Im Getting Dummer By The Day

[Charles W.]

Everyone must be working for a change so I just thought I would make another post to keep some activity here.

As an example of the shysters that seem to be drawn to aviation I thought I would let you all know the latest on my trip to England and what is happening now.

As I have explained, he was making demands of me with regard to the flying of the aircraft that were way beyond what I consider safe, and when given an ultimatum to either follow his orders or be replaced with another pilot I of course went back to Canada.

The latest is, he claims he will pay the money owing to my two partners in England for the mechanical work done, but he will not pay my airfare and extra expanses for my trip to England. Remember he asked me to fly the airplane and authorized me to buy a ticket and come over to England at short notice, as well I was there for a week and stayed at the hotel that he was in, which of course he paid for.

He now has a new reason to not pay me...........

He claims that not only am I incompetent as a pilot but I missreperesented my qualifications because my pilots license is not valid due to my not having a valid medical.

This statement is in writing to my two partners, but the most incredible thing is last week I got a call from one of my customers in the USA who owns a PBY. He wanted to know what in hell was going on with the guy that owns the Cat in England as he had received a phone call asking him if he would deliver the airplane to Israel, my friend suggested that he call me as that is what I do for a living...... well the guy said I was the reason that his airplane was stuck in England as not only did I not know what I was doing but I didn't even hold a valid medical for my ATP.

By the way I had faxed a copy of my license including my medical group 1 valid until Aug. 01/2004. Then I had scanned and e-mailed another copy as the fax did not satisfy the Israelis.

Anyhow he claims that I have damaged his company and put Boeing Aircraft in a bad position as Boeing helicopter division was funding the ferry costs. He claims that Boeing will pay my two partners but not me, because I missreperesented my qualifications.

He has combed the world looking for a qualified pilot and at least last week has not found one.

Also he told the guy in the US that owns a Cat that he can not get insurance.

So that is really one of the stranger fu.k ups that I have been involved in in many years.

As to insurance, Lloyds have been insuring me and my two partners in this business of ferrying PBY's for the last ten years, in over forty different countries and we have never failed to complete a delivery, nor have we ever filed a claim.

So go figure...

Maybe it is getting time for me to let Boeing know why the project is off the rails.

By the way, when I left the project the first phone call I made was to my insurance broker and the underwriter to inform them that I was no longer involved in the ferry flight.

My broker and I are very good friends and he was stunned that I had left the project and asked for the reason, I said you don't really want to know the whole story, buy it was for reasons of safety being compromized....he just grunted and said that's all I need to know Chuck, thanks for calling and letting me know you are no longer connected to that airplane.

Like this thread was named, I must be dummer than a stone to stay in this stupid business.

Rev...

 

[Bohica]

Chuck, if you're callin' yerself dumb, just how dumb is that pecker in England?
He should realize that there are x number of people around that are qualified on the Canso, and you're one of the best.
Sounds like he's got his 'jones between a rock and a hard place.

Edit: Chuck here's a bit of trivia for ya.

 

[Charles W.]

Bohica :

Thanks for the comments.

You and everyone else should read my comments on the Northern Lights crash in the AME thread.

We lose to many people because for some reason pilots do not seem to realize that there are limits to what they can do, maybe my thoughts will drive the message home.

Hell if I can learn the rules of safety and take financial and emotional losses rather than bend to intimidation and peer pressure so can every one of you out there.

Remember doing the right thing is never something to be ashamed of, not to mention you live longer.

PS:

I'm dumb like an old fox.............

Chuck

 

[Charles W.]

Stupidity seems to feed on it's self in my case.

I just e-mailed my agreement to head on over to Holland and test fly their PBY after they have spent a fortune rebuilding it.

Then I will train at least one of their pilots to a standard that he can check out the rest of their guys.

Also I sent more paper work off to their CAA for approval to train them on my Canadian license. As well I included copies of the documents that the Austrailian CASA gave me to issue type ratings...........I am wondering if they will do a flight check with one of their inspectors or just give me the authority to issue the type rating?

Anyhow this forum is slow so even though I may be boring all you grunts out there we need something to read.


By the way the airplane was my very first waterbomber.

Bob Murdock bought it in 1972 and checked me out on how to waterbomb............I was really lucky I never had to fly as a first officer in a waterbomber because I flew with Murdock at Austin Airways in both the PBY's and the DC3's....I guess he thought I would survive so he gave me the airplane after a couple of weeks beating the sh.t out of fires around Yellowknife. The last time I flew it I took it down to Santiago in the winter of 74/75.

Reverend Chas W.

 

[Bohica]

I met Moose in Gagnonville in 1970 it must have been. The mining company there was opening a new mine over at Fermont and were extending the railroad the extra 80 miles or so to the new site. They had a few strips along the right of way, and he was there for a week or so hauling fuel and freight with the Canso. I can't remember which company it was. I met him again in Newf in 1975, I guess it was. He was ferrying a Canso over from the Azores, and had lost an engine out over the ocean. Said the last 500 miles were pretty slow. Can't remember the registration, it was one of the Protection Civile machines from France.
His son lived Leigh here for years, worked for Wabush Mines.
Good luck in Holland.

 

[Charles W.]

Moose brought two PBY6A's over from France, I went to Montreal to ferry them to Red Deer, the first one lost an engine right after take off and is the same one that I went over to England to ferry to Israel. I checked the log book and sure enough there was the entry...ten minutes....

One thing for sure Moose could sure fly a PBY.

I don't really know what I am going to do about retiring, seems that every time I say that is enough someone asks me to go somewhere and fly one for them.......

It's like I'm caught in a time warp, I guess I do it because someone has to.

