Mesa pilots busted for booze

[Dieterly]

How about the UPS pilot last week in Miami, guess the media didn't get hold of that one.

 

[CA1900]

Re: YGBSM!

If you drink anything within 10 hours of reporting for duty, get out of this business--you don't have the willpower to do the right thing. Yeah, I know. Eight hours is the law, but how hard is it to maintain a buffer of safety?

So you're telling me that when I get done with my trip, get to the hotel restaurant at 8 o'clock with a 6am show the next day, one beer with dinner is unacceptable in your eyes?

8 hours is an arbitrary number; so is your 10. It's a question of how much is in your system, not how recently you consumed it. Two pitchers 10 hours ago is much more serious than two beers 8 hours ago.


You're certainly welcome to your opinions and your personal margin of safety, but to tell me to "get out of the business" because I had a beer nine hours before showtime is a little knee-jerk too, don't you think?

 

[Jeff G]

CA1900,

You're right, Eagleflip didn't phrase it properly. It should have been "Get the H-E-L-L out of this business." Confidence in our profession is falling in the public's eyes, and you insist on splitting hairs over whether it's OK to have a beer at 9pm when you have to show at 6am? What's the matter with you? You can't sleep without a beer? Then you have a problem and need help. You ought to be hitting the rack at 9pm, maybe getting 7 hrs of sleep, instead of depressing your central nervous system. Give me a break!

 

[Capn Lucky]

Personally, my rule is 24 hours. I'm pushing 40 and my metabolism isn't what it used to be. I've worked too hard to let a stupid beer screw up my career. Also, don't even think about drinking on a short overnight. It's not that hard people. We had better police ourselves or some TSA flunkie will be standing at the jetway telling us to breathe into the tube every time we go to work. That dog won't hunt!!!

Flame away

Steve

 

[FL000]

flip,

everything I was thinking as I was reading this thread was summed up in your post. I completely agree. I can't believe that a pilot would be in any situation where it would be necessary to have a breathalyzer at his disposal, especially after the recent wake up calls. Pathetic if you ask me...and that's coming from a true beer lover.

 

[publisher]

terminal stupidity

The disease here is not alcohol, it is stupidity.

 

[CA1900]

CA1900,

You're right, Eagleflip didn't phrase it properly. It should have been "Get the H-E-L-L out of this business." Confidence in our profession is falling in the public's eyes, and you insist on splitting hairs over whether it's OK to have a beer at 9pm when you have to show at 6am? What's the matter with you?

I'm not the one splitting hairs. He said he draws a new line at 10 hours, and anybody who disagrees with him should get out of the business. I'm not sitting there having a personal kegger before my showtime, believe me, and yes, I can sleep just fine without alcohol in my system.

But since I'm not going to "hit the rack" at 9pm when I haven't had any dinner yet, I'm going to be down at the restaurant for an hour or so to get some food. As it happens, I enjoy a beer with dinner. Now you're ready to hang me out as an alcoholic because I'm not adhering to somebody's new arbitrary number of hours? I adhere to the regulations, and I certainly don't have anything left in my system when I come to work.

As publisher correctly points out, alcohol isn't the problem, stupidity is. And I'll thank you to keep your armchair psychiatry to yourself.

 

[dmspilot00]

You're right, Eagleflip didn't phrase it properly. It should have been "Get the H-E-L-L out of this business." Confidence in our profession is falling in the public's eyes, and you insist on splitting hairs over whether it's OK to have a beer at 9pm when you have to show at 6am? What's the matter with you? You can't sleep without a beer? Then you have a problem and need help. You ought to be hitting the rack at 9pm, maybe getting 7 hrs of sleep, instead of depressing your central nervous system. Give me a break!

As a potential future professional pilot, I agree wholeheartedly. When I see stuff like what is in this thread it makes me think that I should pick another profession: one that's more professional. Sometimes it seems that pilots are a bunch of slacker-college-drunks.

 

[airjackson]

Drink Up Fellas !!

Drink all you want guys and girls, there's plenty of us out there on the street waiting to take the job you so freely piss away!

 

[Salty Dog]

I'm with CA1900 on this one.

Maybe somebody will chime in claiming Eagleflip is a total alkie sack because HE doesn't wait ELEVEN hours instead of ten. Spare me the righteous indignation.

The reality is that the morons we're reading about weren't concerned about being an inch or two on one side of the line or the other, they were so far over it that it's not even funny.

We all agree that showing up to fly (work or not) reeking of booze is criminally, inexplicably, and enormously stupid. Why quibble?