Medal of the Month

[Charl]

James McKay

As you all probably know Jimmy is the youngest member of these Forums (I think that's still the case).
It gave me a real kick to get a contribution to the GNZLAP from him.
I reckon it's a good reflection of the spirit to be found in this Forum, as I know the amount of effort he put in.

Here's James' pretty credible AI Partenavia in CAC colours at NZCH:



Let's hear it for James!

[ardypilot]

Great work Jimmy!

Want to paint me a ANZ Link Embrair next?

[ZK-MAT]

Well done James

[Alex]

Congratulations again James, very nice.

Alex

[gokanru]

Good on you James a great effort,I just wish I had half your talent for doing that sort of thing,keep up the excellent work.

[ZK-Brock]

Cool stuff, I remember seeing that one up close. How old are you?

[Jimmy]

wow thanks guys!

Want to paint me a ANZ Link Embrair next?

A what? lol Is that one of their old ,now retired, ac? I think ill do a flyable PA-28 next then get round to painting a airliner. If theres a good paint kit Il paint ya one

How old are you?

13 B)

Thanks
James

[Codge]

Well done Jimmy, I have your Cessna and your Airbus with the Disney livery.
If you stick with it I see a bright future for you.
However to be a pilot or maybe a graphic artist you will need to pass English. If you read the dictionary,even one of those pocket ones in those moments like on the bus,while waiting etc... you will further your vocabulary and general knowledge and of course learn to spell. Sadly if you're reading something and you see a spelling mistake you remember only that and not the content, (Which may have been excellent)

[Jimmy]

However to be a pilot or maybe a graphic artist you will need to pass English. If you read the dictionary,even one of those pocket ones in those moments like on the bus,while waiting etc... you will further your vocabulary and general knowledge and of course learn to spell. Sadly if you're reading something and you see a spelling mistake you remember only that and not the content, (Which may have been excellent)

Thanks Codge I'm trying to get my spelling better, just sometimes I completely forget how something is spelled. I think more the problem is I end up saying stuff and people either don't get the joke or I have writen a long sentence and by the end of it I forget what the hell i'm talking about. happens away from the computer too, especialy the saying things that ppl just don't get and take offence at hmm im moaning aren't I.....

I must put the atlas down and start reading a dicionary It'd be nice to vary the words I use a bit more.....

Thanks
James

[Codge]

Not at all Jimmy,My comment was made to help,not put the boot in. It would indeed be a crying shame if you miss out on an opportunity one day because your English is not up to scratch.
So if it takes longer to write something because you need to consult a dictionary then so be it.
English is the hardest language to learn,as it is made up of bits and pieces of other languages, and I really take my hat off to people who learn it as a second language. Your generation suffers due to having spell checkers,that speak American, and now with text language,that will be permitted in exams this year,but due to the outcry I would guess not next year.
Your posts are understandable and I don't detect any dyslexia as such, but I'm no expert on that.
We tend to put the effort into things we like,and English was my least favourite subject at school. If you make yourself put the effort in you will get results. Reading helps too. Still I think the best thing to do is get a pocket dictionary and use it! As a pilot there is an incredible amount of paper work and manuals to read and exams and tests to take,and you will be required to make reports and things.
English, Maths, and Physics (Science) are what is required to be a pilot and they always seem to put it in that order too!
We all have our prejudices whether we admit it or not. I'm sure a piece of writing full of spelling mistakes and bad grammer and bad choice of words will be deemed by many to have been written by, shall we say 'not the brightest bulb on the Xmas tree'!
Personally I think intelligence is relative. Where as someone might be very intelligent with academia but completely useless when it comes to practical things like digging a hole in the ground to plant a tree! (That is a true story! My cousin,same age as me who is a policy analyst for the fire service at the Beehive,was asked to plant a tree for another Aunty and didn't know how. She thought he was being lazy and cheeky until the boys father stepped in and embarassed as he was, said well yes he has never held a spade in his life!) I have much respect for pilots as they have to have a range of skills,practical as well as intellectual. You can't learn to fly by reading about it. Alot of so called experts are just people who have read lots of books on a certain subject. I am not impressed by someone who has a string of letters after their name. To me that only means they've read books for a few years and recited back to examiners what they want to hear.
You may have seen the Chenobyl disaster on telly last night. The guy with the most 'qualifications' was responsible because he knew best.(So he thought!)
They say the safest pilots are the ones with less than 500 hours and that the ones between 500 and 1000 are the ones who are the most complacent, that's the ones who have not had a real 'situation' to deal with, but they will have read about them!
Anyway, good luck Jimmy,I'm sure all of us on the forum will be following your future with interest and praying and rooting for you all the way!
Kind regards,
Yours simcerely, Stephen (Codge)

