SnaxMuppet
Well-Known Member
Do you really mean all that? My response to the \"Why did Arny\" thread
I am a bit weather-bound here in Milford Haven and I thought I would pop in to the forum and see what has happened since I stopped posting and I really can't believe some of the stuff that has been said about me. Strangely, I am not hurt or upset... just absolutely amazed that people that only know me from a few posts on a forum can form such outragious opinions of my character and my motives.
People even making comments about my abilities as a flying instructor! Unbelievable!
If any of this trip was about my ego I would have done it without RNLI any involvement at all. I am certainly wealthy enough to have done so and it would have saved me the thousands, yes that is right, thousands of letters, emails and telephone calls I have made or sent out to companies, clubs, associations etc asking for support in some way or another. I could have saved myself the heartache of trying to convince you lot that this is a well-founded event. I would have just done it... quietly and as an extended holiday, without the need for a full event risk assessment and a full risk assessment of EVERY LEG. You lot haven't seen that document but the RNLI required it if they were to give their sanction to me. It required me to look at every leg in detail and to list every point of risk... overfalls, islands or obstructions, tidal issues, fuel issues, weather aspects etc etc etc. That is a HUGE amount of additional work over and above the passage plans. I also had to document every sensible point of shelter, port of refuge or diversion port on EVERY LEG. Not just do as most people do... look at the chart and make a mental note of the places you could run to... but to document it... access time for tide, degree of shelter, entry problems and routes, harbourmaster telephone number and radio etc etc. I know this info is in Reeds but the point was that I needed to extract it beforehand so it was available before I departed for evaluation by the RNLI and sponsors to show that it was a well-founded event. Would I have done any of that for my ego?
Then there is the collecting... yesterday I stood outside a Tesco here in Milford Haven for 6 hours with only a 30 min break holding an RNLI collecting bucket, handing out hundreds of my cards, dressed in my full foulies and lifejacket to promote the event and to raise more funds. I ask all of you... is that the action of someone doing this just for an ego trip? I collected over £250 and if I do that at most of the stop points then I will collect £3-4000 just doing that for the RNLI. Just a point... everything I collect goes to the RNLI... nothing is used to pay for the event... that is from corporate sponsorship.
As for my flying... I have been flying since I was 14. I became an instructor at 20 (learned to drive a car at 21!), a small airfield air traffic controller at about the same time and I have been very involved in flying all my life. In all that time I have not known any instructors die. Those of you that know flying, and I know there are many of you on the forum, you will know that flying is similar to boating in many ways and one of them is that if you ignore good advice you stand a good chance of dying. I would say even more so in flying. With flying you can't put down an anchor, heave to, or put the engine into neutral and have a think about it. Things happen in real-time and they happen FAST... very fast. You have to react and make the right decision or you could crash. I have several thousand flying hours, mostly in light aircraft, and I learned very early on to listen to all advice and try to sift out the good from the bad. This has made me a passable pilot and a passable instructor. BUT, more importantly, it has kept me alive and I have never crashed or damaged an aeroplane. I don't think that any comment on my flying abilities or my abilities as an instructor can be gleaned from my posts on this forum.
I very strongly beieve that I have proven time and time again on this forum that I am very willing to take advice when it is offered genuinely. I get the hump big time when it is used to put me down or to have a go and for that failing I am truely sorry that I have clashed with a few of you. However, Anne is right, and my wife will also agree I am sure, I do always argue my position strongly but it is always from the heart. It doesn't always do me any favours but it is what I am. It often does come over as arrogance or the dis-interest in other peoples views. However, please, please, please believe me when I say that this is very much not the case. I canvass opinion in almost everything I do and often change my position based on what I am told. The people that have met me know that I am sure but clearly it doesn't come over on the forum.
So, where do I go from here? I have had great support from many of you here and I have had ridicule from others. I do not want to make enemies of any of you but it seems I am too late in that respect with a few.
To the rest, I ask you to please give me the benefit of the doubt and understand that many of my posts have been reactions to what I have taken as personal attacks or attacks on the Round Britain project, which is so engrossing for me that I have taken those as personal attacks also. I am doing my best to do this trip safely and sensibly in spite of what some of you might think. I am making it completely open in that I am posting my thoughts and assessments of weather etc and laying myself open to criticism in that respect. But I feel that there is a lot to be gained for everyone, including me, by doing so. To those that don't want to throw sh*t at me I ask you to stick with me and to continue to follow me round and yes, hopefully, to donate a little at some point.
To those that still want to have a go at me I say this... I might not be doing this as you would. I will make mistakes (hopefully not serious ones!). I probably have made mistakes so far. However, I genuinely believe that the trip is well planned and I will do my very best to make it well executed and a success... a personal success, a financial success for the RNLI and a success for my sponsors. If at the end of it you believe it is worth making a donation then I believe that it would have been worthwhile. I don't ask you to like me... I am a difficult person to like (Ask Anne and Paul) but above all I am honest, genuine and totally committed to do well in every I try. I am not all bad... please don't just discard me either.
I have had a spat or two with a few poeple and for that I am truely sorry. This project has taken me nearly 5 months of my life almost full time so far with the prospect of another 3-4 months away from home. I am touchy right now and if I was totally honest, just a little nervous... it is a very daunting trip.
