Talk about handbags at dawn! Even I have to admit that this thread has even surprised me with the level of inaccuracy, presumption, schadenfreude, pomposity and overall amount of toys thrown out of the pram!
From what I can ascertain, a BY flight with a CAA ops guy as PNF (ie. on the radio) into ALC was a bit "out of order" in the view of one LOCO pilot who was ahead of him on the approach. The LOCO pilot expressed his embarrassment at the attitude of the BY (CAA?) pilot towards the Spanish controller who apparently didn't rise to the bait and just carried on, service as normal.
With a comment along the lines of "...Could you ask the Iberia to pedal a bit faster", whilst a fairly obvious attempt at sarcastic humour, obviously lost on the Spanish controller, may have been non-standard, it doesn't appear to imply the broad reaching title given to this thread of "
The Arrogance of Britannia 034A". The other sweeping accusations of coathanging responses accusing all BY pilots of pomposity are just ludicrous.
We all have times when frustration at some element of our flight begins to irritate, whether it be another pilot, a controller, a dispatcher or a cabin crew member. Occasionally, that frustration is made more obvious, especially when it is at a controller, whether it be a sarcastic comment or just a heavy sigh. Learn to live with it. It is not the end of the world as we know it.
I can understand if the effects of the chatter is impinging on some safety aspect but in this case, it just appears that a pilot was frustrated at being slowed down so early in the approach. The pilot obviously didn't have the big picture, which sometimes happens. Big deal. I'd be a bit peeved if I was still at 18NM on finals at ALC and I was told to drag it in, never mind at being No. 3 which probably meant he still had at least 30NM track miles to run. A "roger" accompanied with a big sigh would indicate dissatisfaction with the situation. I certainly wouldn't expect one of the other a/c ahead of me to try and start an inquiry into who I was, just because they were embarrassed.
In my experience, BY pilots are as abnormal as the rest of us. They fly the same a/c, they come as varied a background as the rest of us and have the same emotions. Those of you making very broad accusations that they are somehow different from the rest of us should probably try and be a bit more introspective. We all have bad days from time to time and very occasionally a few let it be known to everyone else that they are not happy. It's no big deal and the fact that this thread has gone as far as it has is a sign that some pilots need to get out a bit more often.
To the uninitiated who may be reading this thread, what we have here is the traditional bitchfest that starts when one pilot gets embarrassed at the actions of another. It is all bravado, bolstered by the fact that they have a shield of anonymity, although in this case both parties can probably be identified due to the dates, flight numbers and the sequence in the approach. Not a very sensible thing to do, but there you go!
Mountains out of molehills and all that. We pilots are known collectively as a 'Whinge'. Now you know why!
Gentlemen (and ladies if necessary), can we all put our toys back in the pram and find something a bit more juicy to have a moan about?
