Originally Posted by
FWRWATPLX2
Please permit me to blow my horn, just a bit. I mean the likes of Byron Bailey spruiks himself as an Aviation Expert, but what is the largest aircraft has he flown as a Captain? I believe his career began in New Zealand as a non-flying crewman.
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Nobody would believe he was a pilot or a Captain, had he not shown up on the program in uniform.
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I'm most assuredly no fan of Byron's but I wouldn't be slagging off on his experience. Yes, he did start out as a Navigator with the RNZAF (on Sunderlands if you're looking to do some carbon dating) but then went on to join the RAAF as a pilot. With the RAAF he flew fighters; Sabres (he walked away from an EFATO at Williamtown that wrote the aircraft off) and Mirages. In civvy street he flew B727s, A300s and B777s as well as a handful of smaller corporate jets for over 26,000 hours flying.
Byron is what the media love, someone who will speak with an air of authority and happily say things that are sensational - MH370, the Captain did it; MS804, it was a bomb; JT610, poorly trained crew (that was within 24 hours of the crash no less), etc. His big problem is that he never checks anything and consequently he is routinely wrong (his work for The Australian newspaper has been the subject of at least two formal retractions which is probably why he no longer writes for them). He has no 73 experience which meant his commentary on JT610 was somewhat misguided; for instance, when the CVR revealed that the FO was referencing the QRH Byron slagged off on that before someone pointed out to him that there's no EICAS on the 737.
He's the embodiment of the media's preference for simple, unequivocal but occasionally wrong over complex, nuanced and correct.