standbyils - I can only concur with the points made by wee one. I presume from your contribution you were/are an airline manager. Like most airline managers you are not totally making sense and have some difficulty expressing yourself by the written word. If I have understood your argument correctly, you are saying you have had numerous discussions with 20yr+ captains who 'clearly didn't know how to make a decsion in their area'. I presume you are referring to the business aspects of their area rather than their professional sphere as a pilot. If an airline captain is struggling to make decisions as a pilot then he is in the wrong job - the same would apply to a First Officer with 500 hours to his name. You may indeed be correct about captains not being good at business - that is really not a problem as that is not what they are being paid for. Similarly a trauma surgeon probably knows very little about NHS management, but rants forth about the state of the organisation - possibly from a position of ignorance. Nonetheless, when your body is smashed to bits in a horrific car crash, who do you want with the knife in his hand - a 28 year old whizz kid who 'manages' really well or a crusty old codger with thousands of previous operations under his belt? The old codger will be using indefinable yet critical experience and skills obtained through numerous difficult surgical procedures - much of them in the middle of the night while his manager slept or was being wined and dined by his mates and told what a great guy he was. Love him or hate him, that consultant surgeon is the guy you want saving your life. The NHS manager may indeed bitterly resent how much money the surgeon earns and his status in society, particularly as the surgeon is probably a terrible manager and knows nothing about the business of running the NHS. What the manager forgets is that the surgeon's status was earnt over many years that no one but the surgeon's wife and family ever saw. The surgeon's manager may indeed be 'onto him' and 'knows' that his job just consists of a few chats with patients over a coffee and only a couple of days of actual operating a week even though he is supposed to be a surgeon. The fact is the manager is a dork who knows nothing and has failed to understand anything of the profession he is a manager of. With one tiny wrong stroke of his knife lives are saved or lost - that takes years and years to learn. If I was that victim of the car wreck I would be so grateful not to have a young plonker worrying about the price of stereostrip in charge of my care. I would be utterly delighted to know that the old codger with years of experience and insight was running the show and saving my life.
Onto the pilot's life. There are great similarities with that of the surgeon's world. They have traditionally enjoyed a high status in the world, are 'overpaid' compared to a £100k exacutive who knows all about cost cutting. As he sips his chateau-neuf-de-whotsit of an evening wondering whether to have the chicken or the beef at the company's expense, he would never spare a thought for his overpaid and underworked employees who are cruising the skies above. After all any one could do that job. He never sees the countless little decisions being made that make for a safe operation. He never sees the countless simulator exercises being run 24 hours a day that are there to save a plane load of passengers lives should the situation require. He does know it costs a lot of money and it would be great to cut down the play time in the sim to save a few quid - imagine what that would do to his bonus?
I wonder what Capt Chelsey B. Sullenberg III of US Airways knows about airline management? Not a lot I suspect. Worse still he probably earns a lot of money for being sat there reading newspapers and staring out the window - overpaid and over-rated. Nonetheless, when his A320 lost both engines and had to be flown into the Hudson River for a perfect ditching, I imagine that there were a lot of passengers who were mighty glad he was a 20yr+ captain who had spent countless hours in simulators having a play. I suspect that whatever money he has earnt seems quite small now. Was it relevant that he knows nothing about the 'business' aspects of his airline? He has overnight become the most valuable employee in his company - he and his crew saved his passengers and airline in one 6 minute episode. Who is the CEO of that company? No idea, and frankly who cares? Everyone cares who the captain was - you may not like it but that is the way it is.
You as an airline 'manager' are being paid to do the business bit and most managers cannot do that even though that is all that is required of them. As one who has clearly never been a pilot but only looked enviously at them from the outside you have no idea whether it is stressful or not. Pilots may be expensive, but if you knew more of what they were about you would know they are cheap at the price. Your and your management mates may indeed be 'onto us' - but we were onto you first. Most of you are greedy, self-serving and incompetent people who have no idea how to run a business - all you can see is your next bonus. I am delighted that we earn the money we do and greatly resent the disgraceful situation developing where young pilots are exploited. When the inevitable crash occurs involving a pilot who was sleeping in his car the previous night and was distracted by his debts and low pay, it may be that the view will change. In the meantime, I intend to stand up for the pilot community - come the day of the big race they may be the only protection you have.