Originally Posted by
Old Fella
Truckkie questions the capacity of a SNCO pilot to act as the Captain of aircraft such as the A400M,
Just what extraordinary flying capabilities does being commissioned confer on an individual?
Truckkie also says "We are all Officers first and Pilots/Navs second". What a pompous comment and certainly not one which is indicative of a team player.
Old Fella, you are off the mark here.
The first bit - capacity and captain - are both hall marks of a pilot but there is no guarantee that
any pilot, commissioned or not, has the capacity or captaincy skills to command an A400 or any other aircraft with an exacting role. The Captain is actually responsible for his passengers until such time as they can be handed over to a system. If the aircraft were to divert to some unusual airfield it falls to the Captain to negotiate with a handling agent or whoever parking, fuel, services, transport, accommodation etc.
By virtue of previous training the selected captain will be capable of these non piloting duties. If your SNCO was capable of all this then he would have been recommended for a commission to match the responsibilities of this enhanced role.
As for officer first, pilot second, sorry, you are way off beam. This is doctrine and taught from day one. It is aimed squarely at the wanabee who thinks that OASC, IOT, FTS and an OCU lead straight to a green growbag and a life exclusively at the sharp end.
You mentioned women, an irrelevancy in this argument.
To sum up, of course some SNCOs etc would make very capable pilots.
Some officers might also be best suited to the SNCO Pilot role.
Aircraft Captaincy of large passenger aircraft is an extension of a pilot's role and not one that all pilots can aspire to without lots of experience and capacity beyond piloting skills.
As an aside I remember a commercial pilot diverting to a military airfield. The taxi arrived and the crew departed with scarely a glance at the hundred or so passengers abandoned on the military airfield. That was poor captaincy.