Originally Posted by Fetzer

New to the forums and new hire at WN…

Zap seems like a guy who appreciates reasonable dialog, so I’d like to offer a perspective on callsigns.

For the majority of pilots coming from a fighter background, please don’t take the use of a nickname as a desire to bring military culture to the airlines. It’s simply a name that they’ve used for years in daily interactions with friends and colleagues. This isn’t Top Gun where a callsign is a cool way to pick up girls at the bar (most of the names aren’t that cool anyway). It is, instead, a name that you’ve been called by your brothers and sisters when celebrating the highest highs, lamenting the lowest lows, and everything in-between in an extremely demanding and dangerous area of aviation. If you had grown up with your family and friends calling you Zap and you wanted me to call you that as we get to know each other in this business, I wouldn’t begrudge you for it at all. If I asked you to call me by my nickname, it’s not because I want to fly the 737 like a fighter or turn the airline into a squadron. It’s because I value you as a co-worker, friend and someone who will have my back like I’ll have yours.

Note, this is merely a comment on callsign use. I think it’s less related to ‘letting go’ and assimilating into the 121 ‘subculture’ than some people think. As to other ‘significant military presence and influence,’ I haven’t been around long enough to know.

Happy to be here, and I’d love to hear some stories about flying the 19 seat Jetstream between Altoona and Pittsburgh.

Originally Posted by PRS Guitars

It’s one thing to run into an old buddy in ops and use Air Force names (call signs). It’s another to introduce yourself with it to new people you meet on the civilian side. For the former, that’s how you know each other and you might not even know first names. The latter makes you look like a D-bag. I don’t work for SWA though, so maybe it’s normal there, definately not at AA.

Originally Posted by flysocal77

Been here 4 years and nobody asked me to call them by their military call sign. If they did, who cares. As long as they relax in the cockpit I don’t care. In general, the am guys are more tightly wound and I fly pms. Civilian or military same deal. My bid avoidance guys are all civilian but when I flew ams it was the opposite. Generally a good group of Captains here so I can’t complain.

Originally Posted by Seventhreeseven

"For sim they match you with someone completely not like you, for instance a military guy with a 121 captain, because they believe the differences make people stronger and make them excel to be better than what they were."

Ha thats cute. No, they match military guys with a 121 captain because they know the low time never flown an IMC ILS are weak dick at the start. Coddle them through training and then I get to hold their hand on the line.

Originally Posted by 7Thirty7s4Life

Exactly, don’t be that guy. First impression of “call me....” = toolbag. There is zero place for that here.

Originally Posted by ZapBrannigan

Flew with a Captain this week who, coincidentally, I had also flown with at another major pre-9/11 and we got to talking about this one unique and surprising characteristic of SW pilots. We both thought before coming to SW that the pilot group was largely cowboys and laid back good old boys. Neither of us was prepared for the significant military presence and influence.

But what surprised us most was how many of the prior military folks had a tough time letting go and assimilating into 121, instead preferring to join this ‘subculture’ and behave as if the airline were simply an extension of the unit from which they came. In rare cases even choosing to continue using their callsign.

There’s isn’t anything wrong with it, and they certainly should be proud of their service - but it IS somewhat peculiar how big this particular demographic is at the airline and how successful they have been at influencing everything from policy to nomenclature. It was not something that either of us had seen at any of the other airlines we’ve worked at.

Unfortunately it has bred a little bit of a civil war - devolving into name calling and, in the case of one particular domicile, stereotyping.

Personally I enjoy their stories and experiences as long as they’re able to talk about other things too... and they don’t roll their eyes too much when I try to regale them with my heroic tales of flying the 19 seat Jetstream between Altoona and Pittsburgh.

My one pet peeve from the prior military Captains is when they presume to try and school me on the airline industry, and in-particular, how ‘industry leading’ we are, when they really have no basis for comparison. It would be nice if they would listen with an open mind to pilots who spent the last two decades bouncing around to various airlines and had real world experience with other airline CBAs. There’s a lot to learn about airline history, especially when it begins to repeat itself... but sometimes that means you might have to listen to your FO, and not presume that the left seat makes you an expert.

But now I’m stereotyping Captains...


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