Very nice post Saab
I will say that when I'm up in the left seat the ONLY person I'm even remotely scared of is the FAA ... and I'll explain...
When I'm up in the left seat, I know that I'm in charge of that aircraft and everything that goes on. Whatever happens on my aircraft, I have the mindset that my crew comes first, NOT the passengers. I have been criticized for this viewpoint by many people, but in my opinion, if you don't take care of your crew who the hell is going to take care of the pax?!?! I'm very stern with people when I have to be, and I'll tell it how it is if I get ****ed off about something if someone isn't doing their job. The gate agents don't scare me because in IAD half of them can't speak English anyway, so it really doesn't matter what they say! The ramp agents can kiss my a$$ because 80% of the time we're having to wait on them for EVERYTHING, and more than once now I've chewed out a supervisor who claims that he just got there and didn't know what was going on (to which I responded, so who's been in charge up until now?). I can't count the number of times I have personally got off the plane and helped load bags just to make sure we're out on time. 9L doesn't have a clue what's happening with my aircraft until something goes terribly wrong, so really, unless I REALLY mess up. I have even called my dispatcher to tell them we would be late leaving the gate for reason "A" and had to tell another one because mine was busy ... only to have my dispatcher call up 5 minutes later and ask why we were late. My company doesn't scare me. If I **** them off for some reason or another, the worst thing they can do is kick me to the curb. That would definitely suck, don't get me wrong.
The ONLY people I'm afraid of is the FAA. They are the ONLY people on this planet that can not just fire me, but completely revoke my license to fly. Take away my career forever. So, I'll be brutally honest with everyone I work with when I need to be, and I'll light a fire under people's a$$'s when the time calls, but no matter what happens, I do my job correctly and accurately so that the only people I fear, never have to come up and say "thanks for playing, goodbye".
I agree with you on everything you said Saab. I can only hope that the pilots we have today haven't lost their touch on being in control and being able to put their foot down! That's what it takes sometimes.