Originally Posted by
Sputnik
Incidentally, the more I think about it I have to say the transoceanic requirement seems kind of gay to me too. I've spent way too much of my life crossing one pond or another. I don't want to minimize my career, but what is so hard about it? HF sucks but it ain't rocket science. I remember my first overseas mission, I had no idea what the hell was going on...and that's why they put me with an experienced crew. And I learned. And it didn't take that long.
Seems like UPS is just cutting down their recruiting pool. Now since I still qualify...I'm all for it.
Exactly. It's called "weeding out". And as I'm sure that you guys know, it's gone on for pretty much all of airline history in one form or another. When I made the decision to pursue an airline career in the early 70's I was told that since I wasn't an ex-military pilot I might as well forget about it. And, oh by the way, if you don't have your job by the time you're 30 you'll never get hired. You're too old. It's pretty much all stupid and illogical. And most companies have their own quirks. The military mafia ran FedEx for years.
If we can be trained to fly complicated equipment we sure should be able to talk on the HF and plot on a chart with minimal instruction. Well, maybe not at the same time.