The Public Perception of Modern Pilots

[dwshimoda]

Question to PAX...

...So would YOU get on a pilotless aircraft?

I think we're here to stay for a while... DW.

(PS have you seen the attrition rate on drones?)

[Pipersupercub]

to Perwazee

To Perwazee, yeah, you're right, it should be written " Ph.D" ...
And it's " white collar" job, not "white color".

I rest my case.

Rick

[mixture]

The speed of change is all a matter of dollars and cents. Backward unions like that at IB just help speed up the rate of change.

Its easy to forget that the reason the military deploy UAVs is because they have to overfly somewhat hostile territories. Therefore they need to have the ability to hit the self-destruct button (I assume some of the more hush-hush models have that feature) or not worry about one falling into enemy hands (sure the enemy has a nice new expensive toy plane to play with .... but at least they don't have a pilot to torture or kill).

Until Boeing and Airbus can guarantee that incidents such as BA38, AF447, QF32 etc. will never occur (i.e. no such guarantee will be forthcoming from any non-suicidal manufacturer), then the regulators will, in all likelyhood, never allow unmanned civil flight to occur..... it is afterall, always going to be cheaper to pay for a couple of people to sit in the pointy end than it is to deal with the repercussions of killing hundreds (whether those hundreds are onboard or on the ground) when CFIT - or, more likely UFIT - occurs because the electronics have decided they've had enough.

[tsgas]

Embraer is already working on a single pilot airliner design . The military are looking at pilotless fighter aircraft because of the ever increasing G loads. Cargo carriers like the concept since autopliots don't suffer from sleep deprivation.
No one in the 60's foresaw flying over the oceans with less then a crew of 3 pilots and a 4 engined airliner. "The only constant is constant change".

[Agaricus bisporus]

Public perception of pilots

Likely to be at a similar level as "public perception" itself isn't it? ie, an oxymoron.
No, on second thoughts that's over stating the case. Just a Moron.

So why is this thread so long? Nothing to see here. Move along please.

[OK465]

At least they're not claiming that pilots are 'overpaid, womanizing, hard partying, fast living, stick and rudder skygods'....

Those days are gone.

[PURPLE PITOT]

Speak for yourself!

[Yankee Whisky]

Pilotless Airplanes and an ignorant public

I am of the old flying school and find it inconceivable that we should agree to pilotless aircraft flying a load of passengers.

I, for one, would not feel safe in such an aircraft and ,mainly, for the simple reason that there is no-one up front who will use his/her brain to step in when the electronic gizmos pack it in or some other failure occurs !

I don't understand why anyone would question the public's ignorance of what exactly is the pilot's job and responsibility. The public is ignorant about a lot more including the law !

It is up to airlines and pilot associations to enlighten the public and, maybe, some of this knowledge will stick !!!!!

[Uncle Fred]

Well chaps I do not think we are quite there yet...

Drone crashes mount at civilian airports overseas - The Washington Post

I know that many have lives that for some odd reason are centered around the discussion of diminishing ours as pilots, but I don't think we have been sent off yet.

[Wunwing]

We can postulate forever onthe technical side but the moment an aircraft starts to cross multi countries the real long term issue is diplomatic and security with insurance implications for both.

Forget the 5 freedoms of the air, would your country (say UK) let an VH registered aircraft controlled from Sydney in its airspace. Maybe it would but how about from XYZ.Maybe we move on to 10th freedoms?

So we have a problem if each country takes controll of the aircraft as it enters their airspace as we mainly do now with ATC, how do we prevent a highjack or some kind of political argy bargy?

Is say Australia, happy to let a M.E. country controll its VH registered aircraft over their ME territory?

These are the real questions before pilotless aircraft are acceptable.
Wunwing

[blind pew]

Will never happen as the ability to blame pilots for poor construction and maintanence will have disappeared.
And who would sh@g the hosties?

[wiggy]

Wunwing - Interesting point.

Taking that back a step to a more "micro" level would a company be willing to temporarily hand over unfettered control of one of it's multi,multi million pounds assets to a controller working for another company sitting in another part of the world?

