Wednesday, April 4, 2001
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Wednesday, April 4, 2001 |
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85% of Delta pilots likely will stay on the job While I agree with the sentiments of the posting, I think the author is also a crybaby. Life in the United States is a series of choices. Some make the effort to obtain a maximum education consistently achieving the highest academic averages in order to pursue the career they choose. I specifically refer to doctors, veterinarians, and others who travel this path. Some are too lazy to work towards a career field goal and settle for whatever comes along. Some make a choice to be an aviator. Airline pilots are not the only aviators, and perhaps not the highest pay in the chain. But they do enjoy the best work conditions for their pay of any of the other aviators. Your author has not a clue of the avenues that every airline pilot traverses. He mentions the military trained pilots, many of whom originally planned a career in the military, but for various reasons changed, or had their minds changed for them. But military pilots, going into the airlines, long ago became the minority method of entry. More likely today's pilot pays to acquire his required licenses in a small airplane, then becomes a flight instructor, then gets a corporate job or maybe is lucky and gets into a commuter carrier, and then promotes to the bottom of the seniority list of a major airline. I don't care for today's airline pilot. I trained many of them at my airline as a check captain (now retired). I did not (and do not) agree with the changes in training methods instigated from upper management's ivory tower. The quality of pilot being hired today is vastly below the quality hired several decades ago. Today's pilot turns on the autopilot and all the navigational magic the way his company trains and directs him to do. The airplane then maneuvers itself with little pilot input. The pilot is there to take care of unexpected irregularities and deal with Air Traffic Control. The problem I have is that this generation of pilot is not technically sharp about basic hand flying of an airplane where some of the "magic" is inoperative. The 757 crash off Peru was a perfect example of this deterioration of pilot skills. I think your author is wrong in his method of attack on airline pilots. They are not any different than doctors or ditchdiggers. The fact is that every employee thinks he is overworked and underpaid; the author is no exception. His sour grapes attitude doesn't address the issues. When your author states that pilots should acquire "40 hours of actual flight time per week" shows his ignorance. Think about it; pilots are not getting paid to sit in the cockpit while you find your seat. They get paid when the wheels move. If a pilot makes five stops in a day, he isn't getting paid to sit while passengers load and unload. Pilots aren't getting paid when an unscheduled mechanical delays the flight for four or so hours. When ATC stops traffic for their reasons, weather, gate delays, preflights, ad nauseam. Pilots don't get paid for sitting at the gate. If a pilot got 40 hours actual flying a week, plus all the time he must be there to plan his flight and check out all the systems, we are looking at an 80- or 90-hour work week. Let's see a show of hands for those who want to ride on any airliner that the pilot is tired and worn out from all that time on duty each week.... Hmmm, I don't see any hands, so your author must be wrong on this issue. I think that ALPA is a paper tiger and when it gets down to that day, Delta pilots will not actually go on strike. When it comes down to walking away from what they now have, 85 percent or more will stay at work, while the rabble-rousing minority find themselves locked out, maybe permanently. Am I wrong? Hit the bricks, Capt. Switzer, and see if I am wrong. But first, ask your wife what she wants you to do. Name withheld by request
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