I would say that you are the one who is being naive here. Ever heard of "Termination Taylor" who was a check airman in the EMB for many years at skywest? His failure rate was ridiculously high. Here is a guy who had been divorced FOUR times, who was pissed he didnt make it to a major, who hated seeing especially younger guys come into his sim sessions with a smile on their face thinking they would someday be at a major. He was not a happy camper. During a three year period him and Gary Bishop had more pilots terminated on the EMB than almost all the other instructors combined. Taylor had alot of complaints levied against him (New hires who did survive told of his unprofessional behavior, name calling, yelling and generaly over aggressive behavior in the sim) complained to cheif pilots and others but it all fell on deaf ears. I personaly asked Bill Boyce, who was in charge of EMB flight training at the time, in his office about Taylor. I asked, have you noticed a higher than normal failure rate when some of your instructors are giving checkrides than others, like for example S. Taylor? He said "S. Taylor, well no in fact I'm having lunch with S in a few minutes." I came to find out that Taylor had been kissing Boyces butt for some time and even was up for his position when he moved on which fortunately didnt work out when the position was changed.
These guys have mellowed somewhat in recent years, maybe after getting over their mid life crisis. There will always be "power trip" personalities who migrate into the training dept so rest assured you always have a chance of getting a Temination Taylor on one of your checkrides. The point is that there are good pilots who are failed on checkrides and fired who dont deserve to be. Most checkairman know that they can fail anybody on a checkride. One checkairman told me by introducing a sequence of events in a certain order along with loading the pilot up he can nine times out of ten get the guy in the sim to shut down the wrong engine. Now you add in a pissed off sim instructor, where there is little oversite and he is friends with several of the other instructors and no true representation for the pilot and pilots are fired who dont deserve to be, its as simple as that.
Then there is the guy who's dad was a chief pilot for Delta. He had lots of experience and was an excellent pilot. He got in the crosshairs of another pissed off checkairman (J.G. who was a former MD80 pilot who many said crossed the picket line at Eastern) who loaded him up on the first day of IOE, overstated some of his mistakes to Bill Boyce and this pilot was later fired for incompetence. I want to point out that almost everybody that I have ever spoke to who flew with this guy said he was a very sharp pilot.
Even the best pilots put with a checkairman who seems to have a chip on his shoulder can easily find their job in jeapardy. The other thing is once behind the eight ball at skywest they have been known to leave you hanging for weeks without any information of what is going on. I knew another pilot that this happened to. He couldnt sleep for weeks, lost fifteen pounds and of course his performance suffered. He was fired at the end of this devistating his family. You will automatically say he was not a good pilot or that he didnt deserve to be at the controls of an airplane with your family in the back. But once again those who flew with him at a freight job and as a flight instructor said he was an excellent pilot. It also took him nearly ten years to build a good track record to change opinions after skywest showed him as incompetant in his training file. He is now flying at Continental.
Then there is the case of Andy X who was a pro union guy. He along with Andy B posted on the Skywest forums to give their two bits on the value of a union. He was also known to be an excellent pilot by all who flew with him while he was a first officer. During upgrade he was paired with non other than Termination Taylor, was subsequently fired. The list goes on and on. I know some people will refuse to believe there are personalities and agendas that go on in this industry. It will only dawn on you when you find yourself in the hot seat one day because heaven forbid you made a mistake but it is a reality and there are "bad people" who dont care about you and who cannot be trusted with your future carreer. You do in fact need someone that is tasked only with representing you to the fullest. Ask Don D how he was represented by Sapa. What do you think his thoughts were when Jim Black from Sapa, who was supposed to represent him was giving testimony at the so called hearing that actually harmed Don's case. It should be pointed out Jim Black has been gunning for a managment position at skywest for about as long has he has been employed there. Conflict of interest at the expense of a good fifteen year veteran who had no previously flying, or disciplinary issues....you tell me?!
