Originally Posted by
SkyHigh
John,
We are all glad for you. I am not here to beat up on guys who have made it to where they want to be, in a flight deck no questions asked.
Then who are you here to beat up on, mate?
You questioned by qualifications, and given that you've nowhere to go with that tack (as your'e certainly not able to hold me up as one with a failed career, nor a sad outlook thereon), who are you going to try to beat into the sand? You're not here to beat up on guys like me. Who, then?
Originally Posted by
SkyHigh
Years ago during a simulator session some UAL guys explained to us that they did not study in preparation for recurrent checks or for proficiency because as they explained, "if the company had wanted us to study they would have built credit hours into the schedule for it". Essentially they were not getting paid to study so they were not going to do it.
Then they were idiots.
I don't know anyone that doesn't study before a recurrent. I know many, myself included who have long had the habit of carrying 3X5 cards to study and I don't just wait until a recurrent; I study all the time. I've had long oceanic legs in which the crew spent much of the trip quizzing one another. This is not the act of a hobbyist; it's the act of a professional. I'm expected to show up for recurrent ready and prepared, and I do.
You may have hit the nail on the head, however, regarding your entitlement and the source of your failure in your career. You really do think that your career should have been served to you on a silver platter. It's unprofessional to study, you say, or to prepare, if the company doesn't designate time and pay you to do so. Really? Seriously?
I get trade magazines. I know a lot of pilots that do. I read them. I don't really give a damn what plumbers read. I'm not a plumber. I know a number of cargo pilots who read Cargo World, however, and I get Sport Pilot, Flying, AOPA Pilot, Ag Air Update, AMT Magazine (mechanics), Professional Pilot, Trade A Plane, and a number of other publications. I read them. I also subscribe to some pubs without advertising, which are excellent, such as Light Plane Maintenance and Aviation Consumer, as well as several aviation job subscription sites.
Perhaps to you a professional is never studying. If so, you were never a professional. A professional is constantly studying, constantly seeking continuing education, and constantly reviewing what he or she is already responsible to know. This includes regulation as well as aircraft systems, limitations, procedures, and so on.
You honestly believe that the hallmark of a professional is not needing to study? We may have finally located the depths of your failure; we've plumbed the bottom and learned why you couldn't make it as a professional. Not only did you fail to take responsibility for your own career progression, but you also failed to take responsibility as a pilot. That is a failing that is unacceptable under any circumstance. If you behaved and believed as you've just said, then it's a very good thing for us all that the cockpit is finally rid of you.
Originally Posted by
SkyHigh
I was here long before you and I will be here long after. Lives need to be saved.
No, you weren't. I was flying before you, and I'm still flying. Here before you, here long after you failed and bailed. Lives are saved, as you're no longer in the cockpit.
You can type until your fingers bleed about your martyrdom, but the only lives that are safer are the ones not riding in a cockpit manned by you. For that, we may all say thanks.
Not a word comes from you that's the truth, as once again we see. Consistently wrong in every respect. One would nearly do well to act exactly the opposite of what skyhigh advocates, and would be on a path to success.