Falcon
DV8
- Location
- So. California
Different types of airline pilots.
- Thread starter Falcon
- Start date
Several of my associates and myself would not fit into any of these types. We were professionals that took our job very seriously, as anyone would expect us to. Flying a wide body jet with 200-300 passengers on-board requires the pilot to have 100% attentiveness to what is going on in the cockpit from the moment he enters the plane until he departs the plane. A momentary lapse in judgment or lack of attentiveness may spell disaster. Rules to follow as a pilot: Always be professional; remember you are representing your airline. Always be courteous to your passengers; they have all paid for your service. Always allow your crew members to consult with you, if they believe something to be amiss; this is no longer the old days when the Captain was the boss and only he made the decisions without allowing any responses from crew members. Never miss a check; the one missed may be the one to bring the plane down and always be attentive; to not be is to be careless and maybe reckless.
Those are the rules that I flew by. I saw them in a Pilot's magazine many years ago and thought they were good enough for me to have laminated and carried with me throughout my career. At one time, only the Captain made all of the decisions regarding the aircraft, but after the Eastern Airlines flight went down in the Everglades, a new program was started in the industry called "CRM" or Crew Resource Management". This allows everyone, including the ATC's to report anything that they believe is out of the ordinary to the Captain. Working together now makes flying safer for everyone. In my opinion and several others, American and European airlines are the safest in the world. In fact, there are certain airlines that I would never fly on no matter what. Training is the key and this is why all pilots must log hours in the simulators. Pilots must be prepared for anything that may happen.
Surprises are a pilot's worse nightmare. Normally, when a pilot goes into a simulator and a situation is going to be created, we were given a heads up. But, sometimes we weren't. I remember when I was being rated for flying Boeing 757-767 and I was in the simulator. All of a sudden, without warning, my stick shaker went off. I immediately checked my gauges and saw that I was losing altitude for no reason. I fell from 37,000 ft. to 22,000 ft. before I recovered after I had noticed that my AP had been turned off. Now, there is a light with a warning chime that alerts pilots of this cause. Scary? Heck yeah!
Those are the rules that I flew by. I saw them in a Pilot's magazine many years ago and thought they were good enough for me to have laminated and carried with me throughout my career. At one time, only the Captain made all of the decisions regarding the aircraft, but after the Eastern Airlines flight went down in the Everglades, a new program was started in the industry called "CRM" or Crew Resource Management". This allows everyone, including the ATC's to report anything that they believe is out of the ordinary to the Captain. Working together now makes flying safer for everyone. In my opinion and several others, American and European airlines are the safest in the world. In fact, there are certain airlines that I would never fly on no matter what. Training is the key and this is why all pilots must log hours in the simulators. Pilots must be prepared for anything that may happen.
Surprises are a pilot's worse nightmare. Normally, when a pilot goes into a simulator and a situation is going to be created, we were given a heads up. But, sometimes we weren't. I remember when I was being rated for flying Boeing 757-767 and I was in the simulator. All of a sudden, without warning, my stick shaker went off. I immediately checked my gauges and saw that I was losing altitude for no reason. I fell from 37,000 ft. to 22,000 ft. before I recovered after I had noticed that my AP had been turned off. Now, there is a light with a warning chime that alerts pilots of this cause. Scary? Heck yeah!