Originally Posted by DiveAndDrive (Post 2768338)

I actually never indicated that a good PT score was an indication of a good leader.



I know and experienced that.



I was simply paraphrasing the article for those who didn’t read it. My point was just to not accept the bare minimum effort. How many times have you heard people saying anything greater than a 70% on a written is “x% working too hard”? I know it’s a joke, but still. Would you want a 70% pilot on your next deadhead? He can only keep the needle 70% centered on an approach down to minimums? He only has 70% of his memory items and limitations down?



As one of my military instructors said, “attention to detail, kicks de-tail”. I still say that to this day, and get quite a few crazy looks when I do. My examples above are pedantic. But humor me. What margin of error becomes acceptable? For me, it’s honestly just an internal struggle of constsntly trying to improve, and never accepting less than what I believe is my best. I’m not perfect. I mess up. I don’t sweat 0.02 or 0.03 X track. I’m not going to fish tail myself all over the sky just trying to get 0.00. But I STRIVE to be as CLOSE to perfect as possible. For me, I just enjoy the challenge. I enjoy maintaining my skills and trying to improve upon them. And my personal opinion is that that’s what separates amateurs from true professionals. Our companies and passengers expect professionals. And I have to agree with the statement that people with that mentality, either consciously or subliminally, portray themselves as such, and interviewers at the next level can pick up on that. But I could still be young, naive, and bright eyed and bushy tailed, so [emoji1744]*[emoji3603]

Originally Posted by majorpilot (Post 2768461)

Then again, there are other fields for such individuals to advance. We’ve all worked for or seen the boss fixated on “always wearing a sharp suit” or the like. I wear a uniform and it always looks sharp; but I’ve found that leaders for whom that’s their main focus almost always lack needed critical basic leadership skills that are much more important than looks.

Originally Posted by rickair7777 (Post 2768739)

Yes, basic fitness (not SOF fitness) and military bearing should be a given for anyone who plans on going much further than E3. By no means is that the end all, be all. I got promoted by being smart, working hard, and having the luck to develop some critical skills and experiences early in the game before anyone knew they were going to be critical.

I did have a friend from way back who was always into fitness (as was I). He gained some media publicity for training for an iron-man while serving as the CO of ship on deployment. He would have the ship stop dead in the water so he (and only he) could swim laps around a destroyer for training. I found that to be odd and perhaps not appropriate, and I would have been uncomfortable with media coverage in any event. He ultimately came under indictment in the fat leonard business, so there might be a type of personality that manifests that way. But almost everyone I know who got command was fit, usually former athletes, probably reflects motivation and stamina (especially as you get older, gotta lead from the front).

Originally Posted by Rahlifer (Post 2768965)

How did a thread about regional lifers turn into a discussion about the volleyball scene from top gun?

Originally Posted by ZeroTT (Post 2768972)

So here’s an example. Regional with 1900 pilots. Seniority #100 hired 2014. Is that sustainable?

Originally Posted by word302 (Post 2769016)

You're asking the wrong questions. The real issue is can they keep up with attrition. Sure it's tough to keep instructors and LCAs from leaving, but that will never stop. If they can keep up with attrition and have a solid plan for instructor turnover, the juniority of the pilot group doesn't matter.

Originally Posted by Approach1260 (Post 2767907)

Well at least at PSA the absolute most Senior FO you'll fly with as a Captain will be right about 2 years. That's about the maximum time you can avoid the forced Senior Upgrade.

So the times of having an experienced FO in the right seat to catch a new Captains mistakes are well and truly over.

I've been on property for 3 years and that puts me in the top third of the company which is nuts when you think about it. I make sure to tell all my FO's to absolutely speak up and we'll help keep each other out of trouble. I know other new Captains though who like to lord their four bars over the new guys, and they convince these FO's to just sit there and shut up.

Originally Posted by Slow2Final (Post 2769097)

I took that post as regarding the general experience level of a pilot group that is so incredibly junior.