Originally Posted by
mike734
Yeah, I get it. But as you see from the post above, some people seem to insist on an actual salute and some are even willing to hold up the show and drag the ramp guy out from the shed to perform the salute. You said you would accept a wave or a back flip. I think the vast majority of us would. But those who need the salute are tools. I guess the language should be changed so tools who can't see the forest because of all those damn trees can be comfortable.
You are wrong on this one. Per our SOP only a salute affirms to the captain that the ramp personnel have verified that all is clear and the pilots are free to set flaps and commence taxi. A "friendly wave" or someone holding up the bypass pin (not required by the way) doesn't count. If we were to taxi based on the assumption that a "friendly wave" was good enough and then there was a ground incident it would be our butts strung out.
Salute means salute, not "random arm twitch substituting as one"... and it really isn't that hard either.