Freedom
I am not, nor have I ever been a smoker. When I was about 12, I asked my brother, "why donīt you smoke, you are old enough?"
He said that when he was my age, my father (a heavy smoker, along with my mother and sister) had seen him smoking in the school yard. When he got home, my father said that he neednīt hide the smoking, he could smoke at home if he wanted to. Then he said....but look at me-The first thing I do in the morning is cough and hack. When I drive, I have phlegm rising and spit out the window, which everyone hates, I donīt enjoy hunting as much anymore, as I am out of breath, it is a dirty habit and it costs a lot of money that I wish I had now, rather than having smoked it up. If you think that is the way to go, youīre welcome to it.
That made sense to my brother and it made sense to me when he related the story, ergo....the three brothers have never smoked. My sister finally stopped after developing emphysima.
But I will never refuse the right of others to make their own choices.
What I will not accept, is smoking in the cockpit, as it is in the other direction, impolite to the non-smokers in the crew.
I also do indeed find it irritating that we have to wait for the smoker before the taxi ride, after the taxi ride back to the airport, have extra work, because they are not there, just "off to the handling agent for the WC..."
In a commuter I was flying for, the smoking SIC was gone like a shot after landing, no-where to be found before departure and always reeked. My present SIC is slightly more discrete, but the same crap, including trying to find places to smoke on the ramp(!) out of sight. Even being told by the handling agent that it would result in a big fine if she was caught, the b((/"% just laughed it off like it was a joke.
Personally, I will never hire a smoker, simple as that. I wonīt prevent them from smoking, but it wonīt be on my airplane for the reasons mentioned, it is just too much of a time-waster and it impacts everyone else. It would apply to any other habit with the same results. If I had had a say in the hiring of this SIC it would not have happened but now I am stuck with it.