Flying Magazine's Day in the Life of RJ Pilot
06-05-2013 | 09:22 AM
#121
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From: Grounded
06-05-2013 | 09:35 AM
#122
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FLYING magazine is a popular magazine that isn't just read by private pilots and kiddies with aspirations. It has a huge readership. This is precisely why your article was so damaging to the piloting profession, MY profession, which is already demeaned enough. We have enough misinformation spread over our profession, and then we have a "fellow aviator" decided to spread it some more. I can't tell you how many times I've had people say "well the autopilot just does everything anyways, doesn't it?" What you forgot is that after so many years, we have become so proficient that everyday operations are easy. Just like anything else. But you remember how easy it is to screw up when you go into recurrent. After hundreds of hand surgeries, I'm sure it's easy too. I once had a doctor explain that arthroscopic knee surgery is so easy it's like playing a video game! He'd done thousands of them. It became easy. And that's why he was worth what he charged. But telling me what he did kind of hurt the image of his skills. It was bad PR.
I spend a lot of time explaining to people that "autopilot" is a terrible word to describe the system. That it is NOT a pilot, it is solely a flight control manipulator that takes direct input from a PILOT, that I can command the damned thing to do whatever I want it to do, and it's sole reason for existence is to ease workload because we have so many other tasks to accomplish on any given flight, especially during the departure and arrival phases. I had one guy (a physician) at a friend's dinner party tell me he thought we just press an autopilot button and then sit back and let it do it's thing.
The biggest problem with aviation is that so many pilots have such poor PR skills and are so socially inept that they don't understand other people. Sometimes we don't understand the consequences of what we say. When you write an article about flying for an airline, you don't just have an opportunity to improve our image and fix some misconceptions, you have a duty to your peers not to do what you did. It's also a mark of maturity.
Telling the world through one of the most popular aviation magazines on the planet that our jobs can be condensed to being bored and autopilot and autothrottles is a perfect example of the social ineptitude that plagues this profession. Furthermore, it's not even TRUE! It's so far removed from the truth, that it's an insult to pilots all over the world. This kind of damage can't be easily fixed. And this sentiment is not only shared by a lot of people on this thread, I guarantee you that the majority of airline pilots who read this article will be thinking the same thing: "Oh GREAT".
You write it off as "self-effacement" in your reply...but remember that you were describing an entire profession to the world. You were an un-chosen and (obviously) unwitting representative of all of us in that article. You didn't just efface yourself. You effaced all of us.
Thanks, guy.
I spend a lot of time explaining to people that "autopilot" is a terrible word to describe the system. That it is NOT a pilot, it is solely a flight control manipulator that takes direct input from a PILOT, that I can command the damned thing to do whatever I want it to do, and it's sole reason for existence is to ease workload because we have so many other tasks to accomplish on any given flight, especially during the departure and arrival phases. I had one guy (a physician) at a friend's dinner party tell me he thought we just press an autopilot button and then sit back and let it do it's thing.
The biggest problem with aviation is that so many pilots have such poor PR skills and are so socially inept that they don't understand other people. Sometimes we don't understand the consequences of what we say. When you write an article about flying for an airline, you don't just have an opportunity to improve our image and fix some misconceptions, you have a duty to your peers not to do what you did. It's also a mark of maturity.
Telling the world through one of the most popular aviation magazines on the planet that our jobs can be condensed to being bored and autopilot and autothrottles is a perfect example of the social ineptitude that plagues this profession. Furthermore, it's not even TRUE! It's so far removed from the truth, that it's an insult to pilots all over the world. This kind of damage can't be easily fixed. And this sentiment is not only shared by a lot of people on this thread, I guarantee you that the majority of airline pilots who read this article will be thinking the same thing: "Oh GREAT".
You write it off as "self-effacement" in your reply...but remember that you were describing an entire profession to the world. You were an un-chosen and (obviously) unwitting representative of all of us in that article. You didn't just efface yourself. You effaced all of us.
Thanks, guy.
06-05-2013 | 09:45 AM
#123
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Sep 2007
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From: B737 CA
Had another longish response typed out but not really worth the effort. If I'm going to write in a national publication, I'm going to get jumped over no matter what I write. Either I'm cheapening the profession by making cruise flight on a good-weather day sound easy, or I'm an arrogant prick with a hero complex by making it sound harder than it is. Either way, there are a lot of egos in this business, and I'm inevitably going to bruise some fragile ones by merely supposing myself an able candidate to write about life as a regional pilot in a major magazine.
06-05-2013 | 09:56 AM
#124
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From: B737 CA
06-05-2013 | 10:08 AM
#125
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Joined: Mar 2008
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From: FAA 'Flight Check'
Had another longish response typed out but not really worth the effort. If I'm going to write in a national publication, I'm going to get jumped over no matter what I write. Either I'm cheapening the profession by making cruise flight on a good-weather day sound easy, or I'm an arrogant prick with a hero complex by making it sound harder than it is. Either way, there are a lot of egos in this business, and I'm inevitably going to bruise some fragile ones by merely supposing myself an able candidate to write about life as a regional pilot in a major magazine.
