Originally Posted by
Meme In Command
We need more FO's, or pilots in general to download that pay/time calculator that shows you real time how much money you are making. Next time your fellow crew member is visited by the Good Idea Fairy, just plop the phone by the center console and say "see that? That's how much you get paid to sit here and wait for the problem to figure itself out".
If I hear ATC tell me there's departure delays out of new York due to radar outage, you're gonna hear me on the radio asking what taxiway I can shut down engines at to save gas. gimme a heads up so I can start em up and get my checklists done. FO and I are gonna start calculating EDP, doing pay math and watching the printer for a reroute.
Side note: shout-out to HK for his streak of reasonably good arguments
I'm also on team generally a bad idea. Certainly, if the problem was just the tower radar service, it wouldn't be a terrible idea to get a VFR clearance expecting to get IFR shortly after take off. We do it all the time. But, when told he'd have to wait until Allentown and then MAYBE get the IFR there, implying that radar was out for an extended distance, "oh, yeah then nevermind" would have been the only right answer.