I understand your assertion that one should concentrate all one's efforts while flying the airplane. However, I have never permitted outside influences into the cockpit. A wise pilot, a mentor, once told me that I should place all other values in my life second to my flying. I questioned that, placing my theological beliefs and my family far ahead.
He made the observation that unless I placed the operation of the airplane as my most important priority, I might not live to drive my car, see my children, or attend church. He was right. Point taken.
However, once the flight is over, there is nothing degrading or demeaning about requiring a pilot to do other duties. I know an awful lot of pilots out there who work two weeks on and two off, or even less...working a week out of every month and drawing considerable salaries for the amount of actual work done. I know a lot of very lazy pilots, who whine about the little work that they actually do. More pilots I meet are whiners, than not, and as a result, I feel a great deal of contempt toward such a crowd. I associate with them every day.
I have worked, and work, under various certificate holders, on-demand, unscheduled, scheduled, etc. I've done it in small and large airplanes, single engine airplanes, multi engine airplanes, piston, turboprop, turbojet. In no case have I ever been less than professional, less than devoted to the job. In virtually every case, I have had multiple assignments. Outside assignments including Director of Maintenance, Director of Safety, etc. Did these impact my ability to fly the airplane, plan a flight, or conduct one? No.
In many cases, my employment has been in large part due to my certification and ability to get the job done...all of it. Not simply flying the airplane (which let's face it...a monkey can do). Many jobs have required someone who can turn wrenches, and that division of labor, flying and knowing the airplane more intimately than my wife, has kept me alive.
Conversely, I've known others who felt that doing the parts of the job that I did, were beneath them. They refused. Several particular events, which I am not at liberty to discuss in detail, resulted in multiple fatalities. Crews died, aircraft were destroyed. It is my opinion and belief that had these crews invested themselves as they were supposed to, the events that unfolded in their separate cases might (being an operative word), have been prevented. They might be alive today. Their stolwort refusal to expand their job description was enjoyed at the peril and cost of their lives.
Will this happen because a crewmember whines about restocking coffee cups? Probably not (allowing for the possibility of an errant irate CEO when the flight runs out of coffee cups). But in other areas it might. Peril to life or limb is hardly relevant, however; the fact that an employer tasks a pilot with duties that extend beyond the manipulation of the controls is hardly warrant for alarm, nor license to whine...yet I hear a lot of pilots doing it.
I was invited by an associate to make application to a particular fractional operator. His description of the job made it sound attractive, and I considered the idea. He allowed me access to a private web board being used exclusively by pilots of that company. I took advantage of that access, monitoring the board for about four months, learning about the privileges and gripes in the company.
I was amazed at the number of folks who seemd to sincerely believe that flying a light two-engine turbojet who thought they merited two hundred fifty thousand dollars a year, and who actually suggested they strike to get it. Who whined bloody murder about carrying a bag for a passenger...how such horrors should never be heaped upon them. At length, I decided the job didn't sound so bad, but I didn't really want to be stuck on the road working with the likes of those who complained so bitterly, and so constantly. I wondered how they could do their job when they were so unhappy in their position.
I'm sure they didn't speak for their company, nor for their profession, nor did they represent all pilots in the firm. Their comments are echoed in pilot lounges around the country as I sit and listen to this comment or that.
It is my opinion that stereotypically, and often in real time, pilots tend to be quite full of themselves. I can't count the number of times I've walked into a FBO wearing only a white shirt, with no tie or epaulets...and been snubbed by pilots for their assumption that I was beneath their level. I've been told as much more than a few times, over the years. In many ways. Once, years ago, I was told that I would never measure up to company XXX's clientele, because I lacked a degree. I was told that their clientele consisted largley of attorneys and physicians, and that I could never manage an intelligent conversation or communication with an intellectual lot like that. Rather elitist, I thought.
You should see the looks of distain when I show up in an oil stained tee shirt and greasy blue jeans. Sort of one of those why-don't-you-go-around-to-the-back-and-come-in-the-servant-enterance sort of looks. Labor? A pilot who performs labor? Quick! Evacuate, before he contaminates the building! We surely hope it isn't contageous!
Different worlds, I guess. I wil say this, I have nothing but contempt for those who feel that work is beneath them. I note that Enigma responded to me recently, though I couldn't tell if he thought my comments were directed at him. They aren't. In his case and others, I've corresponded directly over time, and I feel I know something about the character of these individuals as well as others on the board. My comments are attached to no one here, in particular, but are a generalization of my own opinion, my own viewpoint. I'm not here to condemn any one person.
If one might suggest that he or she believes that work is beneath them, then that person might move to condemn themself, but certainly not with my help.
As for suicidal tendencies, I believe that's a musical group of some kind, to which I pay no particular attention. My own demise will undoubtably come in an airplane some day, but my only hope will be that in the rubble, the cause will be found somewhere other than me. My greatest fear in an airplane isn't dying, though I tend to work in environments where that's certainly a possibility. It's the fear of failure, of doing something wrong, and it motivates me to do my best in every area I can.
So long as my epitaph can read, "He did it right, He did his best." I'm a happy camper. Give me a good airplane, some apple beer, and some gummy peaches, and I can die happy. Just don't go scratching anything derrogatory on my coffin lid, and we'll get along fine.
I'm curious about that test...
