Nice post bcflyer.
Now, would all the dopes that hadn't thought of these extenuating circumstances (should you really fly a damaged airplane 30-40mins, gear down, to your alternate?-not unless you REALLY had to!) while sitting in front of their computers, calmly sipping coffee and scratching their balls, PLEASE ADMIT they're NOT better than the guy who CORRECTLY assessed his options while being somewhat engaged, at the same time, in wrestling this limping beast back into the air?
I am always sickened by the way we pilots (assuming we make up a fair porportion of posters here) will pounce on one of our own when something like this happens...always ready to believe the worst and start condemning before the facts are in.
Of course, I suspect there wouldn't be quite the same feeding frenzy if some other airline had been involved. Basically, some here think nothing of bashing this pilot only because it serves their oft-stated cause of further blackening the particular airline that employs him. Ol' Bird Brain, fer'instance, sounds so beside himself with glee, that he'd have probably had an out of body experience had this incident concluded with the A/C rolling itself into a heap. Disgusting.
In this pilot's defence, I will say that if it could happen to him, it could certainly happen to alot of other folk here, including myself. This gentleman is not a newbie (I work with him) and is probably still too busy working his way through what happened to be reading this or other forums, but I wish him a speedy return to the line and would have him know that I'd gladly put my family on his airplane anyday!