Originally Posted by Airhoss

I disagree that doing a TK stint doesn’t make you a “better” pilot. It makes you a more rounded pilot, just like any additional skill sets, duties, and experiences do for you in this profession. Where I see issues with TK guys are the career PI who’s never flown the line and confuses strict adherence to SOP’s and knowing the “book” cold with flying skills. On the line the issue I see is the open the book once a year guy who doesn’t know where to find ANYTHING and makes up his own SOPs and thinks his wacky techniques are the law. A good pilot has a healthy mix of good flying skills and a good knowledge of the book too.

A couple of things that TK did for me are the ability to identify and shut down flight deck blowhards and BSers immediately. There is pretty much nothing I can’t almost immediately find in any of our manuals if needed. A decades worth of battling briefing room “attorneys” will do that for you. Doing a stint at TK will make you realize that background is not a predictor of current skills or ability. You see the best of the best and the worst of the worst and they come from all the different background, military, civilian, fighters, transports, corporate, regionals, night freight etc etc. As far as stick and rudder skills go there is only one way to be good at those and that’s to hand fly as often as possible.

I agree that most TK guys are not there for altruistic reasons. Some do it for the schedule control, some have become comfortable in their niche and frankly are afraid to head out to the line. Some do it because they make more money at their seniority level in the building than out. For me the line suits me way better, I’ve got better schedule control and on an a month to month average make quite a bit more money than being an instructor. Oh yeah and spending 12.5 years in and out of the building has made me realize that I’m not interested in going back.