Calm down folks.
US aviation can be a bit provincial with atc radio communications very clipped and abrupt, and it often uses non-standard terminology, which leaves much to be desired. Traffic flow control and movement per hour is the "altar' at which the FAA "worships", but controllers, in my opinion, are amazing and must be very flexible. Flying here can be very demanding and requires some very solid cross-country experience to keep track of weather (= fuel problems...) situations which often change very fast.
We made it north to Chicago O'Hare and back south today with no problem-our wx radar finally worked during climbout. I expected holding in the air inbound, and to later wait a long time on the taxiways, but outbound we shutdown an engine to save fuel and waited near runway 22L for only about 30 minutes! ATC really "busted their butts" to get planes to 27L and 22L and send them on their way. Two days ago we had no more than about 15 minutes of holding fuel and after first advising atc, soon requested a divert from south of DTW to TOL (not a company station: after just briefly calling the Tower guy while FO flew holding pattern, to clarify weather and runway length at TOL), but suddenly Approach said that they could get us into 03R at DTW! Superb, very flexible service from the ladies and gentlemen up there!
Our aviation environment seems designed only for efficiency-not to follow exact textbook terminology nor theory. This might be why major airlines have almost never hired pilots with only a few hundred hours; on the contrary, for the most part with 3,000-8,000 hours, except to fill or avoid court-imposed minority quotas (years ago at United), or during rare growth in the mid-60s. We have many pilots from other countries, but it seems to be a very small fraction. I enjoy learning about their backgrounds. Flew a while back with two Swedes and a Hungarian (had been a Navigator with Malev, then flew EMB-120 Brasilias with COMAIR here).
Aircraft manufacturers actually borrow or steal ideas from each other, and probably have since the beginning. Most of our Airbus pilots seem to really enjoy their planes, and so do Boeing pilots. Compared to the SweatPigs which I fly, the other fleets are better to work in, with much cooler temps and roomier.
Last edited by Ignition Override; 28th Jul 2005 at 04:47.