Great and thoughtprovoking video. I'm glad I got to know Marco Martino during his first year at Aptrac, he was a great friend and a source of many laughs at our crew house. I'm so sorry for Your loss and I truly hope that You can make a difference with this video and the information You've gathered. The fact that inexperienced young pilots are exploited to this degree that they risk their life doing maneuvers even experienced pilots would think twice about puts the entire industry and CAA to shame.
I am genuinely shocked that these wholly unsuitable Pilots were tasked with carrying out demanding low level flying in machines whose flight characteristics they were unfamiliar with! They were unsuitable through no fault of their own, they had never expected to fly these class of aircraft and so had no understanding of quite how they operated prior to receiving their 20 hour type conversion ratings. Low level air work requires experienced Pilots yet these men were only doing this work in order to build sufficient flying hours as Command Pilots to allow them to apply to airlines for First Officer training positions. Not one was suitable for the type of work for which they were contracted, in fact it's fair to say that they were clearly wholly unsuitable for it, by any definition! Your investigation of the company, their supposed training and the individual accidents makes for truly disturbing viewing and it's tragic to see the horrific toll of deaths and serious injury to these trusting Pilots. You truly honour your beloved brother by taking this stand and raising attention to this extremely disturbing series of crashes. The families of the other deceased and injured Pilots will be heartened that you are trying to get accountability for their beloved relatives, too.
Young, fixed wing pilots and rotary wing operations do not mix. Low level manoeuvring will create situations where mishandling faults will become apparent. This is because the flying techniques are so totally different. The fault lies clearly with the operator and oversight authorities. Me? I only have 13,000 hours short haul jet operations and would want 50 hours post licence in low level manoeuvre training before I would subject those on the ground to my flying.
I'm very sorry to hear about your loss, Matteo. I recently stopped working as a crop duster pilot on gyroplanes. It is quite dangerous work, with a single engine aircraft and not designed specifically for cropdusting, more like adapted for it. Cropdusting training is not standardized for gyroplanes since it's barely starting to be used for this purpose. One has to be very careful in maneuvering and flying so. It's no game. Sorry for your loss mate.
This video makes me sad and angry.. thank you for making that video, I really hope it helped saving some young folks from that bullshit. Especially the cluster of first-day on the job accident is hard to swallow, how that did the first one not ring a million bells?
I'm sorry for the loss of your brother by the way... it's horrible! I told them they needed to make a better training program and make pilots more experienced especially in the mountainous areas... but of course it was like screaming at deaf ears... the shit we were forced to do was illegal and if you'd like to talk to me about the experiences I'd be happy to share... just pm me 👍
Four accidents (my first thought, as a gyro pilot, POOR TRAINING)... blame the aircraft and swap to a fixed-wing... another accident.. Nope - NOT the aircraft - Your training and/or maintenance sucks. A gyro is an incredibly functional, versatile, and safe platform when flown by a pilot with adequate training. Putting a low-hours pilot (around 20hrs) in the most risky situation (low and slow in proximity of obstacles) is nothing short of pure criminal negligence. Places which consider a gyro to be a “bolt-on” to a fixed-wing licence seem to have the worst safety records. Places which treat the gyro as a unique aircraft in its own right (and not a cross between a fixed-wing and a helicopter which requires not much more than a few hours “difference training” for a “bolt-on” to a fixed-wing permit) and implement a solid training programme (such as the UK) have the best safety records.
it IS insane. No serious fixed wing crop-duster ops would even do that but additionally adding gyroplanes with their very hard limits and especially high demands in low maneuver flying and mountenious terrain without any real training is kinda attempted murder like.
@Gerhard Kutt True... Horrific narrative of profit before human life, ignorance, as well as abysmal stupidity on the part of the company. My condolences to the families of these boys who lost their lives so tragically. So very sad...
Gyrocopters require specific training. Agricultural flying also requires considerable training and I cannot believe authorities allow unqualified low-time pilots to undertake ag flying. Ag flying is far more dangerous and demanding than about anything else in aviation. I am also stunned these poor pilots could not grasp the seriousness of the task.
Even more so in hilly trerrain. Energy management with an unpowered rotor in ground proximity AG flying with up and down slopes is not trivial and such a mountain-terrain AG flying without some excess power available is something I have not seen before and I think there is a reason for that... i am at loss of words here. How? How could a bunch of people even remotely think that this was a good idea and OK that?
Viewing this in late 2020, I can only hope that the horrifying facts behind the unnecessary deaths of these fine young men stopped the criminal conspiracy to hide the causes and cured the operation! My sympathy in the senseless death of your brother; I can only hope your efforts to stop the corporate madness brought positive results.
'Xsit' A COMPANY NAME TO REMEMBER AND TO STAY AWAY FROM. The very name of the company is ominous/portentous. Criminal negligence. My condolences to you Matteo on the tragic loss of your brother as well as to all families who lost their beloved sons to this company. It beggars belief...
Now that the truth has been discovered. ...pilots need to stop working for the company all together. ... ( No pilots/No work gets done/company fades away).
