Several times in my short experience as a pilot i have noticed things that really make me wonder what the other person is truely thinking.

Furhter adding insult to injury for myself is my past life. Years back I spent time as a crisis management specialist and delt with serveral situations which one would refer to as a crisis or life and death situation. Though it wasn't my life which was in danger in those situations i began to understand the delicate balance that we walk every day.

This coupled with the desire to understand why a person is thinking a specific way is very intriguing to me and has led me to some very intersting conclusions about people in general.

Earlier this year i had one of those experiences where i ended up making a statement afterword which really makes me wonder. What would other low time pilots do even young CFI's in this same situation and how would the fall out effect both the business and pilot if things had gone sideways.

The situation that unforded was simple and straight forward. I informed this person we had to reduce weight due to conditions and aircraft performance. I was informed very clearly that if i didn't do things the way that this person wanted which involved direct approach to land over a car filled parking lot with dozens of people, he would have another pilot onsite within 15 minutes and he would no longer utilize my services.

I stated my case and then skirted the parking lot as best i could prefering to make a max perfomance TO over some trees rather than over a parking lot.

I refused to break from my belief and was scolded and then did not get a call for a few weeks to fly.

The justification the individual gave was that we had plenty of room to land (which we did but not as safe as i wanted) and that the performance was not an issue because the helicopter maintance is done to keep the heli in "tiptop" shape allowing the pilot to "redline the engine on every TO"

This particular event seems to be a common theme for this individual and it scares me because of the combination of his attitude and disreguard for regulation. furthermore the individual in question in not even a pilot but he is a mechanic so he should understand that changing the oil and sparkplugs will only minimally reduce the mechanical fatugue impossed on an engine as a result of redlining on a regular basis thereby dramatically reducing the operational lifespan of the engine.

This is just something to think about but; would you have made the approach over a parking lot with lots of people which would have forced you to try to land on the roof of a car if the engine failed? Would you have pulled the Heli to redline on every take off as i was told i should be doing?

What would you have done?