Why do you guys take the empirical fact that SWA is a better job that was, and is, more difficult to attain, as an insult to your flying skills or personal character?
Because it's absolutely not.
My first commuter, I flew small turboprops with no autopilots for a smaller underpaid company. To this day I will never fly with a better, tougher, funner, more talented group of pilots. And the situations that operation put us in as young pilots would make a lot of swa pilots ******************** their drawers if they were thrust into it today. When I was there, rumors flew that we were going to get acquired by a big regional that flew bigger tp's and rjs. Every one of us knew we were better pilots bc we didn't have autopilots and were forced to fly more- but there was no doubt as to which one was the better job and which job was more difficult to get. And there was little doubt where we'd end up on the list.
I really don't get how that's taken as a personal affront to your flying abilities-
Bc I for one will never be as good again as I was in that first job. Doesn't mean that today I don't have one of the best jobs in all of aviation. And so will you wherever you end up on the list.