Originally Posted by
Voski
EXACTLY. Someone gets it.
I'm a military aviator as well and these guys have no idea of how good they have it. Being an airline pilot is arguably one of the easiest, cushiest jobs out there -- in or outside of aviation. I think a lot of you have a very distorted perception of your slice of reality. Just my 0.0001 BTC.
See, I've done both as well. I get what you are saying. I've had some hard jobs and being an airline pilot is not one of them.
The thing is, however, there is a big difference between airline and military flying, especially the acceptable risk. You can see this in the safety culture and the accident rates. The last fatal crash involving a US airline was what... seven years ago? The last fatal military crash was how many days ago? We still discuss the factors that lead to Colgan 3407, in the Army I saw factors that lead to past crashes still present years later.
Much of this has to do with the public. Again, people outside the airlines still discuss and remember Colgan 3407. Military crashes from 2009? Please.
This cultural difference is especially prevalent in crew rest rules. The Army plays lip service to crew schedules and giving crews adequate rest. Heck, I remember the Army waking me at 0530 for chow (because the Army eats breakfast at 0530 ya know), then telling me to "rest" in a crowded, noisy hanger for a 2000 NVG launch and fly until 0800 then passing out under my aircraft on the tarmac as it's being fueled. The airlines learned a while ago that it falls under the "bad" column when crews start hallucinating due to fatigue. Flying seven days in a row with chicken plate, many of them with NVGs. Wake up tomorrow at 0300 for an early NVG mission, the next day try to sleep in for a late mission. Only knowing what day it is by the crap served in the chow hall.
Now when I say "airlines", perhaps I should clarify by saying "airline unions". It's not that management is bad or wants to be unsafe. Fatal crashes are bad for business. It's just that they have competing interests, so unions have stepped in and pushed for better (safer), work rules. No more "8 hour reduced rest with a 1.5 hour van drive in each direction to the hotel". They fought for the FAA interpretation that reserve is not rest. The better airlines now have pretty good hotels. The ones at my airline use to suck until we had a female FO attacked by someone hiding under her bed, followed a little later by a crew observing a gang hit at a Waffle House across the street from their hotel. Now the union and the company work together on hotels. Most are pretty good.
I could go on. But just because our last job sucked does not mean this job should suck just a little less.