Have you ever said a non-essential word below 10,000? Failed to stagger your crew meal with the other pilot? Looked at your phone after the preflight checklist?

I have yet to fly with any pilot, in either seat, who has followed every word in the FOM to the letter. Yet, somehow, hat wear is the one section that some in our pilot group obsess over.

We demonstrated during the “hats off” campaign that it’s possible to be hatless, AND a highly professional pilot group at the same time. Nearly every other legacy pilot group has preceded us in mass non-compliance with hat requirements, which has led to hats becoming optional everywhere else. We’re the last remaining group clinging to this outdated tradition.

You lost me at "copilot." Equating not wearing a hat to using a cell phone in the flight deck is a bit of a stretch.
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This… And, ATL is, without a doubt, the pit of despair. LAX is the best crew room, and SLC has no windows. SEA is number two, for me.

En masse. Look, I absolutely hate the hat, and would love to see it go away permanently, but there’s a difference between a coordinated and (nearly) universal hatless campaign, and a (very) few folks individually “sticking it to the man”. The CPO cannot discipline 99.69% for not wearing the hat, but they sure can do it to 1 or 2 stragglers. There is safety in numbers, and an old, bold WB Captain might be able to get away with a few things a newish FO can’t.

The writers must have spent time in the ATL lounge.

https://youtu.be/GefTLKjhAW4?feature=
shared

Had he not been shot by his own troops Niedermeier would have checked out on the 757, moved to PTC and taken a job in the ATL CPO.

Years ago, I was sitting at the gate when I saw a another Captain approach my Captain at the podium. Within about 15 seconds, the conversation clearly became heated. After 30 seconds of watching an uncomfortably awkward situation, my Captain walked over to me shaking his head. He let me know he was being chastised because his FO (me) was not wearing his hat while seated in the gate area. After I simply said "what?" in disbelief, this Captain then proceeded to make a scene yelling at me in the gate area because my hat was not on while seated in front of the customer. Yes, he made a scene. Yes, this was in Atlanta. And yes, he was Atlanta based.

Lol it's amazing to me that he didn't realize this is not the military and, as a random Captain, he has absolutely zero power over you. If not on probation, he'd have had a scene back on him and not in a good way. Heck in today's day, just pull you phone and and start recording. I'm sure the CPO would love to see an idiotic Captain making a scene in front of passengers.

Are hats required to be worn for #2 or just #1? Fortunately most stalls have a hat hook so I can hang him up safety, but I don't have an issue wearing it for the sake of the brand.

I agree. That’s essentially the point of my earlier post. It took mass non-compliance with hat requirements at other legacies before hats became optional. It would take the same effort here, barring a significant change in Flight Ops management.

What’s unique to Delta, however, is that we have a shrinking yet vocal minority of line pilots who believe it is their job to personally enforce hat wear (see the perfect example posted above). It’s the same group that spread fear to end the hats off campaign, despite no official communication from the union or even management.

I'm not sure how shrinking this majority is. I've flown with a few new hires lately who have told me "I worked too hard to get to Delta to wear a single breasted jacket." I'm not making this up at all.