On paper the captain/PIC authority is ultimate to the point where the FAA can hang a guy if he didn't check tire pressures personaly, check maitanance logs that that the mechanic said were up to date etc..
In reality very few peeps have the stones to go up against the boss, the company...etc ect...very few...find me a captain that says his word is 'God' and I will probably find more then a few instances where he 'sold out' to tow the company line etc. So while not trying to start a fight, I think it's getting deep in here, when it comes to all the 'captain's in here' telling the boss to take a hike...
In cases where I was told personaly by pilot's who said they were 'pushed' to fly, I found in just about all of them, the pilot was weak, and he was just being asked to do his job, but he wasn't up to task, so the weather, the situation, ect, was really beyond him, so his excuse..'It's dangerous and I won't do it'
Very seldom does a pilot with the ability to fly junk in bad weather, end up being pushed farther then his capability, because in seriousness, no one else at the company can exceed his ability, or wants to...so he ends up being the guy that flies a broken plane down to minimums, raw data ect...and no body complains, because he is exceeding thier expectations of what a pilot should do.
In my personal experience, coming into a flight department that was a mess...I had to deal with the fact that the company was used to loading up an aircraft overgross......of course the question that came back 'Well Mike did it'...put me in a situation where I had to tactfully explain that what I do, regardless of others, is going to be safe, but that everyone will get there one way or another...it took some time, some fights, some discussions, but if you want to put on the big boy pants, sit at the adult table for dinner, your gonna have to step up and take a stand, something very, very few people are will to do....
So in my 25 years of flying, I haven't met that pilot that is willing to walk in and tell the boss how it's gonna be...fortunately they are all here on the internet....on this forum....
