Originally Posted by
Wader2
But who gives the PRO the job? Is it someone in his chain of command? Does he have command responsibility over the passengers, including those senior to him?
I believe (and am willing to be corrected) that the task of PRO is dished out on authority and request of DTMA Pax Policy which I believe is an SO1. Not sure why you would need command responsibility unless trying to make yourself look important - at the end of the day despite the servicibility record of the AT fleet and Charter diversions do not happen all that frequently and I imagine that when it does the Operating Crew DO actually take some responsibility. Therefore the real task of the PRO on most flights is to act as a conduit for the other passengers comments about the flight and report that back to the people who need to know about any problems (or God forbid - PRAISE). Like I said before, the same people who are quick enough to put their keyboard to use bitching about RAF AT on internet message boards are probably the same people who can't be arsed to do a PRO job properly if they were ever nominated.
If he does an immaculate job, who knows, worse, who cares?
the 150 plus other passengers will probably be quite grateful, but short of a public arse-kissing and a Mummys Special Soldier medal what point are you making? Surely you're not insecure enough to need special praise for fulfiling a necessary task involving helping people out?
The job is dished out like a lottery to the person who moves slowest. It has no status attached like priority boarding or disembarking it is, in short, quite rightly perceived as a chore.
Incorrect, the nomination of the PRO is done at the Flight Editing stage. A list of pax onboard the aircraft and their ranks is scrutinised and an SO2 (or if none on board a suitable junior) is nominated. On the cntrary to what you say here, the PRO is more often than not allocated a seat at the front of the aircraft (which helps the rest of the passengers identify him/her) and IF POSSIBLE maybe a couple of extra seats as a sweetener. Not sure why on earth priority boarding and disembarking is deemed worthwhile of a mention - the PRO is not a VIP.
Why not do the job properly? Dispense with air steward and nominate 10 squaddies to wear oinnies and run up and down the aircraft - supervised of course.
Now you are just being silly. Have you seen what pongos do the rims of cups after an officer asks them to make them a cup of tea?
Let's get rid of baggae handlers, there should be enough fit and able bodied on each flight.
And lets dispense with jet fuel as well - once we learn to harness the power of whinging to make aircraft fly we will be onto a right money saver...and there would be some right moaning from those members of the forces who have spent their entire career driving a desk with the heavist thing ever lifted being a cup of coffee.
No, instead of having a single joed PRO issue invididual comment forms. Can you imagine Thomas Cook pulling Joe Bloggs out of the queue at Gatwick and telling him he is responsible for collecting complaints from all the other holiday makers?
Joe Bloggs pays for his holiday flight and therefore is entitled to expect not to be bothered with stuff like this. You, however, fly for free to these glorious sunshine destinations covered by RAF AT routes. Its not much to ask to put a bit back in is it?
You get what you pay for and you don't pay a PRO who might have spent 6 months overseas doing G*d knows what and only wants to get home, no bull.
Oh God yeah I agree - the hardship of filling in an A4 sized sheet of paper with his thoughts on the flight and those comments from his fellow passengers and popping it into a pre-paid envelope and then having to seek out a postbox will cause immeasurable effort. Worse case scenario and there is a divert then the PRO may have to - God forbid - ensure all passengers have a room at a hotel (the booking will be done in advance by the DMO staff) and ensuring they all get on the bus the next morning by checking through a manifest. After 6 months in-theatre this may be the straw that breaks the camels back...
CC