Originally Posted by Fetzer

New to the forums and new hire at WN…

Zap seems like a guy who appreciates reasonable dialog, so I’d like to offer a perspective on callsigns.

For the majority of pilots coming from a fighter background, please don’t take the use of a nickname as a desire to bring military culture to the airlines. It’s simply a name that they’ve used for years in daily interactions with friends and colleagues. This isn’t Top Gun where a callsign is a cool way to pick up girls at the bar (most of the names aren’t that cool anyway). It is, instead, a name that you’ve been called by your brothers and sisters when celebrating the highest highs, lamenting the lowest lows, and everything in-between in an extremely demanding and dangerous area of aviation. If you had grown up with your family and friends calling you Zap and you wanted me to call you that as we get to know each other in this business, I wouldn’t begrudge you for it at all. If I asked you to call me by my nickname, it’s not because I want to fly the 737 like a fighter or turn the airline into a squadron. It’s because I value you as a co-worker, friend and someone who will have my back like I’ll have yours.

Note, this is merely a comment on callsign use. I think it’s less related to ‘letting go’ and assimilating into the 121 ‘subculture’ than some people think. As to other ‘significant military presence and influence,’ I haven’t been around long enough to know.

Happy to be here, and I’d love to hear some stories about flying the 19 seat Jetstream between Altoona and Pittsburgh.