Posted by Jim Barnes (76.103.28.250) on November 16, 2009 at 15:35:59:
In Reply to: Re: C27? posted by Maffsguy on November 16, 2009 at 04:45:42:
Hi MAFFs Guy,
I believe that you are right. At CALFIRE we will be meeting in December to work on better standardization of our training. CALFIRE is commissioning a working group to help standardize their air program. Other industry operators have made similar efforts in their training programs. It’s time we all got together at an interagency safety meeting so we can begin to train together. Right now we all train in separate camps and meet each other for the first time at the first large, complex extended attack fire of the year.
The S-2T has been a great success improving safety with truly superior performance and dependability. Our training endeavors to reduce mission driven behavior. We try to detect and correct cavalier attitudes before it results in an accident. A lot of hard work remains to be done but I believe we are headed in the right direction.
The old tanker days that produced a lot of fond recollections and great stories are dead forever along with a lot of our old friends. I don’t believe that the “cowboy image” really represents the sharp young aviators that are getting into the business today. Unfortunately the image is still with us and I also believe it works against us.
Jim Barnes