Rather than leave this comment buried deeply in my other status, I thought id unearth it here for clarity. If you were unaware, I took a stand against the other Area Chief Examiners in my area (NW) who I consider are not capable of demonstrating the tests which they are testing. I am now no longer an Area Chief Examiner. (there are other reasons too no doubt....) Lol. My reasoning goes a little like this:.......................... I know you do not have to be a murderer to judge a murder trial, but the founding principals of the whole BMFA achievement scheme and the UP and Away document that outlines its current approved training scheme, are Demonstration, Imitation, Recapitulation. i.e. the instructor demonstrates, the pupil imitates, the instructor recaps until the beginner flies the manouvre correctly. It stands to reason then that up to a point (where the models diversify to specialist levels such as aerobatics, jets, scale C certificates) the examiners must be able to demonstrate to canditates or trainees, exactly what it is they require to see. This is not a competition with subjective judges, this is a model flying test. Your driving examiner could i assume, drive when he passed your test? A good deal of the nationwide Chief Examiners are still first generation volunteers selected from volunteers when the scheme first began. Most of these are now in their 70s or knocking on the door of it and simply do not fly anymore. Those that do, often have a significantly lower standard of flying than when they took on the role. My opinion, and it is only that, is that if the Chief Examiner cannot Demonstrate and Recapitulate the A&B certificates he is authorised to test, then he should not be testing them. There are younger, more active and more current model pilots who are willing to pick up and run the scheme, but the old guys do not like to step aside. I have been quite vocal about my stance in the past. When the area recently appointed another ACE who had previously admitted that he had not flown fixed wing for 2 years and was unable to demo the A cert, I almost, almost resigned. Only the request from some of my more local clubs to stay on (so they didnt have to be tested by one of the other area chiefs) persuaded me to stand again this year. The collective area clubs have decided for whatever reason, that they prefer there ACEs to be seen and not heard. I;m not entirely devastated by it to be honest and will continue to test to a proper standard at club level. When I too cannot demonstrate a passable A or B cert, then I will step aside from that too. I hope that clarifys my point somewhat and thanks for all the support.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 08:04:36 +0000