For those yearning for the good old days. Mate of mine now a captain flying wide-bodies overseas, told me his story of going for a Qantas interview in Sydney when he was about 22 with 1500 hours. He failed the first part of the process and was sent on his way after being informed he wasn't the Right Stuff to be a Qantas pilot.
Feeling pretty miserable he boarded a Qantas 737 flight to go home to Melbourne. Being a keen enthusiastic young man he slipped his business card to the hostie at the front door and asked any chance of having a look at the cockpit on the way to Melbourne. You could do that in those days.
Over Canberra she ushers him into the cockpit. As he described it to me at the time, the cockpit atmosphere was like ice. The first officer made a point of ignoring his presence by staring out of the right hand window while the captain said zilch either.
Feeling a bit uncomfortable the young keen and enthusiastic bloke leaned forward in the jump seat after a few minutes and said "Thanks for the invite to the cockpit and where do you chaps go after Melbourne?" Meaning, do they continue to Adelaide or somewhere.
The captain looked at the lad's business card on the consul turned around and said haughtily "My name is Captain Smith (not his true name of course). In future, address me by that name - not "you chaps."
The young bloke was deeply embarrassed and after only one minute the captain said "You can return to the cabin now, please'.
Well maybe the young man was not the "Right Stuff" to be a Qantas pilot. But as sure as hell the Qantas captain was definitely not the Right Stuff either...
15 years later and the young man was certainly the Right Stuff for his current airline one of the best in the world by far.