Originally Posted by
Spongebob
For me, "perfection" items I strive for are pushing from Marshall on time, planning and flying enroute descents to maximize the efficiency of the airplane and having an un-noticeable landing at the point I aim for, along with flying the flight to applicable standards. A pilot flies to standards. A professional pilot exceeds standards.
That said, even the loosest definition would include getting your passengers from point A to point B alive. They failed to do that. They should be held accountable, as that is an unacceptable error. Whether they were given bum tools or not, countless other aircraft accomplished that assignment from that airport and didn't lose a life.
Whether they did/did not use CRM, checklists, other tools/techniques that are in place to reduce errors or were set up to fail by management or the FAA, their error killed their passengers. They are not paid to make errors, and they are paid to make the decision not to go if the risk to success becomes too high. If the airfield was so jacked up they couldn't find the right runway, they should have not taxied until it was fixed.
Since you edited the spelling in your post, that is a control measure used to achieve "perfection". If, on re-reading, you realized your post was junk, you would not have submitted it. That is a risk control.
Pilot pay: comment about the 73 pay noted...then why the difference between 50 - 70 - 90 seat RJ's??
Pushing and arriving on time has little to do with perfection. There are too many variables OUTSIDE your professional control .. de-icing, late bags, ATC delays, holding, wx. I only try to control those things I can actually control.
The loosest definition of perfection is getting them there? As noted, most errors we capture or there are other barriers in place that tell us an error has been made (GWPS, ATC, policy/procedure, checklist, CRM, etc). But that does not preclude us from making errors. And by any definition, an error (the outcome is not the planned outcome), means that one has not achieved perfection.
Yes, these guys erred and they paid dearly, one dieing and the other losing a leg and probably living the rest of his life replaying the events up to the point of impact over and over and over again in his mind. I know a few guys who have been in crashes and they didn't just walk away and forget it. It is a constant weight they carry.
Risk analysis. We agree. HMP doesn't. (do not pronounce the abbreviation as HUMP, please!). She is an altruist with a checklist. And yes, no one is paid to make errors and no one intentionally errs. That is what is called a "violation", a willful deviation from expected norms.
As for pay, it again has nothing to do with anything except what is *negotiated*. Granted, in distant times of old, pay was tied to number of factors including speed, weight, day, night, international, duty time, butts on board (727 paid more than a DC-9 and the -8 paid more than either and the Seven Four paid a lot more than any of them) but in recent years, we have seen that paradigm destroyed. In fact, the guys taking home the most GREEN don't have a single butt in the cabin.. they are hauling boxes.
In the good years, I saw my compensation almost double. In the bad years I saw it more than halved. Some years we got the bear... lately the bear has been eatin' our lunch and handing us our collective *sses. It happens.