I find it really strange when passing position reports to airliners to relay to ATC for me that we almost always have the same conversation, they wish they were in the PBY and I wish I was in the jet. :mellow:

When do all you guys think I should quit?

Reverend C.W.

 

[Jet Jocky]

Chuck
the day you retire is the day that Canadian Aviation no longer exists.

JJ


Visit
http://www.airbum.com/grass.html

 

[skullcap]

Why quit? Sounds to me like you are still very much a pilot and when should a pilot retire, when he is no longer fit of mind or body. Other than a bit cantancerous at times doesn't seem to me that you have any problems with flying, ha ha.

I know a man who flew until the last day he could physically fly and past away a short time later, people ask why didn't he quit earlier, I know why and so do you and most of us here.

Quit, ha, screw that.

sc

 

[twinstar_ca]

skullcap, even those of us who just held a ppl and have lost our medicals never quit being pilots... not a day goes by that i don't look up and watch and remember what it was like to actually have the controls in my hands...

it's also why we hang out here... sometimes, talking is as good as being there... B)

 

[Old Dog Flying]

Hey Chuck: I just read in "Flypast" that an unnamed pilot from Arizona was going to fly the Canso from England to an undisclosed museum in Isreal....could be that there is a real dummy out there.

Barney

 

[Charles W.]

Yeh, Barney, seems like there is no problem finding "Qualified " pilots when people like me are not up to the challenge of having " The righ stuff "

I guess you know there is a rather long discussion going on over on Pprune in the Historical & Nostalgic thread about me not flying that Cat.

I finally rexeived an e-mail from the one guy who was doubting my story and he now is satisfied that my side of it was credible.

Anyhow no one seems to know who exactly is flying it but at least the owner is getting things done the proper way.

This elite crew did a 45 minute test flight directly above North Weald airpors like I was planning on doing.......except seems they had some difficulty reading the airspace restrictions at North Weald and climed to 2500 feet and calmly circled the field without clearance from Stanstead ATC, North Weald has a 1500 foot cap due to the Standstead approach requirements for the jets............and my source tells me they must have been using a handheld by the sound of their transmissions and the fact no one could contact them on either North Weald frequency nor any of the Standstead frequencies. ( The radios were wired wrong when I was taxiing it around and we used a handheld. )

Fortunately there was no problem with the phone lines after they landed and they finally got to talk to Stanstead ATC.

The final straw with me and the owner was the issue of uploading excessive fuel to save the tax back when exiting England (1.18 British pounds per gallon, so it really adds up. )

Anyhow I walked when he informed me I was being paid by him and he would decide how much fuel he put on board.

Even the rabbits all know me in North Weald so naturally I get fed any interesting things that transpire, one of the local rabbits or some other creature e-mailed me the amount of fuel that was up loaded to the airplane from the time I left until the airplane departed North Weald...........the owner saved a lot of money, and the new crew are far, far better than me and my crew because we do not have the needed brain power to even think about flying it at the all up weight it had to have been when they left.

Also judging from my sources I would love to take some ground school from these guys about flying VFR in France, seems we have been to concerned with the airspace structure in France...hell I had no idea that you could just blast right through it.......then again I don't know for sure how they actually navigated, all I have is some chit chat from the guys that fly in France all the time , seems the new crew were not interested in any advice on how to navigate.

I guess they did exactly what I refused to do.....flew to the South of France then down the Med .... one thing about that route, it may be hour after hour over open ocean but at least the airspace is less restrictive....of course its longer, but what the hell......with all that fuel who cares...

Friday I received the approval from the Dutch CAA to teach on my Canadian licenses..........and I will be giving a type rating to one of their CAA guys........Hey, I just thought of something maybe we can grab a Cessna 150 and he can get me qualified to operate one of those complex aircraft and then I can come home and show the approval to those co.ks.ckers at 800 Burrard, maybe that would help???

Sorry, I just couldn't resist..........

Reverend Chas W.

 

[Bohica]

Have they made it to Israel yet, do ya know? As a second thought, why would the Israelis want a PBY to begin with, and a 6A at that.
If that guy you were having the discussion with on proon has been around and flown everything he says he has, he's gotta be a hundred ferkin years old. PanAm on the 707, TWA on the CV990. He sure has a hard on against AA though. :blink:

 

[Charles W.]

I don't know if they are in Israel yet, because once they launched the last I heard they landed in southern France, It is about three to four days flying depending on how things go.

The Israeli's want it for their museum, one of the Air Force Generals was in North Weald and asked me if I would go back to Israel and train them on the machine once they got it airworthy. So I said sure as long as you let me fly one of the Apaches that were going to escort us from Cyprus into Israel, he laughed and said that would be easy.

So I hope they call me to teach them how to fly it because I'd sell my sister to fly an Apache, especially if I get to fire the guns and rockets, hell I'd even like to fire a nuke just to see what it does.

411A the guy in Pprune has been e-mailing back and forth and he is genuine as I have his real name and address, he finally understands that I was telling the truth.

So in two weeks it's off to Amsterdam and have some fun with one of my old airplanes, I had sex in it ( with a woman. ) on a lake south of Santiago so there is a sentimental touch there.

The best part of the Holland thing is we will be doing lots of water work, that is what I like best.

Ive decided to fly until I am to senile to find the airport.

Reverend....................a slightly sinful reverend....

 

[Old Dog Flying]

Chuck senile...hell didn't you land at CZBB recently thinking it was CYVR????? Or was that BLI? Oh well Chuck have fun in Holland. They are great people and really know how to party.

Barney

 

[Charles W.]

Hey Barney.

I still have exceptional physical amd mental abilities , I can still gain a stroke when I change hands.