I haven't been reading the tread as it developed, I haven't had time, but I will continue to look in from time to time. I may have a few days waiting out the weather here in Milford Haven so I have to do something /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I am a bit weather-bound here in Milford Haven and I thought I would pop in to the forum and see what has happened since I stopped posting and I really can't believe some of the stuff that has been said about me. Strangely, I am not hurt or upset... just absolutely amazed that people that only know me from a few posts on a forum can form such outragious opinions of my character and my motives.
People even making comments about my abilities as a flying instructor! Unbelievable!
If any of this trip was about my ego I would have done it without RNLI any involvement at all. I am certainly wealthy enough to have done so and it would have saved me the thousands, yes that is right, thousands of letters, emails and telephone calls I have made or sent out to companies, clubs, associations etc asking for support in some way or another. I could have saved myself the heartache of trying to convince you lot that this is a well-founded event. I would have just done it... quietly and as an extended holiday, without the need for a full event risk assessment and a full risk assessment of EVERY LEG. You lot haven't seen that document but the RNLI required it if they were to give their sanction to me. It required me to look at every leg in detail and to list every point of risk... overfalls, islands or obstructions, tidal issues, fuel issues, weather aspects etc etc etc. That is a HUGE amount of additional work over and above the passage plans. I also had to document every sensible point of shelter, port of refuge or diversion port on EVERY LEG. Not just do as most people do... look at the chart and make a mental note of the places you could run to... but to document it... access time for tide, degree of shelter, entry problems and routes, harbourmaster telephone number and radio etc etc. I know this info is in Reeds but the point was that I needed to extract it beforehand so it was available before I departed for evaluation by the RNLI and sponsors to show that it was a well-founded event. Would I have done any of that for my ego?
Then there is the collecting... yesterday I stood outside a Tesco here in Milford Haven for 6 hours with only a 30 min break holding an RNLI collecting bucket, handing out hundreds of my cards, dressed in my full foulies and lifejacket to promote the event and to raise more funds. I ask all of you... is that the action of someone doing this just for an ego trip? I collected over £250 and if I do that at most of the stop points then I will collect £3-4000 just doing that for the RNLI. Just a point... everything I collect goes to the RNLI... nothing is used to pay for the event... that is from corporate sponsorship.
As for my flying... I have been flying since I was 14. I became an instructor at 20 (learned to drive a car at 21!), a small airfield air traffic controller at about the same time and I have been very involved in flying all my life. In all that time I have not known any instructors die. Those of you that know flying, and I know there are many of you on the forum, you will know that flying is similar to boating in many ways and one of them is that if you ignore good advice you stand a good chance of dying. I would say even more so in flying. With flying you can't put down an anchor, heave to, or put the engine into neutral and have a think about it. Things happen in real-time and they happen FAST... very fast. You have to react and make the right decision or you could crash. I have several thousand flying hours, mostly in light aircraft, and I learned very early on to listen to all advice and try to sift out the good from the bad. This has made me a passable pilot and a passable instructor. BUT, more importantly, it has kept me alive and I have never crashed or damaged an aeroplane. I don't think that any comment on my flying abilities or my abilities as an instructor can be gleaned from my posts on this forum.
I very strongly beieve that I have proven time and time again on this forum that I am very willing to take advice when it is offered genuinely. I get the hump big time when it is used to put me down or to have a go and for that failing I am truely sorry that I have clashed with a few of you. However, Anne is right, and my wife will also agree I am sure, I do always argue my position strongly but it is always from the heart. It doesn't always do me any favours but it is what I am. It often does come over as arrogance or the dis-interest in other peoples views. However, please, please, please believe me when I say that this is very much not the case. I canvass opinion in almost everything I do and often change my position based on what I am told. The people that have met me know that I am sure but clearly it doesn't come over on the forum.
So, where do I go from here? I have had great support from many of you here and I have had ridicule from others. I do not want to make enemies of any of you but it seems I am too late in that respect with a few.
To the rest, I ask you to please give me the benefit of the doubt and understand that many of my posts have been reactions to what I have taken as personal attacks or attacks on the Round Britain project, which is so engrossing for me that I have taken those as personal attacks also. I am doing my best to do this trip safely and sensibly in spite of what some of you might think. I am making it completely open in that I am posting my thoughts and assessments of weather etc and laying myself open to criticism in that respect. But I feel that there is a lot to be gained for everyone, including me, by doing so. To those that don't want to throw sh*t at me I ask you to stick with me and to continue to follow me round and yes, hopefully, to donate a little at some point.
To those that still want to have a go at me I say this... I might not be doing this as you would. I will make mistakes (hopefully not serious ones!). I probably have made mistakes so far. However, I genuinely believe that the trip is well planned and I will do my very best to make it well executed and a success... a personal success, a financial success for the RNLI and a success for my sponsors. If at the end of it you believe it is worth making a donation then I believe that it would have been worthwhile. I don't ask you to like me... I am a difficult person to like (Ask Anne and Paul) but above all I am honest, genuine and totally committed to do well in every I try. I am not all bad... please don't just discard me either.
I have had a spat or two with a few poeple and for that I am truely sorry. This project has taken me nearly 5 months of my life almost full time so far with the prospect of another 3-4 months away from home. I am touchy right now and if I was totally honest, just a little nervous... it is a very daunting trip.
I haven't been reading the tread as it developed, I haven't had time, but I will continue to look in from time to time. I may have a few days waiting out the weather here in Milford Haven so I have to do something /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
