Please be forewarned, I have 2 short irony submissions, and I didn't tell either person that I was going to post about them here, my apologies in advance!

I was actually waiting for that very same DH that started the previous flap, when an older woman sat down next to me. I was reading a book but that didn't seem to matter, she wanted to talk. Fine, I'm in uniform and even with my super rebellious orange lanyard I'm always polite and courteous to our paying customers. At first it was small innocent questions but then she got heavily into politics. I did a lot of nodding and grinning and she asks me 'so, you're not allowed to talk about politics?' I smiled and said that's probably not the best idea while on the clock. Unfortunately that cluebug did not phase her at all and she proceeded to explain why her candidate was the best and all the rest were a bunch of idiots, etc, etc (btw, her candidate is an idiot). 20 minutes later and we're about to board and I'm still nodding and grinning and she ends it with 'well, I can't wait to get home, only problem is we've got our granddaughter with us and she just never shuts up'.

My other encounter with irony was at DAL for our 1st flight of the day at 0-dark-thirty out of the shared SWA gate. SWA was late and still sitting at our gate, which means we're now late, but at least I've now got time to stand in the amusement park line at Starbucks! So I'm standing there going nowhere fast and the woman in front of me turns to me and complains about how slow the line is going. It was pretty early so I was able to get away with a nod and a sigh. We finally get to the front of the line and she orders a single beverage that somehow comes out to 9+ bucks and takes longer than any 2 of the people who were in front of us.

Ha seems like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree in grandma's family. I never understood why some people think it's ok to jump right into politics with someone they never met before. I do wonder if she's a fan of walls though.

Are you sure it wasn't Captain Happy?......

My God, ok, I'll sit in the jumpseat if I want to, ok? There's like other passengers for the seats back there and you didn't tell me which seat to take, so I'll take whichever one I want. I make a mistake every 3 minutes, and my god there's like 1 jumpseat here, but I don't appreciate your attitude.

I'd call that an irony

Way too much nit picking if each and every flight needs to be debriefed other than the crappy crew meals, coffee, and of course lack of breadsticks on the meal tray. Boarder line OCD.

FTF,

I should have been more specific, I was referring to critiques/criticisms from a jumpseater/deadheading pilot. Unless something unsafe is happening, probably best to just sit there quietly.

Thanks for the tip, Mike! But there's nothing like a new-hire whining about all the "tools and cat ranchers" he has to fly with after getting hired in front of 12k other applicants and cashing in the winning lottery ticket to really crack me up!

You're not commuting to reserve, you're not sitting sideways in a 727, you haven't been furloughed, and your biggest problem is if the captain doesn't take his seat in the back on a DH..hilarious! I really liked the part where you get all butt-hurt when the FA's praise the captain and he has the gall to criticize your landing..during taxi back to the gate, no less! Man, that was hysterical!

And then you run back to APC with your tail between your legs to call all of your fellow DL pilots DB's and ATL guys tools hoping to get a pat on the back on this thread..that was the best therapy a butt-hurt Coastie like me could ever hope for!

Thanks again! Keep up the good work and let us know if you fly with any more tools! Who am I kidding? Of course you will!

I'm feeling better already..CG Out

i also used to frequently debrief stuff post flight--when I was in the military and we had formal debriefings, after either a training flight, exercise, or actual combat. Even then, we never debriefed after a "normal" transport flight.

In the airline world we never--NEVER--"debrief" following a routine flight. That would be mind-blowingly pointless.

Now if a checklist or a procedure had changed, and the other guy hadn't yet "gotten the memo" then yes, a quick reminder or pointer would be in order. If the landings were terrible all the time, and you know a good way to fix the issue, that MIGHT be a time to politely bring something up. There are no doubt other times when a little "hey don't forget that we are supposed to do such and such this way, and the company is really emphasizing that" might be called for.

But if we nitpicked every flight (up to five times a day) with "well your taxiing was a bit faster than ideal, work on your radio procedures, my technique is to call for the checklist at such and such a time, and why don't you think about doing the same?" we would all collectively go catatonic with the uber-stupidity of it all.

Standard debrief is either, "Good Landing," or "That sucked!" The first one usually said to the FO, the second one usually a self critique.