Originally Posted by
Probe
Scott;
Nope. Lual, 95 hire. Spent first 6 years flying with scabs and 570, and me or the bunkie was hired post 1990. Most post 1990 hires were good guys/gals.
United was my 17th job. Hired when I was 32. My guess is UAL was your first, and now only, job. Hired at 22. Sorry, being an intern doesn't count. You weren't paid.
In 1995, if me and you did resumes under the same criteria, your work experience would be 1 inch long on a normal piece of paper. Mine would be 2.5 pages. Mine was simllar to all my classmates of Dec, 1995. We came from diverse backgrounds. But all of us were the same, under the sun.
What none of us were, back in Dec of 1995, were 22 year olds starting their first real job, ever.
LCAL?, A few days ago I did my last line check. My LCAL check airman, a couple of years younger than me, was telling me about his aviation experience (I asked). After he told me, I said, you know what, the guys that really had it bad, flew checks in the middle of the night, single pilot, IFR. He said, "OH Yeah, I did that for three years as well."
I stand by my opinion. 500 hour interns, or 3000 hours that daddy paid for, don't belong in front of the Q in front of 8000 hour pilots with 12 years of professional experience. And it shows when you fly with them.
Outstanding Airmanship Award? Congrats. I am sure you did a great job. So did all of us, numerous times, throughout all of our professional careers. I am not badmouthing what you did, but I would never, ever, brag about the award. Why?
Because all of us, professional aviators, have saved the day a few times in our careers. For the most part, the only ones that know about it are in front of the locked cockpit door. It is our job, and why we make the big bucks. After the flight, we shook hands, and went home.
I stand by what I said about interns, 100%.
Don't particularly care about how you feel about interns etc., but every LUAL pilot owes Scott a debt of gratitude. You accuse him of tooting his own horn, but he didn't tell you what he did. So I will. He saved an 737 full of people from colliding with a 747 in ORD through some outstanding airmanship. An fatal accident was imminent. Had it occurred, everyone would have surely died, and due to LUAL's financial stature at the time, we would almost certainly have gone out of business. See Pan Am.
I am curious.... Do you have kids? If your child wanted to be a pilot for United, and had the grades to apply for what is an extremely competitive program, would you tell them NOT to go for the UAL internship because you didn't think it was fair for them to get a leg up? I've flown with good and bad interns. I've also flown with some good and bad fighter pilots. I've flown with good and bad union officers. Most of it is just luck and timing anyway, but it doesn't hurt to try to make your own luck where you can. You are certainly entitled to your opinion but it doesn't necessarily mean you're right.