OK Bugalugs...so now I'm an "arrogant/ignorant sky god". What an insecure and angry little man you are!
Were there S/Os who joined with virtually nothing but single time? You bet there were! I've flown with them! Off the top of my head... look at the LAX F/O list to find some who joined in the 90's with little or no real multi time to speak of. Or at the many who've recently upgraded to Captain who joined the Company as cadets....did they have 5000 hours turbo prop command?
Yes, there are many S/O's have joined with twin turbo prop experience. I acknowledge that, and many that I've flown with are great guys and good pilots. But...so what! You say you and your mates got your experience the "hard way". How do you think we got here? It's the constant complaining by some on this forum who imply that my mates and me have had it the easy way that gets up my nose!
Do you really think it was easy to get into Cathay in the eighties or early nineties? Was it the "easy way" back then? Do you think it has been easy to endure the never-ending degradations to our conditions and the pay cuts? The constant losses in court battles. The delays to our upgrade due to ASL (with no bypass pay)? To watch 49 of our mates GET FIRED! What pay cuts have you endured?
Were we allowed to go right-to-left on the 400? No way! Were we offered bypass pay to remain on our bases? No way! How did all that fit with our expectations? How does enduring all that make my mates and me the "bad guys" in this mess? The arrogant sky gods as you so poignantly put it?
And if someone posts that we got a few stock options in return, or six million Oz in the bank, I'm going to lose it!
Yes....I was very proud to get hired by Cathay back in 91. You couldn't help but be proud! Did the pride turn into arrogance? Ya, probably a little bit, and quite rightly so! I'm still proud to fly for Cathay!
The point I was trying to make was that, even for a Dash 8 pilot, RJ pilot, whatever, nine to 12 years to the left seat of a wide body commercial airliner is a quick time to upgrade in a legacy carrier... and nothing to COMPLAIN about. To complain about that, to blame and flame the extendees, to constantly crow about your vast experience, that is arrogance!
What other legacy airline could you have joined and upgraded that quickly? Name one!
Some people joined Cathay during a recruitment ban. Some F/O's take advantage of the different conditions to upgrade to captain early on the freighter (out of seniority), and some Captains take advantage of the different conditions to extend on the freighter. Who are the bad guys?
There are today, I believe, 28 different sets of conditions in the Company. That is the problem, and that's what we can complain about. That's the plot I spoke of. With that many different sets of conditions, only one side wins, and it's not the pilots.
Now that's something to complain about!
Last edited by raven11; 31st March 2009 at 00:08.