Originally Posted by
Zaney
I'm not management, I am an aircraft commander - once off the jet I'm no better/no worse than anyone else.
With today's redundant systems and system reliability, the "I'm in charge of getting 200 pax to destination X safely" and expecting big $$$ is indicative how pompous alot of airline pilots are.
Don't get me wrong - when studs were dead reckoning/dealing with traffic w/o TCAS/powerplants without turbine technology - I feel they were deserving of high $s.
Zaney, I have never heard of anyone in the airlines refer to themselves as an aircraft commander ever. I assume you are a multi engine military pilot that has never flown for the airlines.
So you think that if you don't have TCAS or turbines then you should deserve more money. So when the airlines started converting to jet transports our pay should have gone down. When the airlines started getting gps and inertial our pay should have gone down. When the airlines put TCAS into our cockpits the pay should have gone down.
My time in the military was spent in single seat, single engine fighters. I was a pilot never an aircraft commander. Having been with the airlines for over 30 years I am now a Captain not an aircraft commander.
In my opinion, the flying of the aircraft with or without jet engines, gps, tcas, inertial, radar, or whatever "new" equipment comes along is just a given. If you can't fly the aircraft with whatever equipment without thinking about it, you are in the wrong profession. The current equipment on the aircraft has nothing to do with what I am worth as an airline captain. That is probably not a concept that someone that is not in the airline industry would understand.