Originally Posted by
newKnow
I've done two of those flights on the DC-9. One to Stanford, FL and one to (??), Arizona. They don't fight, they just seem surprised when you tell them it's their last flight. After it settles in, they give you a quizzical look that kind of says, "Is that all you got?"
A gladiator helmet would be nice though.
As far as the diversity thing goes, I've seen videos that are 100% one way, and videos, like this one, that were 33% the other way. Because we are all human, I've noticed both ways. But, I can honestly say that neither way has ever rubbed any skin off my nose. Especially, when it comes to who is wearing four stripes versus who is wearing three.
But, like I said, to each his own.
I know of a certain situation on a retirement flight where they decided that an overhead manuever was an appropriate final salute to a 757.
Never heard about that one other than from the pilot himself.
On the other hand, we had a 320 crew do a 260 knot overhead at 800 feet with a full load of pax into a central american destination earlier in the year... that one did get noticed.
None of the diversity stuff has ever rubbed any skin off my nose, just sometimes gets an eye roll at the blatant oversensitive "we've got to show a rainbow!!" corporate HR culture that we see pop up these days. I know it's a response to many years of the opposite which is understandable, and I enjoy being insulated from that environment with the overall "you're a good pilot and fun to hang with, so you're cool" that goes on in our cockpits for the most part. The funny thing is, a surprising amount of the people that they have picked are people that I know. They are all sharp people that I've enjoyed being around. I'm not sure if they get anything extra for being in the PR stuff, but the ones I know are 100% deserving of it, regardless of how they were selected.