BelArgUSA
Your lot were obviously more enlightened than mine. The demise of our Classsic fleet unfortunately brought redundancy for most of the remaining F/Es, despite the vast experience, knowledge and skills that they had to offer. A very small number of F/Es had previously been offered full pilot courses but there was no tolerance of the idea of making the remainder even cruise-only co-pilots. The main stumbling block was the fact that the attitude of early management of the 744 fleet was significantly ex-shorthaul and their opinion of F/Es was dismissive to say the least. They had no respect for the value and experience of our F/Es and refused to accept the views of many in our established longhaul community.
They behaved as if they had something to prove and as if they didn't need to be helped in any way to fly the 744. The attitude was that they had been operating 2-crew aircraft since the year dot and, despite having no longhaul operating experience, certainly didn't want a Flight Engineer telling them what to do on a 744. After all, it was only another aircraft ...
So the early days of the 744 were marked more by ex-shorthaul narrow-bodied egos with something to prove than by established longhaul pilots with proper longhaul wide-bodied operating experience.
Different companies - different philosophies ... a great shame, really ...
JD
