Talking about stripes, how's this:
If someone is sitting in the s/o seat (with the ability to upgrade to a higher paying seat) for an extended period of time, let's say for example, 5 years, then that person would wear the 2 stripes of a Professional Flight Engineer, not the 3 stripes of a pilot/flight engineer. The same would hold true for first officers that do the same, but in this case they would wear 3 stripes that would go the length of the epaulet rather than the 3 stripes that go across the epaulet, as is normal. The 3 stripes the long way could be used to identify one as a Professional First Officer. That way, when the captain met his (or her) crew at the start of a trip, he'd be more able to gauge what he had to work with. How about them apples??
