Originally Posted by
Uplinker
DEI ? I don't know what that is.
What I do know is that airlines are not interested in the mature pilot with years of experience - unless they are a Captain.
I have now finally given up trying, but many airlines rejected my applications even though I have a proven 20 year record of TransAtlantic and European flying, on narrow body and wide body aircraft, Airbus (mainly) and Boeing.
Virgin Atlantic keep popping up on my LinkedIn feed saying I am perfectly qualified for their Airbus fleet, (yes, I am), and I have started their assessment process twice. Each time, part way through, they have worked out my probable age and decide not to bother going any further.
So I have lost about 8 years of airline employment, (and wages), since my last airline employer went bust.
Obviously, I might be a terrible pilot, but while not being Chuck Yeager, I know that I am fully competent and very experienced. My CV and flying record of seven commercial type ratings are solid proof.
The airlines now concentrate very heavily on psychometric testing and for example expect us to complete 30 maths questions in 12 minutes.
I think this approach might well be selecting the wrong people. Pilots NEVER need to do 30 maths questions in 12 minutes. In fact the opposite is true: we take time, and make time to work carefully through any situation, working as a team to resolve it.
We are now seeing "pilots" who fail to take off. "Pilots" who fail to fly a go-around. "Pilots" who overrun the runway, "pilots" who cannot even manage a normal descent and approach, but who fatally crash the aircraft etc., so I think the airlines are looking for completely the wrong traits in pilot assessments these days, and perhaps they need to consider the mature experienced ones instead.
DEI is "diversity, equality and inclusion"...which, I guess, when you reach a certain age and have lots of knowledge and experience no longer qualifies as being part of the drive towards inclusive, equal or diverse.
Taking it from your perspective, I can understand why pilots give up or shift across to freight flying when despite the much (over) hyped DEI, you no longer fit into what airlines deem to be "the perfect fit". I find it both insane and insulting...insane that a pilot with experience and knowledge gets passed over or ignored, and insulting to pilots like yourself who have so much to offer along with many years of doing the job right.
You can stuff things up at any age and at all levels of knowledge / experience....however, as a pax, I much prefer the older and wiser aircrew as they tend to have a much better feel of what their backside is attached to........unlike the fresh out of flight academy box ticking exercise who, obviously, has passed all of the exams to get there but who has been fast tracked and not had the "hands on" experiences and not had the time to build knowledge over several years.
Perhaps thats why I prefer the older aircraft too.....the ones that the pilot actually has to fly rather than have a computer do almost everything, cos no matter how awesome technology gets a computer is only as good as the person who enters the information into it.
I think it is grossly unfair that pilots such as yourself are thrown on the scrapheap by virtue of age or simply not fitting into the DEI mould. I would take age, experience and real knowledge over the DEI box tickers any day.