Unfortunately, there are some (Lancair and other) pilots out there who will not hear, much less heed, all
the good advice about recurrent training, practice, currency, etc., presented here by this
community.

For example:

Recently, a friend from my QB hangar - Instructor, ex-AF fighter jock and all around good pilot, told me about another friend who had recently purchased a Lancair 320 and had approached him about getting my friend to give him a check-out. My friend (let's call him Jack, since McCain is already using that line) told the guy that he wasn't qualified to do it and told him his best bet was to contact Redmond to help him out. I guess the guy insisted and Jack wavered a bit and asked me if I'd give him some right-seat time to at least familiarize himself with a Lancair so if push came to shove, he could maybe keep the guy from killing himself. I explained that my L235 was probably not a good equivalent to a 320 and that just about all Lancairs, regardless of type, would certainly have different cockpits, systems, etc., etc. and that I was not an instructor. Regardless of all that, we decided to go up since it was a good excuse to go fly on a nice day though I continued to advise him to encourage his friend to get a "real" Lancair check-out.

Following about an hour in the air, where Jack did most of the flying, he totally agreed with me and that even he would not fly any Lancair without a proper check-out, he wouldn't try to give his friend one and that's what he intended to tell him.

A couple of weeks later, I ran into Jack at the FBO where he teaches and he told me that his friend had been upset that Jack wouldn't do as he wished and had continued to urge him to get some qualified help, so had decided to just go ahead and fly his airplane anyway.

Long story short (sorta) on his third landing, he ran his 320 off the end of the runway. I didn't bother to ask about damage of injuries, I figured it was just nature's way of culling the stupid gene.

Moral: If a guy insists on being stupid, there ain't much you can do about it, no matter how much advice you give. I doubt this fellow will live long - assuming he hasn't permanently ruined his Lancair and gets it back in the air.

Dan Schaefer
Early 235:    N235SP - 900+ hours, all mine. --
I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users.
It has removed 359 spam emails to date.
Paying users do not have this message in their emails.
Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len