PS: We all make mistakes, just try not to make the same one twice.

[Jimmy]

thanks for all the advice and support Stephen its great!

na I didn't think you were giving the boot lol I decided reading the thesarus and it's actuly quite interesting, all those diiferent words, none of which I can remember hehe

I hope that if anything that'll put my dream career out of reach it won't be English. Sadly is ain't my favorite subject as we can all tell it ain't that bad though, you ain't seen my handwriting yet!

We all make mistakes, just try not to make the same one twice.

excellent!

Thanks
James

[Chookie]

Your generation suffers due to having spell checkers,that speak American,

I just thought I would point out that the spell checker setting can be changed.

Ours is set to Australian. I think that's pretty much the closest you can get to New Zealand

[Charl]

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

[Codge]

Very good!

[Codge]

I really should have said it like 'they use spell checkers! (that speak American)'
The point being spell checkers teach you nothing,they only dumb down our society,whether they are in American, Australian, Greek or Giberish, 10 points to Charl, after that I am now nominating you for the medal for this month. Jimmy must keep his status as you wouldn't have made that post without him.
You made my point way better than I.

[gokanru]

Jimmy,Codge has given you some very good advice.Not all pilots get complacent.I can testify to that fact,I made old bones.I have known however, a few complacent pilots,a couple or so didn't make old bones.Learn that english,and the maths an physics,you need that.It may seem like hard work now,but if you are aiming to be a pilot then you need at least that.Learn the good habits early and they will stick with you throughout your whole life.

[ardypilot]

On the subject of spellchecking, the new Mozilla Firefox 2 includes a handy spellchecking tool, much simular to Microsoft Word, where it underlines incorrect spelllings, and when you right click on them, it gives you a list of alternative corrections.

It's very handy for people like ourselves, who write a lot on forums!

[Codge]

The new IE 7 has one too,but I didn't want to emphasize this because we as a society want people to learn to spell correctly without relying on such things. When I went to school you used a dictionary to check spelling and a thesauras to find appropriate words. This method is great as you learn other words too while you are doing it. I'd say that the people who make such software are very bright people who spell very well.
Well the rich get richer while the poor get poorer and the bright get brighter while the 'challenged' get more 'challenged'. However if that's what it takes to have nice tidy readable forums then that's got to be a good thing. I am surprised there has been so many replies to this topic of spelling, (I'd better stop or it will get moved) it must be something others feel strongly enough about to make a post,I like Charls post the best and I've copied it for keeps. All I wanted to do was bring it to Jimmy's attention how important it is if he wants to be a pilot one day!
Me and my wife used to pick up the dictionary and open it at random and focus on one word on that page.That would be our thought for the day each. We'd call it dictionary divination. It was incredible how often the word would be so applicable to what was going on at the time. Sometimes it would be a word you'd never heard of and so you'd learn something you didn't know prior. So this spelling subject need not be boring and dull and too repetitive,I suppose it's down to your memory and how you store info in your head. It's amazing how computers work and how people work and the analogies and similarities between the two!
Ever thought where casting a spell comes from and going somewhere for a spell?
I'll leave you to ponder, Regards Codge