I'll never forget the day I was flying with a new hire FO and talking about his training. Flight attendant listening in over our shoulders. FO says something like "those were the hardest 3 weeks of my life." FA then perks up and says "I should have stayed in school 1 week longer to be a pilot." And she was dead serious.

We both lost whatever drinks we had in our mouths at the time...

 

Gee. Never heard of that original story before.

 

When I was still at AirTran my captain and I heard a similar story from our lead flight attendant - her roommate (another FA) was dating one of our pilots and they both went through their respective new-hire training at about the same time. She said it was very unfair pilots made that much more and pointed out that her friend's boyfriend (the pilot) was in training only a few weeks longer than her FA buddy...

When the captain tried to explain that a new-hire pilot has already been a pilot for a while at his/her previous airline, etc, etc. she interrupted by saying it all boiled down to pilots being rich to begin with because if she had the money she'd have gone to a flight school too!

I replied by saying my entire flight training was paid with the help of student loans and was still paying them off but she just rolled her eyes and walked away - we could tell she did not believe us...

By the way, she was venting to us because the previous crew had the audacity of buying their own food without asking the FAs if they wanted anything... I'd always ask our FAs if they wanted me to to get them some delicious fast food but I got a feeling this particular FA expected the previous crew to actually pay for her food since "they made so much more..."

This was the only time I ran into someone like that while at AT - other crews were top-notch...

 

maybe if you learned how to read you would see I was quoting someone else and found it humorous that it happened to me to, because i thought it was funny....lighten up Francis I'm sure you've experienced things and wrote about them on here which the rest of us have already experienced.

Plus, 80% of the people that post in this forum have probably been in the industry less than 2 years and haven't experienced that yet. I didn't realize I would have Chuck Yeager critiquing my posts.

 

i didn't fly at all one month on reserve...then i got a trip the last week...i was definitely rusty and as it is i suck at flying already...

i had like 2 or 3 pretty crappy landings...and the CA was joking around about how bad they were...and she joined in except that she was serious and wouldn't drop it...finally i started getting the landings back and she came up and made the comment...see you're finally getting the hang of it..you'll get there...like her sincerity meant something to me...

touchdown zone and center line that's all the matters to me anymore b/c there's nothing worse than wet feet...

 

Just put the company headsets back when you're done using your own.

Leave the pedals and seat where they were.... not all the way down on the floor and all the way forward.... what worked well for you will probably be fairly close to what will work for the next guy/gal. The few exceptions to the rule will need to change them anyway regardless.

and... stop putting 1200 in the transponder, espeically at DCA. Yes, the subsequent crew is responsible to set the right code... but if they miss it, it's much better to be on the wrong code, then to be on 1200.

On the FA thing... they have a job to do, it isn't the easiest job in the world, and neither is ours. Will I help them if it fits into my time, yep... especially on the go to the hotel flight... the sooner we're off and out, the sooner I get to bed. That being said, if I get the feeling that the FA is expecting me to do their job instoead of just "helping out"... then he/she can catch up with me at the hotel van.

Dump your trash when leaving the airplane; that includes the multiple copies of People, Stuff and the WSJ.... ok, you can leave the WSJ... But, please take the food remnants with you or at least brush the crumbs off the seat.

end rant

 

Had something similar happen. Our FA poked her head up at some point after the flight and told me that she could always tell when I was flying (me being the FO). "Why's that?" I ask. "Oh because your landings aren't very good." Huh??

So, I responded with "Oh, so which one of mine didn't you like?"
"The last one into CLE could have been better."
"Oh really, because that was the Captain's leg." (And it was!)

At that point the CA turned around and gave her a piece of his mind. Way to alienate yourself from both crewmembers in one fell swoop!

 

Why would an airline crew ever want to put in the 1200 code? Not many scheduled airlines file VFR flight plans... What am I missing here?

 

Some do this to "set something unusual on the box to remind the next crew not to forget setting it" also see "0000" a lot. Some see this as a nice gesture, or annoying, hey whatever floats your boat...