BeechBaby wrote:
I am not convinced that is what she did…
I haven’t followed this closely enough to be convinced of anything (as already mentioned: Almost no one, including me, care the least about this kind of flying in my corner of the world) – but what I read is that she claimed to have flown “solo” while in reality there was a second pilot flying with her most of the time. Which can be seen on many many pictures posted about her flights. My definition of “solo” is different – and this seems to apply to 99,98% of the world as well.
I was picking up on the old TB/Pprune threads where exactly as you mention, dirt, dirt and more dirt, and you get almost excluded when you attempt to go against the mob..
Well, I got banned from proon years ago so I don’t really care… half the posters there are really obviously synthetic anyway… admin attempts to rebuild the traffic figures from a very low base. Most forums have a policy of an instant ban upon any disagreement with a mod, and no correspondence entered into. And I have no idea where “TB” is.
My definition of “solo” is different – and this seems to apply to 99,98% of the world as well.
Yes. In this story, those facts seem well enough documented.
It’s like the old question whether you can bring a passenger on the FAA 300nm CPL cross-country flight (which a lot of people do ask) 
Peter wrote:
Yes. In this story, those facts seem well enough documented.
Agreed, but I think there may be an attention to detail issue here, not a deliberate lie. Semantics, and I may be wrong here, but it does make a difference. I think the story, got out of control, it should have been rescinded at the time, it was not, and the rest is history, as they say.
This recent research may hold answers as to the original question of “why” she did what she did:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/liar-liar-how-the-brain-adapts-to-telling-tall-tales/
Liar, Liar: How the Brain Adapts to Telling Tall Tales
Neural responses decline after repeated acts of dishonesty, research suggests
…
The team found that dishonesty increased over 60 presentations of the jar, but only when it was self-serving. Participants still lied when only their partner benefited but this dishonesty remained constant. When both parties benefited, participants lied more, suggesting they found this kind of dishonesty more acceptable.
…
This study is the first empirical evidence that dishonest behavior escalates when it’s repeated, when all else is held constant
So maybe she started with a small lie, then thought that it went well and didn’t hurt anybody, and went on to bigger lies. And then it comes all crashing down, as it has to at some point.
Also at one point she had a team of people around who would also benefit from her lies, which may reinforce her behaviour if they tell her that it’s OK. Also called “normalization of deviance”, which is an important concept to understand in aviation safety (we may have discussed it here already).
I think the story, got out of control, it should have been rescinded at the time, it was not, and the rest is history, as they say.
That is IMHO a fair comment as a post-mortem on the PR [mis]management of this event, yes
But you could say the same for Jonathan Aitken, etc, etc… maybe even Richard Nixon. They all had a chance to drop it at some early stage and quietly get out.
OMG! Just had look over at Pprune and it’s pretty wild…….. I had never heard of this lady or her ‘exploits’, so all news to me, but how anyone could think to get away with this kind of lie is beyond me. That said, I have met a few people in my life who went down the slippery slope. Starting with a small lie, leading to a bigger one and at some point becoming totally entangled in a web of falsehoods. Didn’t end well…..
172driver wrote:
….. I had never heard of this lady or her ‘exploits’, so all news to me, but how anyone could think to get away with this kind of lie is beyond me.
Same with me, before I saw the thread on PPRuNe I had never heard of her. Again, this kind of flying does not attract much attention around here. We happily let people go about their hobbies as long as they don’t steal our time by talking about them 
But what is real news to me today (from some recent posts on that other forum) is the fact that this campaign against her was actually launched by a Mr. [ name removed :) – Peter ] (an infrequent poster on this forum here as well) after he had lost his consulting/flight planning contract with her. He even invented a fake personality (“Jay Sata”), allegedly one of his employees, who is leading this shitstorm againts her. This “Jay Sata” alone has written almost 500 posts on that single PPRuNe thread. I think I find this kind of beviour a lot more disgusting than Mrs. Curtis-Taylor’s “solo”-lie.
Coincidentally, I ran across this today: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/slippery-slope-study-finds-lies-lead-bigger-43018413
I didn’t know “Jay Sata” was a fictional character. Please elaborate.
When this “Bird” first started her disingenuous charade I smelled the BS instantly and made my feelings known at the time but since then I have avoided the vitriolic witch hunt. I do think the outcome is correct, but my judgement is based on the assumption that what I have read is true and we all know where that can lead.
Stickandrudderman wrote:
I didn’t know “Jay Sata” was a fictional character. Please elaborate.
This is the source for that bit of information, TCT’s last statement: http://www.birdinabiplane.com/statement%20-%2024%20Oct%2016/
