ORIGINAL John Agnew
if you asked me who are the safest jet model pilots are my response would be the guys who fly the real thing. They include David, Craig Gottshang and our own Alasdair Sutherland. All current or ex commercial / military pilots with vast experience and to whom check lists are second nature. We would all do well to follow their examples.These guys have technical and aerodynamic knowledge streets ahead of most of us.
I grew up around professional pilots and I can tell you that as a blanket statement, that is simply not true. Those folks you mention have the attributes that they possess because of who they are, not what they do for a living. Professional pilots run the spectrum just like everyone else, from very knowledgeable in technical areas, including aerodynamics, to guys who would have a hard time explaining Bernoli's theroem to you. As far as checklists go, sure, they use them all of the time, but I've met a few who refuse to use any sort of checklist outside of work.
I've read a lot of David's writing and I think he is knowledgeable and I do agree that he has a point. However, I think he went a bit over board in the "immediate world wide alert" area and I definately don't think the hobby can, or should, be held to the same "standards" as it were, as full-size aviation. Its too difficult, too expensive, no fun, and doesn't guarantee 100% safe operations anyway...
ORIGINAL: EASYTIGER
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But Bidness is Bidness, I would HARDLY expect them, with their track record, to publicly say "oh, MY BAD, so sorry, want your money back?" For that matter, I would not expect ANYBODY, even BVM, to do that.
That is a very true statement and anyone who thinks differently has their heads burried very deeply somewhere...
I do not agree with some of the things that CARF has done, or been accused of doing, but there are two sides of every story and no one in any of the dealings with them that I've heard about is "untarnished" either. As far as their products go, there are some issues, but I see a lot of guys flying both their jets and props and they are, to a very large percentage, very happy with the product. There are price/performance (or quality) tradeoffs up and down the spectrum and IMHO, CARF has a fairly comfortable point along that line...
Bob