Very informative post but forgive me for playing the devil's advocate :
How do you make the difference between a lousy and a good airline pilot ??? Stop right here !! I know........the plane doesn't crash. Oversimplification though.
What does a 300 000 USD 777 Captain bring to UAL compared with ( haven't got a clue ) a Virgin Atlantic very young 744 Captain ( heard they hed a guy promoted at age 35 some time ago ) ? That's the question a lot of uninformed people, generically called " travelling public " regularly ask under the pen of well meaning / informed journalists.
This is the crunch question coz let me tell you that for all the years I flew the 744 as an F/O I saw quite a bewildering number of guys who were just " filling" the seat and nothing more. I was sitting there trying to keep my mouth shut and had I not been an animal lover my poor dog would have suffered a lot when back from a trip !!. None of the guys I'm refering to brought anything that another Johnie wouldn't have brought. At least they were not causing any damage and that's good coz I was also sitting there. Yet, they were what has been described above as valuable experienced .......bla bla bla.
There may a lot of people out there who like/love their job, but entousiasm like the one that has been reported in start up or aging start up airlines??? Certainly not and it shows when you are a pax. Put a enthousastic fellow at the wheel and it comes all the way down to door 5.
To all of you ready to shoot me from the hip, please do reholster.
I am not an expert able to bable on the future of low cost high quality airlines and what our future will be not that I don't care trust me on that one !
None of what has been said regarding salaries has kept major airlines from losing aircrafts in the last 2 years and sometimes under shocking circumstances that make us all feel rather sheepy.
So much for airline safety / salaries and that sucks !
To conclude, I have also been flying with guys I shall never forget because they were everything one expects from an airline pilot and I think they deserved a fat raise that they never got because too busy to ask.
We need to change our rethoric, or rather match or rethoric with our actions if we want to keep what certain ignorants describe as " fat " checks which we, by the way, deserve.
One can say everthing one wants about the crisis looming before Sept 11th, this is horse donk. What happened that day changed the way people live ( at least in the US ) if not for ever but for a long long time and I am convinced we would never be facing big cuts like what is happening to AA under different circumstances.
The profession is not attracting as many people as it did ? No s..t ? Who needs to have the finger pointed at everytime business is not shiny ? The prospect of being bolted behind a cockpit door with all sorts of ridiculous coded knocks on the door to take a pee, eat, God knows what doesn't make it look very appealing. Having to pack your bags to work at Office depot once the tune of musical chairs has stopped while the college tuition comes in isn't what what one would be hoping for and the list goes on.
Good luck guys.
By the way 411 A, I'm not on your side and get nicked !
Last edited by wallabie; 18th Aug 2002 at 13:11.