Look Guys, I recently found this forum and the first thing that came into my head was, "I bet I find an anti-pilot thread on here". Lo and behold my suspicions were well founded. So I thought, right, I'm gonna wind 'em up a bit. I could have gone for the moderate approach such as some have done here but KGMSY's approach was to pilot bash, so I thought I would OPS bash a little.
It may be a little late to be taken seriously but in reality I don't consider myself above anybody in my industry. You have your job to do and I have mine. I don't tell other people in my industry how to do their job. If I think they are hindering the progress of my day I ask for an explanation and don't use this as an excuse to ask SILLY questions. I rarely ask operations anything to do with their decisions such as A/C changes, or re-routing of flight plans etc. Sometimes I may ask out of interest later, but this is because I take an interest in how and why decisions are made, perhaps to better understand subsequent changes. Sometimes I call in and they say, "You're not going to do DUB now, you're off to NCE". I'm sorry but I like to know why. Not that it makes much difference I just like to be told, so they tell me. Also, if I'm flying in the air the last thing I want to do is get my OPS Manual out and check my duty times so I ask them to make sure that it can be done. I don't do this unless I'm sceptical. When I get on the ground I check for myself, but in the meantime it may have escaped their notice and they will have more time to execute any necessary changes.
What annoyed me about your thread, KGMSY, is that I find it banal to go on about a couple of individuals who might well be @rseholes even to me as if it were the norm. You get them in all walks of life and the pilot fraternity is certainly no exception and nor is the OPS fraternity.
Mach.99, don't take offence, I was joking and I'm sure you're not a monkey. In reality, I don't know how long it would take me to get proficient at your job. I guess it rather depends on the interest with which I might pursue it, that's as humble as you're gonna get.
We don't have to make split decisions EVERY day, mostly the days go very smoothly and in large part it has to do with everyone around us. We just turn up, press a few buttons, sign a few bits of paper, point the airplane in the right direction and off we go. I appreciate that you have a lot more hectic days than we do with temperamental planes, wx, and yes, troublesome captains and F/O's. I'm sure I don't have to patronise you all about our hectic days (infrequent as they might be), but I'm sure that on the odd ocasions that our training is really put to the test you are glad that you are on the ground.
This in no way excuses real idiots and KGMSY, I'm not sure you know what a real idiot is yet.
Hey, Mach.99 I've just read your post. i guess I deserved that and accept the slap with dignity. E-mail me and we can sort this out in a friendly way.
Regards, Secret Squirrel.
[This message has been edited by Secret Squirrel (edited 10 November 2000).]
[This message has been edited by Secret Squirrel (edited 10 November 2000).]