Originally Posted by
kfahmi
Heck, when I learned to fly:
• GPS did not exist
• Class B was a TCA, Class C was an ARSA, Class D was an ATA (I think)
• A 'fancy' panel meant you had 2 navcomms instead of just one. If you had DME, you were some sort of sky god.
• Written tests were...actually written tests, not computerized tests.
• Sometimes you'd actually drive over to the FSS to get an in-person weather briefing
• The hardest part about departing IFR from an uncontrolled field without a decent RCO was the sprint from the payphone (after you'd been given your clearance and void time from FSS) to the aircraft, and then the quick startup and 40-knot taxi to the runway, just so you could make your void time. True story: once at a airport without a working payphone, the guy on the field drove me to his house so we could call FSS and ask for a 15-minute void time, which they gave us.
• Most of the instructors remembered flying the old 4-course radio ranges
• Flying an NDB approach was just something you did every day
And so on, and so forth...
Sounds familiar, in 78', just before the "Great pilot shortage".
$600 a month and all the flying that they could shove up your arse. No per diem, no FAA over site, no adherence to flight time/duty time regulations (try 10 or more days in a row, 120 of actual time a month). Overnights two to a room, 4 if it had twin beds. Maybe in a firehouse, or adjacent to an overnight maintenance hanger.
"• Flying an NDB approach was just something you did every day"
The "hub" had a localizer, no DME.
The F/O station had a "repeater" from the captains side.
You are all a bunch of whiners.