Some people don't like the Harry Potter books either JungleBus!!
JK Rowling:
The popularity of the Harry Potter series has translated into substantial financial success for Rowling, her publishers, and other Harry Potter related license holders. This success has made Rowling the first and thus far only billionaire author.[82] The books have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and have also given rise to the popular film adaptations produced by Warner Bros., all of which have been highly successful in their own right.[4][83] The films have in turn spawned eight video games and have led to the licensing of more than 400 additional Harry Potter products (including an iPod). The Harry Potter brand has been estimated to be worth as much as $15 billion.[11]
The popularity of the Harry Potter series has translated into substantial financial success for Rowling, her publishers, and other Harry Potter related license holders. This success has made Rowling the first and thus far only billionaire author.[82] The books have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and have also given rise to the popular film adaptations produced by Warner Bros., all of which have been highly successful in their own right.[4][83] The films have in turn spawned eight video games and have led to the licensing of more than 400 additional Harry Potter products (including an iPod). The Harry Potter brand has been estimated to be worth as much as $15 billion.[11]
06-05-2013 | 10:08 AM
#126
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Jungle, I checked out your blog. Wasn't too bad! 
I would MUCH rather have read your blog entry (last 30 seconds) about the Colgan crash as opposed to Les Abend's article where he personally name calls the dead CA and FO. Totally unnecessary. Then he goes on talking about experience and how he interviewed at Braniff with only 1100 hrs and as a 21 year old kid. He didn't get the job, but then he said an inner voice told him that he wasn't ready. That's BS, he interviewed because he wanted the job but didn't get it. Had he been hired, no way would he have told his recruiter, "sorry I'm not ready." He would accepted the first available class date.
Your Colgan article was subjective, his was judgemental. This is one case I would rather have seen your article in the 'Jumpseat' column.
I would MUCH rather have read your blog entry (last 30 seconds) about the Colgan crash as opposed to Les Abend's article where he personally name calls the dead CA and FO. Totally unnecessary. Then he goes on talking about experience and how he interviewed at Braniff with only 1100 hrs and as a 21 year old kid. He didn't get the job, but then he said an inner voice told him that he wasn't ready. That's BS, he interviewed because he wanted the job but didn't get it. Had he been hired, no way would he have told his recruiter, "sorry I'm not ready." He would accepted the first available class date.
Your Colgan article was subjective, his was judgemental. This is one case I would rather have seen your article in the 'Jumpseat' column.
06-05-2013 | 10:25 AM
#127
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 1,518
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From: B737 CA
I personally enjoy reading Les' column, although many of his takes on the industry are different than mine, as you might expect between a baby-boomer 777 check airman and a gen-Y regional guy. It's an interesting window into a world rather different than mine. I don't recall his specific article about CJC3407, so I won't debate that. But going a bit off-topic, I did a whole series of posts on the Colgan crash, not just the one you referenced, that you might find interesting. I think they're some of the best writing on the blog. They were all done in May 2009, in the middle of the NTSB hearings. Here's a link to May's postings, start at the bottom. The CJC3407 posts are:
Canary in the Coal Mine
Thirty Seconds of Silence
Thirty Seconds of Confusion
Thirty Minutes of Distraction
Thirty Years of Outsourcing Safety
06-05-2013 | 10:27 AM
#128
Working weekends
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 2,384
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From: Left Seat
FLYING magazine is a popular magazine that isn't just read by private pilots and kiddies with aspirations. It has a huge readership. This is precisely why your article was so damaging to the piloting profession, MY profession, which is already demeaned enough. We have enough misinformation spread over our profession, and then we have a "fellow aviator" decided to spread it some more. I can't tell you how many times I've had people say "well the autopilot just does everything anyways, doesn't it?" What you forgot is that after so many years, we have become so proficient that everyday operations are easy. Just like anything else. But you remember how easy it is to screw up when you go into recurrent. After hundreds of hand surgeries, I'm sure it's easy too. I once had a doctor explain that arthroscopic knee surgery is so easy it's like playing a video game! He'd done thousands of them. It became easy. And that's why he was worth what he charged. But telling me what he did kind of hurt the image of his skills. It was bad PR.
I spend a lot of time explaining to people that "autopilot" is a terrible word to describe the system. That it is NOT a pilot, it is solely a flight control manipulator that takes direct input from a PILOT, that I can command the damned thing to do whatever I want it to do, and it's sole reason for existence is to ease workload because we have so many other tasks to accomplish on any given flight, especially during the departure and arrival phases. I had one guy (a physician) at a friend's dinner party tell me he thought we just press an autopilot button and then sit back and let it do it's thing.
The biggest problem with aviation is that so many pilots have such poor PR skills and are so socially inept that they don't understand other people. Sometimes we don't understand the consequences of what we say. When you write an article about flying for an airline, you don't just have an opportunity to improve our image and fix some misconceptions, you have a duty to your peers not to do what you did. It's also a mark of maturity.
