeing people grow up to see their children grow old. Seeing people not make headlines. Seeing airplanes that land as many times as they takeoff. I preach safety, caution, every day. One might say I'm a missionary fo the subject. I'm passionate about it, and have preached aviation safety tirelessly year after year after year. You think that's arrogant. Fine. You, and the high horse you rode in on, mate. Doesn't deter me from where I stand, nor will it. Stupidity kills. My hope is that it doesn't kill another. It will, but I will not be silent in protesting the fact, or trying to keep it from happening.
If just one person who wants to make that thrilling ride thinks twice, then a lifetime of effort is worth it.
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