It’s a good thing that none of our opinions matter as far as who makes the best captain candidate. The fact of the matter is that there are good and bad pilots from all walks of life and operational experience. It’s very difficult to describe a hard and fast metric. I’ve flown military, part 135, and part 121 and have seen a wide degree of talent. There are some straight up garbage military pilots out there so let’s not bless them all with high praise just because. Meanwhile, at United, I’ve seen a number of captains that have been here for 30 years do things that just make me wonder. Since I’ve been both military and civilian I’m going to voice my preference for captain. Here it goes:

1) Able to hold a Captain vacancy
2) Able to pass Captain OE
3) Ability to think rationally (which is hard for many).

There are so many factors we could argue for years what makes the best captain.

 

When you get tired of the seemingly nonsense, hop the trash bag. Then you can decide to skip dicing with frost on the wing, outside the ‘box’. You can also happily drive at .80/315 into moderate turbulence.

Yeah, when out of the country at a non-maintenance base, write up that smudge on the aft, underside of the wing as a potential bird strike.

Yep, do all that and more.

 

I haven’t been trained to execute a VOR approach while watching a known map shift. So this one’s easy; off to the alternate we go….👍🏻

 

Snap shot is out 48 unfilled Capt slots

 

I count 53, including two B756s in SFO. Yikes! SK, are you watching?

- Octa

 

we’ll that’s what I get for doing mental math

 

IAH and CLE with zero unfilled CA vacancies. I guess we don’t need improvements to reserve because there’s no problem filling capt slots in those bases!

 

Those bases have always been there to “save the day”.

 

Bingo. IAH is basically a 737 super base, look at the manning numbers.

 

It’s simply a matter of how many people LIVE in those bases. Being on reserve where you live isn’t nearly as bad. Our reserve rules suck, and absolutely need improvement….but it’s 1000 times worse when you commute. IAH and CLE have enough guys who live there.