[bigdaviet]

Originally Posted by Perwazee

Contrary to popular belief, being and airline pilot is a Blue Color job!

Besides, you do NOT need a college degree! Heck, you do not even need High School graduation. If you can drive a car, you can become an airline pilot. I even know someone who doesn’t even drive a car and she’s an airline pilot for a major airline in Europe.

Not that educated/smart people don’t make living as Commercial Pilots, but you truly do not need college education and degrees...like the ones required if you want to be a doctor, dentist, engineer, or a lawyer. Now, these are truly ‘White Color’ jobs!

Perwazee, I suspect you are on the wind up here!

But to answer your point seriously, I have a degree and many of my colleagues do.

Do I believe that my colleagues who don't have a degree would be capable of getting one if desired? Most Certainly Yes and imo your post insults them.

As for High School qualifications, I know a few people who tried to do their ATPL pilot exams with no A level (or equivalent,) in Maths/Physics etc and they struggled big time.

[bigdaviet]

If we ever reach a point where pilotless aircraft are a possibility for commercial airlines, the resultant debate will highlight to the public just how important it is to have a qualified pilot in the cockpit.

It will happen in the distant future perhaps but certainly not in our lifetimes.

[Jonty]

They are more likely to invent teleportation first.

[wheelie my boeing]

I can see it happening in the very distant future but agreed, not in our lifetimes. It would probably initially be a cruise relief type autopilot where the pilot can take his rest legally (I would assume in the cockpit) but would almost always be impossible until modern aircraft can fly higher than bad weather. An autopilot cannot visually determine how bad a cell is, it could do so based on a much more advanced weather radar than the one we currently have. Not to mention the weather radars that don't even paint bad weather (ref Air Transat 906 in 2001)...
Report: Air Transat L101 near Lyon on Jul 6th 2001, hail encounter

[JammedStab]

Originally Posted by SR71

They may not need a college degree, but I'd be surprised if many didn't have one.

Of the 16 letters I'm entitled to put after my name, PhD are 3 of them.

No college degree....fly the queen of the skies. Flew for four years instead as extra education. Learned a lot.

I'm entitled to put Jr. after my name.

Suspect a major overhaul of many ATC units will be required as well before the inevitable happens.

[911slf]

AF447 is a good example of what happens if no (adequately functioning) humans are in the loop.

Anyone wish to speculate about how many more such events there would have been if standards of piloting were universally that low?

[bavarian-buddy]

At the end it all comes down to money. What is cheaper?
A completely new developed fully automatic airliner with completely new ATC infrastructure, new airspace strucutre, new global laws and regulations, new procedures, new airport infrastructure, ground guidance etc...
Ooooooor taking a good old 737 and put in 2 desperate pilots who paid for their typerating and linetraining and together earn less that 100k bucks a year. Well, the answer is quite simple
It's not only a new plane, you have to change the whole system, and thats just too expensive for airlines.

[Gordomac]

Midway across the pond, glory days of allowing pax visits, lovely old boy, train driver who insisted on being called 'Driver West', sat on the middle seat , said nothing for about ten minutes & then proclaimed; " Well, Captain, I don't think you deserve the money you get " ! His reasoning was that he drove a high speed train from somewhere north of the Thames to Euston with thousands of punters in the back. I, had only 228 pax & seemed to be doing nothing ! I replied, "Well, Driver West, at the moment, we are five miles above the planet earth, We are doing eight miles a minute and If anything goes wrong...............we can't stop ". He went a funny colour, grimaced, said; "F - - - K" & disappeared out of the Flight Deck.

Oh, can't resist one last before being entertained by a tribute band at the Corfu Tavern; As a lowly First Officer on Northeast Viscounts outa Leeds, I sat, blissfully unaware of FD visits. I did catch, out of one corner, a splendid Yorkshire biddie who cuddled up to the Captain, Timber Wood, & uttered "Ooooooh, you must be dead clever to do this job !". He motioned towards me & said" Oh I dunno, look at him !".

Now, did I tell any of you lot how I got into flying ?..Aaaaaaaah !