CFIdiot

[Ty Webb]

Really had to shake my head today . . . . had some guy get on board with his wife and baby. F/A couldn't find the FAA approval sticker (required to have one, if you want to use it in the cabin).

Instead of doing the logical thing, which would be to help the F/A locate the sticker, this buffoon starts trumpeting, "Well, I'm a Flight Instructor, and we use this seat in the Duchess, and the Baron . . . .and (escalating in volume) without a car seat, my daughter would be KILLED if we CRASH . . . . "!

I felt like pulling him out in the jetway, and saying "You know, if we operated this airplane under Part 91, we might have that leeway, but, you see, we operate under Part 121, and we have to follow the regs. As a CFI, I would expect you to know that, not to stand there shrieking like an idiot about crashes". Now, get a ahold of yourself . . . . . or get off the airplane".

I never got the chance, since the skipper was standing in the doorway and it would have been bad form to climb over him to get to this clown . . but I considered it.

What an embarassment to all CFI's. . . the guy was a walking stereotype.

 

[terryhfly]

Did he have on the leather bomber jacket and Ray-bans? I bet his liscense plate says "Av8tor" or "HIFLYNG" and the ever popular "My other car is a Baron" sticker.

I had a privite pilot come up to me with a weather print out after we had to divert and tell me I made the wrong choice. He loudly said that the ASOS was fine at the destination. He didn't notice the level 5 TS that surounded the airport. He just wanted to show off that he was a private pilot and new more then the poor airline captain and his dispatch. You know who you are!

Terry

 

[KATL8R26L]

thought?

Hers is a thought, it is nice to have all these ratings and doing some thing that most people can't do.


But if it's not your plane or flight, keep thine mouth shut and listen , and just watch, you mite learn some thing in the process of doing that.

 

[Typhoon1244]

I had a guy give a note to our F/A to give to me, asking me to please turn the yaw dampers on. (He was looking out at the wingtip and seeing that one-degree-per-second "rock" that the CRJ's autopilot does.)

I told the F/A to thank him for his timely assistance.

 

[Nolife]

But out

While I was an instructor I was doing a photo flight and the photographer told me he happened to also be a pilot. Throughout taxi and run up he kept giving me advice. Don't forget this... do that like this... where are we going, I thought the runway was that way... I finally said," OK you fly and I'll take the camera."

He was quiet after that but I didn't get a tip.

 

[FL000]

I had a guy give a note to our F/A to give to me, asking me to please turn the yaw dampers on. (He was looking out at the wingtip and seeing that one-degree-per-second "rock" that the CRJ's autopilot does.)

I told the F/A to thank him for his timely assistance.

Sounds like a terroristic threat to me.

 

[flywithastick]

offered flight crew help once

was on a regional flight once sitting near the front. Had my flying things with me since I was picking up a Cub and ferrying it to it's new home.

The Capt's headset apparently broke just before pushing back. The FA brought him some tape and he began wrapping some part of the mechanism. I pulled a pair of DC's out of my bag and offered them. Said no thanks and kept taping. I wanted to help the guy, but was a little conscious of looking like some kind of whacko who carries a headset on an airliner.

guess that's about limit to the help I think I'd offer a professional crew.

 

[Swass]

He probably didn't want to hook up with your earbugs and stuff that's all stuck to the inside of your cups.

 

[flywithastick]

He probably didn't want to hook up with your earbugs and stuff that's all stuck to the inside of your cups.

Ahh, now that makes sense. I was just afraid he thought I was a whacko or something!

 

[varicam]

F/A couldn't find the FAA approval sticker (required to have one, if you want to use it in the cabin).

Probably the reason the F/A couldn't find a FAA approval sticker is that the FAA doesn't approve child seats. All child seats must have DOT approval in order to be used in a motor vehicle. This includes trains, planes (including Part 91), and automobiles.

 

[BankAccount=0$]

a proud CFI

I had a privite pilot come up to me with a weather print out after we had to divert and tell me I made the wrong choice. He loudly said that the ASOS was fine at the destination. He didn't notice the level 5 TS that surounded the airport. He just wanted to show off that he was a private pilot and new more then the poor airline captain and his dispatch. You know who you are!

Terry [/B][/QUOTE]

I have a student who is a VP at a Fortune 500 company who flies probably on average 20 flights a month on the airlines. I've always counseled him on not becoming a "wannabe airline pilot", and to just politely ask the crew if he could look up in the cockpit, but not bug them with endless questions or comments. This last week he told me about a captain who asked him if he was a pilot, and he said his reply to the captain was
"No, you guys are the pilots, I just have my ticket"

I'd have to say that hearing that just about made my week. It's all too rare to find somebody who really "gets" it. Not only does this guy pay me for my time by what he thinks I'm worth ($45/hour), instead of the normal flight school wage of $15/hour, but I just got back from a weekend trip all expenses paid to go to a baseball game for his long X-C. Makes me wonder if God doesn't really hate CFI's after all.

