Originally Posted by
Airsupport
I laugh at you guys talking all this freight dog crap. I was a single pilot night ifr guy and I can tell you that doing that type of flying has given me the guts, or whatever you want to call it, to say no. Being a freight dog doesn't make you a better pilot per se, but it helps you make better decisions. You learn really quickly when you have bit off more than you can chew when you are the only one in the plane flying. There are more than a couple flights I can look back on and think to myself, man I should have stayed on the ground. Now that I am a captain with OTHER peoples lives in the back I need to evaluate everything that much more closely. Anyone bringing the freight dog attitude to the airlines is just looking for trouble and when they find it all the people they were entrusted with will pay the price.
Excellent post Airsupport.
I haven't done the single pilot night freight stuff, only VFR 135 SE in Southeast AK on floats and wheels. About 3500 hours of it. Often prowling around in very crummy weather, low light in the winter, and sometimes innacurate weather reporting for whats out there ahead of you. I too have in the past had flights where I regretted parts of the decision making process that got me airborne on days when the holes in the cheese started lining up towards a not good outcome. It's very easy to go from hero to zero, and it can happen fast.
I have to say kudos to this Captain for taking a stand for what they thought was right, and most importantly safe. Noone should be hung out to dry for following their gut instinct on conducting or not conducting a flight in an instance like what is described.
All pilots are different, comfort levels, experience, currency- and not currency on paper I mean, I'm talking about your honest self evaluation of how capable one is to perform a certain operation. Not currency on a piece of paper.
Another thing I have not seen mentioned is how many times has this situation happened to this Captain? Maybe they already have dealt with a similar situation with deferred autopilot, flew it, and experienced a flight that few here have in a CRJ because, well, supposedly you are not flying around very often with an inop autopilot, right? Has the company been slack on maintaining the system properly in other words.
Kudos to this Captain for taking a stand for safety.
This is NOT an ego thing.