Originally Posted by
Centaurus
I wonder if it is a perennial civilian airline flying issue?
Slight thread drift. I flew in the RAAF for 18 years before reluctantly leaving to fly civil. Reluctantly, meaning to avoid a succession of desk jobs. Those 18 years were enjoyable because the job was secure and I got free travel, board and lodging. The varied aircraft types were fantastic and all free.
Apart from one instructor when learning to fly, I don't recall any seriously objectionable personalities in the cockpit from Group Captains to lower ranks. Yet, for some reason, the people one sometimes flew with in the cockpit of airliners were different. Defensive, nit-picking autocratic and one was conscious of the ever present fear of failing a simulator session and thus a career jeopardized.
Strangely enough there were also former RAAF pilots who as airline pilots turned out to be autocratic pricks as they went up the food chain. I never knew why.
Centy ...'you never knew why'? Cause these pricks as you put it had freedom in the Airlines to be just as you say. In the forces as you would know there was discipline, structure, rank & respect, as much as the Airline boffins 'think' they have the same they don't!
Since the 'Wrong Brothers' first left the ground the art of flying for a living involved crawling over other pilots to get where you want!