I have a shade under 4000 hours in Tac Hel, and about 300 or so from training courses including my helicopter instructor's course. All but 300 of my Tac Hel hours are on Kiowas. I have another few hundred hours of police helicopter time (Peel Region was the hardest work I've ever done in a cockpit).
I have poked fun at other CF flying communities, but I have some appreciation of the challenges of their jobs and the risks peculiar to them.
I have poked fun at other Tac Hel Squadrons, well, one at least - that always seemed to attract more than its share of the "problem children" yet also included many outstanding people too.
I have poked fun at those flying the other helicopter type in my first Squadron.
In turn, I have had similar jokes aimed at me.
That's to be expected. I know that you're all jealous.
But seriously, despite the fact that we're not all brilliant (statistically, half of all pilots are below average, just like half of all Infantrymen), we do the best that we can with what we've got to work with and how we've been trained.
There are serious flaws in both of those areas, and I've given my viewpoints on those in other threads.
Tac Hel also consistently had the lowest experience levels of any of the different flying communities up until a few years ago when others began to suffer from the same thing while our situation actually held, more or less (but did not improve). There are a lot of new guys out there today not getting enough of the right kind of hours to really learn their craft. As well as gaining useful experience, it also seems to take a couple of years for pipeliners to realize where they fit into the overall scheme of things and to become properly motivated.
The guy who signs for the aircraft, regardless of his experience and therefore comfort levels, is responsible for the aircraft and all of its occupants - including you guys in the back. He/she is quite aware of those responsibilities and would much rather err on the side of caution unless there is good and valid reason to do otherwise. Peacetime training is not worth unnecessary risk.
Having had at least my share of close calls over the years, and seen the results of those not so lucky (their mistakes, somebody else's mistakes, mechanical failure, weather, or some such), I have developed one major decision-making aid: "what would the board of inquiry say?"
Whatever I am asked to do, by my customer or my boss, or am contemplating doing, is not a good idea if it won't stand up to the scrutiny of a board of inquiry.
Some of my close calls were completely innocent and natural. Some were due to less-than-wise calls on my part, or things that I did not anticipate or see. Some occurred because I let myself be led into bad situations by those who I thought knew better than me.
None of that has happened since I developed my little reality check.
Initiating a board of inquiry is not mission accomplishment.
I know that there have been times when whoever it was that I was supporting was not happy with getting less support than they were hoping for. I've always explained the reasons as thoroughly as possible. Most understood, but there are some that have not. At least they've all gone home alive.
I went to far too many funerals early on in my flying career to not learn how important that was.
Try sitting up front and seeing what it's all about. It's not ALL fun and games, even if we'd like you to think that.
On our side, we've all seen dumb stuff done by our passengers, including the guy who ran into the nose of my Kiowa in an exaggerated MASH crouch and dented it in, or the senior officer who almost tossed his briefcase through my main rotor, or several that have skipped merrily past the tailrotor completely oblivious to how close they came to being reduced to a bloody stump, or the guys in the transmission seats that decide to break open their rifles in mid-flight over a swamp with the doors pinned back. And, for every time that I've gone to the wrong spot (usually in an area where navigation is tricky), I've been given a wrong grid or town name (Germany), and then some extras.
Half of all passengers are below average too.
I am not happy with some of the unrealistic things that I see happen when we're supposed to be tactical, however usually I understand why. There's generally a reason.
Now, if somebody's got a specific gripe, with dates, times, places, and a detailed description of the event in question, that should be followed up through the appropriate Avn Staff Guy in your Bde/Area HQ, as he was the one who booked the mission and is the link between supported unit/formation and Squadron. Chances are that somebody on the crew(s) has already brought it out in the debrief, but feedback, positive and negative (so long as it's constructive) can only help.