Cheers,
TJ

 

[Whirlwind]

Re: But out

While I was an instructor I was doing a photo flight and the photographer told me he happened to also be a pilot. Throughout taxi and run up he kept giving me advice. Don't forget this... do that like this... where are we going, I thought the runway was that way... I finally said," OK you fly and I'll take the camera."

He was quiet after that but I didn't get a tip.

Argh!!!

I've only done a few photo flights (all in helicopters), most of them were fine, but one was nuts like that. He kept trying to tell me that I could just hover at 300ft with no forward movement (which puts us inside the H/V curve), "this other guy in this other helicopter did it, so it is safe".

Argh!!!

I felt like telling him, "well then why don't you get him to fly you around!", but insulting a customer is bad for business.

This other guy I took up was totally cool however, he said to me, "I'm gonna tell you exactly what I want up there, but if it isn't safe, then that's ok, just tell me what you can do."

I LOVE customers like that!!!

 

[cl-65link]

I had some know-it-all on the Saab on a flight who started a ruckus because we were about to takeoff without the flaps down. He claimed he "was in the Air Force at one time" or something to that effect. Just sit down, buckle up, and shut up.

 

[WindyCityPilot]

I guess some old man told one of our FAs to get the captain because the Saab didn't pass it's mag check and therefore the plane wasn't safe... it was first flight and the crew was doing the P3 switch test (changes engine noise).

 

[Ty Webb]

Re: Re: CFIdiot

Probably the reason the F/A couldn't find a FAA approval sticker is that the FAA doesn't approve child seats. All child seats must have DOT approval in order to be used in a motor vehicle. This includes trains, planes (including Part 91), and automobiles.

The point isn't who issues the sticker; the point is that our Op Specs state that the F/A must visually check each car seat for the "Approved for use on aircraft" sticker . . . without the sticker, it's not going, period. And, instead of realizing that we have to comply with the regs (ie our Op Specs) and doing something useful (show the F/A where the sticker happened to be located on his particular brand of chair) the guy decided the way to deal with it was through histrionics and bad drama, announcing in a loud voice that we " . . could CRASH and my daughter would be KILLED".

If I were the captain, I would have taken him off the flight, back into the jetway, and let him convince me that he was going to be able to conduct himself in a more mature and professional manner without alarming the other passengers.

Can you say . . . . . . "Loser"!

 

[Mookie]

had a "cheese sniffer" Brit in the back the other day sitting in the row above the wing who made us stop taxiing b/c he saw a crack in the wing. said he was in the "royal airforce", and he was scared that the "crack" would open up in flight. trying not to die laughing, i pointed out that the othe wing had the same "crack" or as I pointed out...or as we call them in the new world, seam...in the wing, and that he should please relax. he got a bunch of people riled up in the back though. the fa said that the rest of the pax were not thrilled by this monday a.m. quarterback second guessing us. best part was that we missed our flow time b/c of this dude, and a bunch of people were late for connections. what a tool!!!

It's also a lot of fun scaring the crap out of mainline pilots in the jumpseat who aren't used to the deck angle on approach of a CRJ until the flare. it usually makes my day...

 

[Ty Webb]

It's also a lot of fun scaring the crap out of mainline pilots in the jumpseat who aren't used to the deck angle on approach of a CRJ until the flare. it usually makes my day...



Heh-heh. I've fought the urge to holler "brace!" when the runway numbers fill the windshield on our Air Wisconsin flights.

 

[Typhoon1244]

...some old man told one of our FAs to get the captain because the Saab didn't pass it's mag check and therefore the plane wasn't safe...

A passenger once wrote to the company about my father for not doing a mag check at all. (It was a DC-9-31.)

More DC-9 stories: you know that the '9's elevators are not interconnected or powered, right? When it's sitting on the ground, they're free to flop around any which way the wind blows them. An observant passenger wrote to the F.A.A., explaining that Sunjet International was flying airplanes with "broken tail ailerons."

After the Alaska "jackscrew" crash a while back, passengers starting asking Dad if they'd taken care of "that stabilizer problem." He assured them that his company had removed the stabilizers from all their aircraft to avoid any problems. Almost every passenger he told that was greatly relieved.

 

[WindyCityPilot]

Re: Re: Re: CFIdiot

...the guy decided the way to deal with it was through histrionics and bad drama, announcing in a loud voice that we " . . could CRASH and my daughter would be KILLED".

You should have told him to store her in an overhead bin. There, she would be completely safe from injury in event of a crash.

 

[wickedpilot]

I felt like pulling him out in the jetway, and saying "You know, if we operated this airplane under Part 91, we might have that leeway, but, you see, we operate under Part 121, and we have to follow the regs. As a CFI, I would expect you to know that, not to stand there shrieking like an idiot about crashes". Now, get a ahold of yourself . . . . . or get off the airplane".

I bet LXApilot would have given that pax a piece of his mind just like he did that "sloopy" F/O down in JAX.