cncpc wrote:
I doubt that I know a pilot who hasn't smoked marijuana.
Never did, never will. I'm not a degenerate and I don't believe I'm alone in this industry.
Don't worry WHEN you become a pilot 95% of the people you fly with are awesome and you get to have a lot of fun with. Unfortunately like any career there's people who fall outside the norm. That for some reason think it's they're duty in life to judge and critic everyone else and even to go as far as making sure everyone around them knows their opinion. While I obviously agree pilots should abstain for any substance that affects their abilities, whatever you've done in the past should have no bearing on you becoming a pilot. Losers like this guy give pilots a bad rep, you're going to be just an average guy and whatever you did in the past is your own business.
On the plus side, the company I work for allows you to include the name of guys like this in your bid and they will make every effort to avoid pairing you two together.
This planet. My last great aviation employer gave me a pre-employment drug screen. You will find many corporate companies do too. Same reason some will breathalyse you before you get onto the airplane.
I don't actually GARA if you smoke or snort or pull your wire in the cockpit, I just really hope you are not driving me to Paris this fall. I managed to stay sober for all my work life but like I said, go crazy.
Try answering yes to a US border guy and see what happens. Also, the US randomly tests pilots for drugs. Have fun with that.
Go crazy you little snowflakes, I know you are convinced that your tiny lives are more important than your crew or those in the back.
---------- ADS -----------
"What's it doing now?"
"Fly low and slow and throttle back in the turns."
This thread is super funny. Thanks for the laughs degenerates.
I actually had this exact conversation with the lady who does our company drug testing. She felt that companies in the future regardless of federal law will be able to prohibit any drug use by their pilots, test for it, and terminate or require treatment. The example she gives is that any OTC meds that impair flying ability can be prohibited and tested for.
Drugs like ambien, even antihistamines that make you drowsy, and are perfectly legal, can be seen to be hazards to flying and can be tested for.
I always hoped that professional pilots would take their responsibilities seriously but it seems that to many, its just a job. The fact that many are holding other people's lives in their hands doesn't seem to matter, its their right to do anything they want and that's the most important part.
I knew about 10 pilots who thundered in and some like JC who I corresponded with but never met - only one I was aware of flew with bad hangovers and killed somebody else. I wonder if these snowflakes will begin to see the seriousness of this profession, where people die when they screw up, to maybe finally teach them the meaning of "professional" and make the point that you cannot risk being impaired in your ability to give your best?
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"What's it doing now?"
"Fly low and slow and throttle back in the turns."
Yeah - I realized it was somewhat uncalled for, so I changed it.
But if we're going to lynch anyone who has ever smoked MJ (before or after getting their license), then I think the same should be done for alcohol too - it is just as much of an intoxicant as any other drug.
That's a straw man and you know it. Stupid thing is, you all know when you're wasted and you are not performing to your best level. Go ahead and live your lives as you wish, your character is what defines you.
I'm done with this. Just stop fooling yourselves that you are somehow "professional."
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"What's it doing now?"
"Fly low and slow and throttle back in the turns."
I'm not condoning drug use at all. You just sound dated and out of touch. Because I believe marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol I'm not professional?
You just sound dated and out of touch. Because I believe marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol I'm not professional?
Alcohol can be a very dangerous substance because it can become so addictive over time it can interfere with your ability to safely fly.
I can not personally comment on the dangers posed by marijuana but I can state that an addiction to alcohol can ruin your career if not cured in time.
I have difficulty understanding why any professional pilot might try and defend the use of any mind altering substance, note I said professional pilot.
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The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
Just like you can have a drink on your day off and still be a professional pilot I think you can enjoy a little mj on your day off and still be a professional pilot. It's what happens at work that matters.
I'm concerned about the proliferation of false information we seem to have more of these days, thanks to social media and the internet, plus the apparent de-emphasis on science that appears to be the social norm these days.
Does marijuana, or does it not, cause changes in the brain as a result of prolonged, regular use? Some say it does, and some say it does not. Someone is lying. Who? Both the pro-weed and the anti-weed people are guilty of spreading fake facts. Like how it cures cancer. I'm pretty sure it's an effective palliative medicine for people who are experiencing pain or lack of appetite, but let's be very skeptical when it comes to claims that it has any curative qualities, especially when it is inhaled as smoke!
Likewise, we do know that alcohol can damage your brain. We know that it is an intoxicant. But we also know a lot of facts about how long it lasts, and we have pretty good rules about what constitutes "impairment". We have fairly well-developed social stigma against people who cannot control themselves to the extent necessary to ensure they are not intoxicated at work. We know how to test against this when it comes to alcohol. With alcohol there is no believable folklore that "it makes me drive better" or "it cures kidney disease" or any of the inane things you hear from the pro-marijuana movement.
This is what I'm going to need to see before I cease to be concerned about marijuana use by pilots. Making the possession and use of marijuana a non-criminal act is one thing, now we need to work hard to bring our understanding of just what it does to the same level we have for alcohol. Until that happens I would prefer to advise pilots to restrict their use of it, if it is something they enjoy, to those times where it's reasonable to assume it has worn off before going to work. The same way we (should) do with alcohol.
Let's get one thing straight: normalizing and de-stigmatizing the use of marijuana is not going to make aviation, or anything else, any safer. People who don't use it themselves aren't going to support it unless they can be sure that pressure is brought to bear on those who will, to be responsible about it. Never mind people who say " as long as it's not in the cockpit". "How long before the cockpit" should be what they are concerned with.
I'm not one for telling people not to do things in their spare time. However, I can tell by the way a person talks whether they smoked a lot of dope when they were young. Quite a few of my friends have this characteristic dopey drawl, eye-half-lidded, mouth-slightly-open, resting face that to me is an indicator of pretty heavy teenage dope use. I am actually pretty convinced of it and this makes me curious about what it does to people's brains when they are in development. Most of these guys function at normal levels so I certainly would not use it as a basis for discrimination, or at least I like to think I wouldn't. It makes me want to know more before I can say I support it or not, however. Marijuana obviously does something different to your brain than alcohol does. I would like to know more about that, the way we do with alcohol, before I throw my opinion behind any "yea" or "nay" with respect to whether I think there should be different rules for pilots that there are for the general public. I do certainly believe the issue deserves careful, bullshit-free consideration!
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If I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself
A few things to consider (if you see no problem with holding a license and using... even occasionally):
1) If this pilot had life insurance, do you think they paid up?
2) How do you think the family of this guy felt when they first found out what was coming out in the report?
3) If his engine had failed, and he was the hero who managed to safely put it down and saved everyone's life in the process, would the TSB have omitted the toxicology results?
That's some legacy.
This pilot was flying intoxicated. However, even if he wasn't at the time, THC can remain detectable in urine up to 7-30 days depending on use. 90 days detectable in hair.
