Shore Guy: I'm quite sure that Airbubba (who flies jets for a good company) meant it 'tongue-in-cheek'. He is resourceful, and although he might be a miserable, unlettered, unwashed 'colonial', who might be too uncultured to use his knife to push food onto an upside down fork, posts many interesting airline industry facts on Pprune, along with another frequent partner-in-crime, Wino ('Union Goon'), another contemptible 'provincial'
/
.
Anyone with years of flying in the US airline scene is also well aware of the old-fashioned, outdated image that freight pilot/dogs might have among the more ignorant laymen. Watching the new movie "Flight of the Phoenix" might not improve that supposed image. What American company, these days, would operate an ancient C-119, which had its heyday in Korea and Dien Ben Phu (Civil Air Transport, ehm...)?
The interesting fact is that a good freight airline, along with three or four passenger carriers in the US (SWA, JetBlue, Airtran and Alaskan...?), might be the only place to now work with any apparent job security. Maybe the NetJet type of fractional, charter companies are also a very good choice, even if there is less salary potential. Pilots here in the US are usually being subtle and ironic when they refer to the freight dog image, knowing that this is the industry sector which might have the best future. I'm envious of those who fly freight for a healthy company at a respectable salary and can even fly during the daytime!
Oh well, some of those folks still believe in air pockets, that smaller planes are not as safe as large ones
, have navigators
, and that we always spend two or three days in exotic cities (Saginaw, MI or Bismarck, ND in January, by a nasty old shopping mall in Norfolk, VA)
, escorted by young, voluptuous, single flight attendants.