Here Are the Hazardous Attitudes That Ground Pilots

Those who knowingly break the rules bring about hard choices for instructors to face.

Meg Godlewski

Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 09:29 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

Different airports can be named for, in, or near the same city, and this can be confusing for pilots. [Credit: iStock]

Key Takeaways:

A flight school caught a low-time CFI flying an undispatched aircraft after hours, exemplifying hazardous attitudes like anti-authority, macho, and invulnerability.
The article also describes a pilot who had his certificates pulled by the FAA (facing a "709 ride") due to multiple rule infractions, yet blamed others and struggled with basic aviation knowledge and skills.
Both incidents highlight pilots with hazardous attitudes who knowingly break aviation rules, posing significant risks to themselves, instructors, and their aviation careers.
The author emphasizes the challenge of addressing such behavior and the importance of not enabling those who willfully disregard safety regulations.

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The numbers—specifically the Hobbs and the Tach—were not adding up.

The school used dispatch software that kept track of the hours flown so that oil changes and required inspections were not overflown. There was a 0.8 hour discrepancy in the Hobbs number of one of the planes, then a week or so later another aircraft had a 1.2 hour discrepancy. The discrepancies were found first thing in the morning by student pilots during their preflight inspections, leading the flight school to deduce the flights had happened after hours.