Well done, Roger, Solomon couldn’t have split the baby better.
The original beef, from the plaintiff attorney, is still up, no doubt the offending pilot has already had 5 phone calls about it, he’ll be more careful next time. But let’s not forget, we haven’t heard from the defense attorney, the judge, or the jury.
All we got was the prosecutor’s story and the lurid crime scene photo, since ruled inadmissible.
We’ll take it under advisement, absolutely, but we’re not so naive we think we have all the facts, and that’s the end of it, right? We’re big on amendments here- don’t forget the 6th and 7th. Every dog is entitled to his day in court.
If the actions are 100% accurate as described, the anon poster has accomplished most of what he was trying to do, as well as several things I see that I assume he wasn’t trying to do. I believe his intent was honest.
But the poster’s plane wasn’t started, and the offending pilot was right there. A short, polite conversation right then might have been more effective, might have been perfect.
If it got under your skin bad enough that you thought about it all the way to Oshkosh, and then posted anonymously from there- hey, just get it off your chest.
I guarantee the offending pilot saw it a different way. You both could have covered your points in 2 minutes. He would have understood your points exactly, and made his rebuttal, if there was one. Maybe he had his reasons, maybe he was a bonehead- either way, you’d both KNOW.
If it was thoughtlessness, and he is usually introspective and thoughtful, you’ll make him a better pilot for life.
That’s the pride pilots take in their work, and that would have been a great day’s work for you.
I believe you’d shake hands at the end, and both feel somehow improved.
Nowadays we live on line, nobody talks much any more.
But we’re not cops.
It’s hard to be a cop, to sort out fact from fiction, discern motive from method.
As we aren’t cops, let’s not be judge, jury or executioner, either.
Do I believe the anonymous poster is 100% accurate, that it wasn’t all a result of dyspepsia from sausage and eggs hurried under threat of weather?
With the half we know, I believe him- there’s probably something to his complaint.
But really, it could have been some loud noise followed by a crescendo conversation with his student pilot wife, their delicious self-righteousness gaining a momentum all its own. I’m a married man, myself.
If the events are mostly true, what’s the best way to fix the rookie, given that the idiot is unreachable?
I say- tell him, not me.
In the offender’s defense-Cirrus are heavy for their relatively small mains- they are hard to turn around in grass, especially if it’s wet or gravelly. I have experienced this problem, and I feel for Alex’s dilemma, and appreciate- from both sides- what happened next in Czechoslovakia.
So the rest of the observations might have just been a couple squeeze betweens, seen from the wrong angle- the pilot seeing a few feet clear on each side, no problem. Seen from 50 yards, at a 30* offset, by an observer already made edgy by IO-550 noise, it might seem a damning confirmation of arrogance, ineptitude.