That's because army awficers (Ruperts) are not able to do anything for themselves. They always use a competent NCO - without the latter the army could not function.
Hehe. I remember my basic training where I was warned in no uncertain terms by an NCO that the most dangerous thing in the British Army is "A f*cking Rupert with a map and compass". When I passed basic training with a recommendation for a commission his face was a picture. The look of disdain will live with me forever
As flight deck I have the utmost respect for cabin crew. I just could not bite my tongue and put up with some of the things you do. In bizjets we don't have the locked door to contend with and also muck in. There's even a photo somewhere of me wielding a rather large chef's knife in the galley
Oh, and another with the vacuum cleaner. Goes both ways too, my favourite cabin crew will often go outside and pit the pitot covers on at the end of a flight.
The ignorance and just plain dopiness of the (commercially) travelling public is boundless. At one time I was catching airlines twice a week, sometimes in uniform sometimes in civvies and the behaviour of the SLF constantly amazed me.
For one thing I learned NEVER to stand still in a terminal while in uniform. "Where's my bag? What time does Granny's flight arrive? Where are the toilets? What's the weather like in (insert name of distant destination here)?". Sheesh
Once on board there's the safety briefing to be ignored. I once asked for it to be repeated as I neither saw nor heard it courtesy of the large newspaper and constant chatter of the two businessmen in front of me. The number one could barely contain her laughter as she went through the whole routine in a louder voice with exaggerated gestures right in front of the by now blushing ignorami.
CC themselves can be arsey too. Travelling home wearing civvies I quietly attracted the attention of one lady and asked her to tell the flight deck there was fluid dripping from beneath the flaps. Without looking she dismissed me with "It's just condensation off the wings" and started to walk away. "In that case" I replied "Perhaps you could inform the flight deck there's Skydrol(hydraulic fluid) coloured condensation dripping from the wings".
Passengers again. I boarded a national carrier and took my seat in Business Class. For various reasons I always remove my jacket and epaulettes once on board but of course by then the passengers nearby have seen them. One of the frumpy businessmen began to complain in their language about a pilot being in Business Class. I understood enough to hear the number one politely say I had a paid up ticket so....tough. Immediately after take-off there were a series of loud bangs from one of the engines which then spooled down. As I looked up from my newspaper I saw ALL eyes in the front cabin on me, including the pompous git who had tried to get me moved. Everybody's face bore the unasked "What's happening?". I smiled at Mr Pompous and said "Oh NOW you want to be my friend?".
Almost all of the passengers within earshot (who had heard his original complaint) laughed and relaxed somewhat. Nice smooth, if short, single engined flight saw us back on the ground ten minutes later.