Rainboe, you may have a hell of a lot of hours and been a captain for god knows how long, but your posts here make you sound like a complete to$$er. I really hope I never have to fly with anyone as opinionated as you. The whole point of phobias is that they irrational fears, lilylady shouldn't be abused for asking a question to people that will be able to provide here with the answer, even if it could seem like a silly question to those people answering.
Our (Ryanair's) maintenance always amazes me; I have yet to fly with anything more than an inop clock. I have also never felt under any pressure from anyone (Company, Base Captains or Captains) to compromise safety merely to remain 'on schedule'. In fact the opposite is true, according to our SOPs we are supposed to fly econ speeds at all times, even when late.
It is true Ryanair has a lot if different nationalities on its books, this is one of the reasons the SOPs are so thorough. The other is safety. I recently was a safety pilot (3rd pilot in the flight deck, there in case the captain becomes incapacitated, we have to do an approach which the new pilot isn't legally allowed to do yet (low vis) to keep an eye out in case the training captain doesn't spot anything and make the tea!) whilst a new guy was line training, he struggled with his command of English and has recently gone back to just observing until he can improve his English.
Ladylily, I hope this helps you in some way, if you have any more specific questions or need any of the more technical stuff explained feel free to PM me. Capot hit the nail on the head with: "we must be best, because people expect us not to be".
Dit