Originally Posted by SkyHigh
Nothing has changed since I was there. Companies didn't want to kill customers then either. You still have the same conditions, bad WX, small planes, few WX reporting stations and a demand from pax to get where they are going. If you tell your boss that you can't go because the weather is less than 1000 and 5 while he watches a competitor taxi out with your pax it still will not put a smile on his face. Perhaps you work for Penair, ERA, Frontier or for a sight seeing company where they can afford a little safety? All the places I worked still crash planes and face challenging decisions everyday. I know that it has been a long time since AS hired anyone from the bush and it will be even longer to never now. These days you have to be a CRJ or military superstar to get noticed. A kingair out of Barrow will not cut it anymore. Unless of course you are well connected.
SKyHigh
Nothing has changed? How do you know that? Some of your information is outdated. Some was never correct. In most places 1000 & 5 is quite safe and very legal. (500 & 2 or 1000 & 1 are our day VFR mins.) The old small crappy runways (at least in southwest AK) are being phased out. There are more WX reporting stations. Lots of podunk airports are currently served by GPS approaches. As far as your boss's reaction to your decisions about when not to fly, in many ways that comes right back to you. Have you chosen to work for a sketchy operator? Is your backbone sufficiently weak that you are going to stay with that operator and be allow yourself to be pressured to risk your life? You just cited 3 airlines that you say can afford more safety. Why not go work for one of them then? By the way, there are plenty more airlines which do not operate in the old "bush pilot" mentality.
Sure there are challenging decisions regularly. If you are a poor decision maker, you shouldn't be a pilot. Your old airlines like to continue wrecking planes? There is an interesting relationship between an airline's hiring standards and their frequency of bent metal.