Personally, I liked the article. I've been in this industry as a line pilot for 22 year, so I'm not some guy who has no clue about the state of our industry or how we got here. I'm a guy who's lived it. J-31's through CRJ-700's with crew meals. Again, with that said, he did an eloquent job of describing and reflecting upon a portion of the day in the life of a "regional" pilot.

As for his statement about the AP flying better than we can? I'm a guy who flies all takeoffs up to maybe 15,000 feet and 320 KIAS and pointed where we're going. I hand fly most, if not all approaches - day, night, good weather, and bad. I pride myself on my hand flying skills (Damn it, I BETTER know how to fly an airplane well), but c'mon! I'm the first to admit that any modern AP can embarrass my own hand flying skills. Any of you out there who say otherwise are simply kidding yourselves.

The only other comment I'll make is that I get a kick out of the irony of ANY regional pilot calling out those who may be bringing down the profession with our never ending race to the bottom. If that is the case, look in the mirror. If YOU are a regional pilot, every mainline pilot can look at you and call you a hypocrit.