Telling the world through one of the most popular aviation magazines on the planet that our jobs can be condensed to being bored and autopilot and autothrottles is a perfect example of the social ineptitude that plagues this profession. Furthermore, it's not even TRUE! It's so far removed from the truth, that it's an insult to pilots all over the world. This kind of damage can't be easily fixed. And this sentiment is not only shared by a lot of people on this thread, I guarantee you that the majority of airline pilots who read this article will be thinking the same thing: "Oh GREAT".
You write it off as "self-effacement" in your reply...but remember that you were describing an entire profession to the world. You were an un-chosen and (obviously) unwitting representative of all of us in that article. You didn't just efface yourself. You effaced all of us.
Thanks, guy.
I spend a lot of time explaining to people that "autopilot" is a terrible word to describe the system. That it is NOT a pilot, it is solely a flight control manipulator that takes direct input from a PILOT, that I can command the damned thing to do whatever I want it to do, and it's sole reason for existence is to ease workload because we have so many other tasks to accomplish on any given flight, especially during the departure and arrival phases. I had one guy (a physician) at a friend's dinner party tell me he thought we just press an autopilot button and then sit back and let it do it's thing.
The biggest problem with aviation is that so many pilots have such poor PR skills and are so socially inept that they don't understand other people. Sometimes we don't understand the consequences of what we say. When you write an article about flying for an airline, you don't just have an opportunity to improve our image and fix some misconceptions, you have a duty to your peers not to do what you did. It's also a mark of maturity.
Telling the world through one of the most popular aviation magazines on the planet that our jobs can be condensed to being bored and autopilot and autothrottles is a perfect example of the social ineptitude that plagues this profession. Furthermore, it's not even TRUE! It's so far removed from the truth, that it's an insult to pilots all over the world. This kind of damage can't be easily fixed. And this sentiment is not only shared by a lot of people on this thread, I guarantee you that the majority of airline pilots who read this article will be thinking the same thing: "Oh GREAT".
You write it off as "self-effacement" in your reply...but remember that you were describing an entire profession to the world. You were an un-chosen and (obviously) unwitting representative of all of us in that article. You didn't just efface yourself. You effaced all of us.
Thanks, guy.
06-05-2013 | 10:32 AM
#129
Thread Starter
Banned
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 9,347
Likes: 329
Thanks for the kudos.
I personally enjoy reading Les' column, although many of his takes on the industry are different than mine, as you might expect between a baby-boomer 777 check airman and a gen-Y regional guy. It's an interesting window into a world rather different than mine. I don't recall his specific article about CJC3407, so I won't debate that. But going a bit off-topic, I did a whole series of posts on the Colgan crash, not just the one you referenced, that you might find interesting. I think they're some of the best writing on the blog. They were all done in May 2009, in the middle of the NTSB hearings. Here's a link to May's postings, start at the bottom. The CJC3407 posts are:
Canary in the Coal Mine
Thirty Seconds of Silence
Thirty Seconds of Confusion
Thirty Minutes of Distraction
Thirty Years of Outsourcing Safety
I personally enjoy reading Les' column, although many of his takes on the industry are different than mine, as you might expect between a baby-boomer 777 check airman and a gen-Y regional guy. It's an interesting window into a world rather different than mine. I don't recall his specific article about CJC3407, so I won't debate that. But going a bit off-topic, I did a whole series of posts on the Colgan crash, not just the one you referenced, that you might find interesting. I think they're some of the best writing on the blog. They were all done in May 2009, in the middle of the NTSB hearings. Here's a link to May's postings, start at the bottom. The CJC3407 posts are:
Canary in the Coal Mine
Thirty Seconds of Silence
Thirty Seconds of Confusion
Thirty Minutes of Distraction
Thirty Years of Outsourcing Safety
Here's his Colgan article. Name calls out the CA and FO name, and talks about his own Braniff experience and how a voice in his head said he wasn't ready (which is BS, he would have taken the job if hired)......
Jumpseat: The High Cost of Low Experience | Flying Magazine
"Encouraged by the fact that some of my college classmates with similar flight experience had been hired, I was confident of my chances. Unfortunately, I didn't interview with confidence. Instead, I interviewed like a 1,100-hour, 21-year-old kid. I wasn't hired. It was the best lesson of my career. And it may have been the best decision for the airline industry. Why?
Despite a four-year degree from a university with a highly regarded professional pilot training program, despite the fact that I possessed the appropriate certificates and ratings and despite the fact that I met Braniff's minimum requirements, a tiny voice inside my head said I really wasn't ready."
Would he have told Braniff HR that he wasn't ready if offered a class date?
Jungle, thanks for the links! I'll def check them out.
06-05-2013 | 10:57 AM
#130
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Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 727
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From: It's still a Guppy, just a bit longer.
So really, when I saw the quote about the autopilot, it set me off because it was in a popular public magazine article written by a pilot.
Anyways, to make it fair, I'm gonna buy and read the entire article.
I apologize for how my post came off. My apology is probably too little too late. You seem like you have good intentions. And you had the balls to come on here and take heat from A-Holes like me.
Best of luck with your future articles.
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