Gary Boggs wrote:

I had been feeling a little concerned about my friends flying for a while
now but he was very and angry unreceptive of any input about his flying. He
taught me how to fly 27 years ago and I have always held him in very high
regard. I let these things discourage me from acting on my concerns. He's
not that old, mid 60's, but his skills were starting to suffer. I feel
really bad now that I let my respect for him and his attitude get in the way
of talking to him about my concerns.

How many more of you out there have concerns about a fellow pilot and aren't
saying anything to them because it's not easy?

It's a tough situation, when someone's flying skills start to go, and
they go into denial instead of doing something about it. We had a
similar situation years ago where we could see the skills decreasing,
and while we fumbled around trying to figure out what to do, we
discovered the pilot, our long-time friend and main tow pilot, had been
flying without a medical for almost a year! He was so desperate to keep
flying, he didn't want to stop or tell us he couldn't pass a medical
anymore. It was scary, more from a liability standpoint (we owned the
towplane), because he wasn't that "bad" yet, but clearly losing his
sharpness.

This doesn't apply directly to your question, and might not have any
impact on the situation, but in a case where the pilot's formal
qualifications can affect you directly, I think that each year the pilot
should show you his license, binennial, meidical, and the aircraft
owners (even it's a club) should show him the maintenance and annual
records , and insurance papers, or leave these were he can access them
at any time. This should happen at the start of the relationship, so
there aren't any hard feelings later.

--
-----
change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA