Agree 100%.

Scoop

If money and time is a barrier then go the military route. Yes you have to have a degree (maybe not to start as warrant in the Army) but those are easy to get these days and cheap at many places. In the military the wash out rate is fairly high but then again that proves not everyone has the aptitude for it.

Fair enough. Can’t argue with that.

I just don’t like the trend of self promotion, especially in this job. The entire goal (at least for me) is to be the most forgettable captain at the company while I quietly collect an upper middle class pay check to work 8 days a month at an objectively interesting and enjoyable job.

Humility is dead. The insatiable need to be validated and recognized for getting up and going to work in the morning is obnoxious and all these IG people are just addicted to it.

As an aside, I don’t feel like there is a healthy respect for how dangerous the job can be if we don’t all have our sh1t together. The industry has been freakishly safe the last two decades and I fear that this excessive social media culture is going to be a distraction.

I really really hope I’m just out of touch and all of us have successful incident free careers regardless of whether we are active on social media or not.

just my 2 cents.

That's the thing.. it's only a matter of time before one of these influencers does have an incident. And it probably won't even be related to their social media activity, but it's going to invite brutal scrutiny that I would want no part of. That's why I post zero Delta stuff on my very limited and private social media accounts 😂

I’ve been thinking this for a long time. Historically people considered this a labor of love. They’ve had the aviation bug, usually from a very young age (I know there’s a tiny amount of outliers out there). That emotion is how management historically undermined pilots, but it also motivated pilots to maintain the highest levels of expertise and professionalism.

These days, with all the zero to hero schemes to get a job that pays well with great benefits (as the primary motivation), the psychology is different. It is concerning, and the quoted comments about the personalities are legitimate. People doing it for money or clout are not of the same “stuff” IMO. Flame away.

I knew it was bad when I saw this trend infect military pilots as well. The expected humility and important opsec aspects of that job precludes these types of people, but here we are.

It already happened to the Tennessee pilot. It didn’t get a lot of attention because she only killed herself and her dad.

The nice thing is at the airline level, especially for Captains, there are multiple checks and balances a pilot has to go thru to be released to the line, and every 9 months more checks. Without a doubt at this level the stick and rudder skills has to be there, but the question would be is all the Social Media influencer stuff affecting focus and judgement day to day on the line. IMO if there were any negative safety trends it would have happened at the regionals, unless the theory is the bigger, more complex, less forgiving jets like a 767 that could introduce issues are at mainline

Also take into account that there are a lot of people getting hired now that the last time they were a PIC was in a GA aircraft. So it may not have shown up in those checks and balances yet.
We all have to start somewhere, I know I know.

My brother and I are diametrically opposite in how we both ended up at major air lines. He went to the AFA. Then UPT, got fighters, got out, got hired at one of the big 3, stayed in the resreves (I think or maybe guard, I can't remember they seem similar to me). Me. I worked my way thru my ratings CFI, CFII, then bank checks, then some dangerous stuff flying clapped out slow-tations, then corporate then finally I got hired here. All this while going to college too. We grew up poor. Like trailer park poor. No one handed us anything. My brother being the better student and athlete got appointed to the USAFA. I was never in that class of people. I was lazy and liked to surf in High School :). We all have our stories and for some reason this book seems to garner attention. It kind of chaps me a little to be honest. Flame away at that.

I agree. Why can't you put your cell phone away for the flight? Do you have to constantly be on it? Is it that important? There's plenty of time for that at the layover.

I disagree. We have many here who 20 years ago would not have been given the 50+ hours of OE (capt and/or FO) to get thru it. They'd be either recylced back to the right seat, or terminated (if new hire). Now that rarely happens.