You Got My Attention - Part 1 of 2
Vortilon,
Well sir, the questions I most wanted answered were those that came before the last one but I do understand if you don't have those answers. I presume therefore that your response was intended as an answer to the last of my questions.
I like much of your post and admire the obvious pride that you display in your current airline, Delta. It has been a fine airline for very many years with a unique culture of its own that gave its pilots many reasons to be proud. I would argue however that the rapid hiring that occurred during the 90's has in fact changed the culture of Delta Air Lines. "The old gray mare ain't what she used to be.."
As you express in your message, this unique "culture" is a phenomenon true of many "major" airlines. I can think of companies like Pan American, Trans World, United, Northwest, American, Eastern and others, but notably those -- the legacy carriers as we now call them. Some are no more than a memory and three of the others are now in serious trouble, from which I hope all will eventually recover. Each has a culture of its own and a proud history, which fosters pride in the pilot group. In most cases this is a "good" thing. We should nevertheless give some credit to the Biblical admonition, i.e., pride goeth before the fall.
While your post speaks well of Delta I cannot help but note that it is no less than and indictment of your former company. While I don't think you meant to disparage your peers at COEX, there is little doubt that you've done so. Based on your remarks the airline comes across as a hodgepodge of immature incompetents lacking both experience and purpose. Yet you call it a "decent regional", which leaves us only to imagine what the indecent regionals might be like or who they are.
I have no direct knowledge of what life was or is like at Continental Express so I cannot say that you are right or wrong in the comparisons you make between that company and your current employer. What I can and do say is that all regional airlines (just like all major airlines) are not cut from the same cloth. You appear to think that they are, especially in the light of the specific experiences you reference and your remark of "it will still be a step forward for pilots coming from regional./feeder/jet national/whatever carriers." You are painting with a very broad brush and I respectfully submit that you do not have enough background to go that far.
I'll use my own company as a reference and try to highlight some experiences which are quite different from yours. First of all your remarks assume that no regional has any "culture" of its own that might be desirable enough to consider it a "career job". Perhaps that is true of many and it is indeed something that I too have noticed. However, it is not true of all. The airline that I work for is called a "regional". Nevertheless, it does have a "culture" of its own. The presumption you make is not unusual in that there are few "major" airline pilots that I have met who are willing to believe that any "regional" could or for that matter should have any culture of its own, let alone one that might result in pride among its pilots. You are wrong about that. My little carrier has a culture and it has existed for some time. Granted its not 75 years, but only 1/3 + of that. Just the same it does exist. We do not identify ourselves as "express" or "connection" anything and never have. We have a name and an identity of our own, of which we are proud, and have been for some time. For many of us the loss of that identity resulting from our "acquisition" by Delta is not a source of joy.
Just as Delta's culture has changed due to its rather rapid expansion in the 90's and the influx of so many new people, ours is changing too, perhaps for different reasons. At Delta, I see the change as one of "generation". The "new breed" is quite different for the Delta gentlemen of yesterday. In my little company the growth has been so rapid that we have had little time to assist our new people in learning and embracing our culture. Additionally, the immigration from "foreign" pilot groups, many with the same mindset as yours, has not made the task an easy one. Once upon a time we were all Comair pilots. Today we find among us Eagle pilots, Midway pilots, USAir pilots, ACA pilots, TWA pilots to name just a few. It will take some time for all of those to become Comair pilots. Not much different from Delta, which still has Northeast pilots, Western pilots and Pan Am pilots. Some assimilate more readily; others think we are just like wherever they came from and have nothing worth assimilating. Additionally, our being owned and controlled by a "foreign" entity doesn't help any.
I am one of many who did not start life as a Comair pilot. My personal background in aviation is older than the airline itself but my tenure here has been long enough to permit me to voluntarily embrace the Comair culture and make it my own. Although you and others may think I'm nuts, "Delta Connection" is a term I'd just as soon forget and it would not occur to me to call myself a Delta pilot. I find nothing wrong or embarrassing about being a Comair pilot and if the people I carry don't know the name of my airline when they board, you can bet they do by the time they deplane. While I have nothing against the folks in Atlanta, my home is in Cincinnati. As I said in the beginning, Delta pilots have every reason to be proud of Delta. In my humble opinion Comair pilots have every reason to be proud of Comair and no reason at all to pretend otherwise.
You said you enjoyed (when you went to Delta) flying with captains that had all sorts of different experiences and felt that you learned a lot from them. I have no doubt that is true. Strangely, I felt the same about my time as a Comair FO, notwithstanding the fact that I had been a captain somewhere else many years before I even knew that Comair existed. I can only hope that as a Comair captain I have been able to share the diverse experience of my own background with younger Comair pilots that I am fortunate to fly with. I can assure you that those experiences (my own) are as diverse as those of most Delta pilots. Somehow that happened despite the fact that I've never been a Delta pilot. I am by no means unique, there are a great many of us at Comair who are not "flying their first jet", not limited to light aircraft experience, not limited to "regional" backgrounds, and did not come here with 500 hours. As but one example, Comair jets are actually the smallest jets I've ever flown. I assure you I am not alone in the ranks of CMR pilots. In the time I've been here I don't know of a single pilot hired with 500 hours of flight experience, although it is quite possible that did occur at some point before my tour began. We are not "generally the same age", although we are what I would consider a "young" pilot group. We do not all have "the same level of experience", did not go to the "same colleges", do not come from the same branch of the military, etc. I don't claim that we have the same diversity of experience as Delta, but for a little airline this is a pretty diverse group.
Being at a major was better because as a pilot you benefited from procedures and being developed for 70+ years. Most everything that was done had a reason it was done that way, and most things ran so much smoother than at my regional. They had a great emphasis on safety...it was truly imbedded into your brain. There was never a pressure to "be cool & laid back". You were expected to do a professional job all the time. It was really liberating. No cocky 25 year old attitudes to deal with. Things that would have labeled me as a "hard ass" or "nitpicker" or "uncool" at COEX were simply the way things were done at Delta. Of course you use the checklist for everything, Of COURSE you identify navaids, Of COURSE you had charts out even though its a glass airplane, of COURSE you try to nail the airspeeds. I never had someone say "I've flown this airplane for 7 years and I don't need a checklist" (got that from some 3-year RJ FOs at COEX). It was just a comfortable, professional atmosphere to work in with mutual respect between crewmembers.
Again, I have no idea what you did (do) at COEX but I have to tell you that I do not find any of the things you list above as being exclusive to "the way of life at Delta" (that you found different and exciting), strange or unusual. I acknowledge the occasional cocky attitude among younger pilots but in my experience, by the time someone makes Captain at Comair that has long since been squashed. In the early years there were some pretty rapid upgrades, several of which resulted in less than stellar performance, but for the best part that was overcome. We got rid of the chaff as soon as possible. Although you personally may not have come across anything less than perfection at Delta, I would venture a guess that's only because you haven't been there long enough. Although we would like to think so, none of us is perfect. With a little more time under your belt you too will discover that all airlines have pretty much the same percentage of dorks. I assure you Delta is no exception.
!
