Questions to put to a professional
 

I'm on another forum where one of the more established members claims to be a Proffesional(sic) Airline Pilot.

Aside from his abysmal spelling and grammar, English is mother tongue, there are a few other anomalies.

Now he even asked me for the Airport ID for St. Maarten, shirley as a pro he would be able to find that out in 2 shakes ?

What 1 or 2 question(s) could I ask that would really catch him out ?, nothing too personal though.

You could ask him for an introduction to Shirley.

Well, you could ask him, quite casually, who he works for, go away and do some research and then ask a few questions that a real insider would be expected to know? Same procedure, ask what type of a/c he is flying etc. etc.:E

Farmer 1 Very cutting - but well observed! :ok:

Er..... I think the Shirley thing is a reference to the use of the word in the film Airplane and therefore quite deliberate?

Only if she's hot and not his blow-up doll. :}

Will do some digging about his airline/aircraft. I'm no Columbo but my hunch is that the only aircraft this guy flies are in a Bill Gates product.

We shall see.

Yes BE, on the money. Old habits die hard.

BlueEagle,

I did think about that, honest, but eventually decided it was a mistake on his part. If I was wrong, it was a mistake on my part, and I apologise and take my hat off to zorrotfb.

Couldn't resist, though.

That is an irrelevant quality to being a pilot - professional or otherwise. If that's all you are basing things on then it doesn't prove things one way or another.

The acid test is what he knows about the company he claims to fly for, and his detailed knowledge of operating their aircraft.

It wouldn't be too difficult for readers here to draw up suitable questions if we had the details of who he 'flys' for and what he 'flys'.

Right here we go, Continental 737-900.

are you looking at those dating agencies again?

No probs Farmer 1!:D

Zorrotfb, I would put money on this guy being a phony,
As PPRuNe Radar suggest, tell everyone the aircraft he 'flys' and the company he 'works for' and between us we will come up the mother of all interviews!!!:E

Yes from one of his quotes above, Continental 739, he also says on transatlantic routes.

Do Continental operate 737s on TA routes ?

Don't quote me on it, but I don't think that CO 739s are ETOPS certified, which would mean that couldn't be used for transatlantic. I know CO uses 757s to thinner markets out of EWR, like LIS, BRS and GLA, but no 739s. Maybe they're used to South America, but I don't think they'd need to be ETOPS for that (someone correct if that is wrong). Unfortunately, Continental's web site doesn't offer a .pdf version of their timetable to corroborate his claims.

If he's a real CO pilot ask him how he feels about having this last pilot contract shoved up our backsides...ask him how many hundreds of thousands of dollars he's lost on his pension. Especially ask him about what "not afraid to fly" means, because I don't know what it means after beng a pilot for Continental for 18 years....

Ask if he's able to schedule time off for Thanksgiving week.