Yes, you nailed it. I've done a ton of both and IMHO "ocean crossings" are just hours and hours of "desk work" in cruise. Skills??? Hilarious. The "flying" sucks, but the layovers/time off is great. I've come to prefer domestic because it involves actual skills. Never really understood the widebody/international mystic. (How many times can you get excited about Brussels?) Some guys love long haul, just don't tell me about the skills involved.

Reads like a resume from a 1,000 hr pilot... with 25 hr Multi.... oh, including 200 hrs of simulator time too.

I've been training Atlantic, Pacific, and Polar crossings since the early '90s. The program has becom quite benign over the years to say the least. Nowadays the paperwork or lack thereof offsets the boredom.

CPDLC?!?!? Oh yeah real tough. Have to put the paper down to make sure there's no message. That's tough training. HF? Um yeah... real tough... getting that SECLAL check.

I will say that drawing a circle about 5 minutes before the FIR prevents the "old knock on the door" greeting?

The toughest part of the job was wondering around JFX, ORD, SYD, LHR in the rain with a new crew member trying to match our location with the 10-9 out. Nowadays with the "Myown ship" feature of FDP in the EFB takes that pain.

I do review the PANSOPs book on occasion and review AIPs flying to different countries. After all, we don't want to appear to lack the proper skill sets... would we? :-(

You could say the same thing about most of what we do in the cockpit. Perhaps "experience" would be a better term.

Actually, reads from the experience of a domestic regional pilot thats been plopped into the cockpit of a 747 recently. All of you reacting negatively have been so far removed from the experiences of being a FNG, that you've forgotten what its like to be one. Perhaps that makes you not qualified to teach new people, becauase of too great of an experience gap. Or perhaps it further proves what I originally said, having these "skills" or "experience" helps employers reduce training time.

"Things that a domestic [pilot] doesn't even know exist"? Ya okay big shot int'l pilot. News flash, most of us have an aviation degree and have actually heard of Class II navigation, CDPLC and coast out checks! Wow! Some of our companies even cover it in basic indoc! Go figure! And wait for it. Many airlines fly NB aircraft across the ocean! including mine Wow!

You're right, none of that is rocket science. I'ts covered in about a week of indoc or transition class. Get over yourself. Flying a "heavy" isn't that big of a deal compared to a NB airliner. They just land differently.

Yes, exactly. But shhh don't tell those big shots who use big terms to impress girls in bars!

Sounds like you got a "Narrow Body Complex" going on. Go back to your "light twin".

Butt hurt because I think your "badge" and "credentials" that you only use to inflate your penis size need to be take away? Aww. Poor thing.

I have been an airline pilot for 17 years and have PIC type ratings in 4 airliners, including two in the Airbus family. I really don't care what you think of my skills on an anonymous message board, and neither does anyone else. Now go clean your gun Harry.

Wow! That was mature. "Nyah Nyah, you're stoopid". Great come back.

My teenagers could do better.

Thank god I don't feel like I have something to prove to the world...