Originally Posted by
AeroAl
I would rather be part of the Safety committee on the union side than a management pilot in Flight Ops, and I certainly know the tricks airlines try to pull sometimes to screw pilots over. I also don’t think my previous experience has anything to do with my flying skills. My point is, I have experience and relationships to draw on going into this that is relatable, that most folks don’t have. Trying to say, I’m not unique or different in that regard, is not an accurate statement.
It's a value-add for sure, but NOT a substitute for flying experience. It's one thing to understand safety systems, quite another to apply that theory in the real world while flying a jet. If you don't believe me now, you'll know what I'm talking about in eight years...
Bear in mind there are probably thousands of ex-military safety officers in the airlines. That helped them get hired, but it probably had more to do with all that military turbine PIC.
If you have high-level connections, that might actually be a shortcut.