Sorry Woj I see your post as THE most counterproductive one I have ever seen in the matter of improving safety. I have not yet seen any new jet fliers writing on RCU as "Gods" and sugesting that WE are all whining old women is really a long, long, way off the mark, and stifling debate achieves nothing positive.

In the airline industry we encourage EVERYONE to make a contribution to safety from the cleaners right up to the CEO and we certainly do not mock or deride, ANYONE, regardless of inexperience, because they make an input however impractical or irrelevant it turns out to be, in fact we go to great lengths to encourage people to speak up. Safety is not a bolt-on extra, or afterthought, involving only a few it is a vein which runs through the whole operation, and it is everyone's responsibility however inexperienced. Discouraging or deriding newcomers is fatal.

Actually the departure of SOME "really experienced" guys who do regard themselves as the "Gods" is no bad thing. I had one luminary on RCU who told me that because he had 400 flights on his BobCat and I had only 200 I did not have the real world experience to discuss and investigate the BobCat elevator problem, and should keep my opinions to myself. The fact that I have two Bobcats (love them ) and that I used to teach control and stability, amongst other things, to RAF flying instuctors in a real jet apparently doesn't count !

I am getting older (but definitely not a woman or a whiner, ( but totally intolerant of people who do stupid things with aerolanes of any sort) ) and I think its a privelege. Too many of my military flying colleagues did not get to my age, being killed at a much younger age in flying accidents. When I started flying, in 1962, the RAF lost an aircraft every few days, now its a rare ocurrence, even allowing for the reduction in the size of the fleet, safety has improved enormously through constant, constant, effort.

............and yes we all know that we cannot eliminate accidents (although an editorial in a recent Air Transport magazine does not eliminate the possibilty of achieving a zero accident rate with modern Jet Transports) but we can manage and minimise the risk whilst continuing our operations.

So speak up guys , all of you, regardless of experience, I certainly want to hear your views an inputs even if it is "just " a Facet or a Bommerang you fly.

Regards, David Gladwin.