Absolutely. Religion's greatest legacy is its ability to divide groups, incite hatred, foster conflict and attitudes of non-tolerance and superiority. Its always funny to me that the people who have the most respect for the beliefs of others and religion are the people who do not follow one. Very curious.

Mike734, love the avatar. Wish I could slap it on my flight case.

I can't fault him for wanting to come back. It will be an extremely long and arduous road which will probably result in General Aviation flying. I doubt any regional would want to take the risk of hiring him but kudos to him for having the spirit to try. He may even know that he will most likely not fly again but that hope probably makes every day a little bit better.

We now bug (manually, not by synching) and verify the runway as our last take-off checklist. Were it not for this accident that may not be policy and it could have happened to one of us at some point.

The real tragic accidents are the ones we don't learn from--I think we have learned from this one.

Whatever works for ya. If I hit the sync button and it points to something other than the heading for the runway I was cleared on to...I know there's a problem.

Comair had a pilot with a prosthetic leg, I flew with him and he's great. He's one of the best captains I have flown with yet.

I think you can. I knew a old 727 captain who was missing a leg. He has a "special" leg he used for flying and would change it out when he got to the cockpit.

On the question of the head injury, we had a guy at 9E who was out on a medical after a bucket loader was dropped on his head. He came back for a little while, but you could tell something wasn't quite right.

What if:
 

..ATC assigns you a heading after departure?

Not a rip, I like what you wrote so far, what's your next step when given a departure heading?

Personally, I set the heading bug to the runway heading as soon as I know what runway I'll be blasting off from. When assigned a departure heading, I spin the course selector to that heading. I also fly with guys who put the departure heading and left or right turn in the scratchpad on the FMS. If I'm flying with someone like that I do both. I would venture to say that taking off on the wrong runway is a greater hazard than forgetting the departure heading and having to ask tower for it again.

My mother-in-law is a therapist. She thought more than likely this gentleman is trying to get back to what he was before his tragic accident. I said his because all the others on that flight are deceased. His survivers guilt must be overwhelming. And before I get a bunch of replies about the family, friends & relatives of those deceased, I am not trying to mitigate their pain either. My point would be his attempt to return to his job is therapeutic for him. Whether he will be able to or not, it will be important for him to try. The "suits" will decide if he can ultimately.

I like the scratchpad idea for departure heading, see I'm glad I asked for other ideas. Thanks!

I take off, climb to my minimum altitude to turn, hit HDG and dial in the heading. Yea, it's a little more work when you've got both engines...but when you go single engine and start deviating from clearances (i.e. now you would rather go straight out to get some altitude and speed on your side before yankin' and bankin') it's an easy. Hit HDG and you're good to go without having the lateral mode stuck in TO.

My preference could also be swayed by the fact that on the 145, 9 times outta 10 you're blasting off in HDG mode and have to have the heading bug pointed down the runway, otherwise the FD is going to turn you somewhere you don't want to go yet. There is no "TO" lateral mode on that thing. The closest thing to it is ROL and I don't know of any company that wants you blasting around in that mode, CRJ or ERJ operator.