So now we are not professional...

[JoeMerchant]

You guys really don't understand the Lufthansa model, do you?

This model?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyw2vgJffqU

 

[TheInsider]

Wow... coming from the head of the FAA, a former pilot, and a former union president... Maybe if everyone treated us like professionals instead of Greyhound bus drivers things would be different... Thanks Randy!

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=827862&catid=14

Pilots must "refocus" on professionalism...

WASHINGTON -- The nation's top aviation official says the Northwest Airlines pilots who overshot Minneapolis are part of a larger problem of professionalism among commercial airline pilots.
Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Randy Babbitt told an international aviation club on Wednesday that aviation is facing an "extreme need to refocus on professionalism."
He pointed to Northwest Flight 188, which overshot Minneapolis by 150 miles because the pilots were working on their laptops. He also noted the regional airliner that crashed earlier this year near Buffalo, N.Y., killing 50 people.
A former airline pilot and pilot union president, Babbitt says that in both cases the pilots forgot their first job was to focus on flying the plane.

Do you feel like a professional?

Then act like one. Your professionalism is not tied to your pay, the public's opinion of you, or the way "everyone" treats you.

 

[Flopgut]

Nice to hear this from a guy like Babbitt who treated the profession and the union like an his own personal ATM.

Is it not possible that flying is as safe as it is because we are in fact all professionals? What human endeavor compares to flying? Has anything grown more safe, and less expensive over the last 100 years? Medicine comes to mind. Lots of breakthoughs there but it certainly has not gotten cheaper!? The food supply has grown less expesive and production has evolved. But even then, when it became fasionable to be critical of farmers, there were bumper stickers that read: "If you're going to complain about farmers, don't talk with your mouth full". You would think if anyone would come to our defense it would be Babbitt. But no. Just another baby-boomer.

 

[propdog]

Well.....is he wrong? NO! Although it may sting a little to us as pilots, the man is correct.

In one case you have a crew who was either:

A. asleep and f%^&d up
B. engaged in a discussion on company policy and f%^&d up
C. having a scheduling extra help session and f%^&d up
D. engaged in some other weird/sexual crap and f%^&d up

In the other case you had two pilots who seemed to have no idea what was going on at all with:

A. winter ops
B. icing
C. SIC/PM responsibility to speak up
B. stall/spin and tailplane stall scenarios


Now we are ALL susceptible to errors in the cockpit, but these crew really messed upbad. What is wrong with pointing that out? No matter how you look at it, there is a glaring lack of professionalism in both cases. Good for him for trying to make us avoid situations like this. Shame can be a powerful motivator.....

Please elaborate 'D'. Curious minds wants to know....

 

[Mike man]

just because you, asayankee, enjoy D...does not mean anyone else does, just keep your gag bal...mouth shut.

 

[livin'thesim]

As someone who has spent years bouncing around on the bottom end of the food chain in aviation, spent a long time furloughed, and did a stint in the regionals and for dirtbag 135 operators, I can tell you that anyone at a major airline who wants to complain about being treated poorly is just whining. *Sob*, "bus-driver', *sob*, "dignity, self-respect", *sniffle, sniffle*.

If you need the airline to bend to your every whim before you are suitably motivated to do a good job, then get out of the cockpit. If your self-esteem is that fragile, then you are a just a nancy.


Be advised that there are thousands of guys like me who would gladly do your job for less money and a have a better attitude about it.

The usual response is that I should show some 'self-respect', and demand 'good treatment'. Hehe. Okay. Problem is, one man's greivous mistreatment is another man's d**m good job!

So step aside then, and allow guys like me to do that cruddy job for you, since you are so degraded and insulted.

That will give you plenty of time to sit at home in front of the mirror with a bottle of lotion "respecting" yourself.

 

[wms]

We are each responsible for our own professionalism. Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching, and a person's character is defined by whether or not they do the right thing, even when it's not the easiest way. Self-discipline, diligence, and attention-to-detail are important in how we do our job.

However, professionalism has suffered in our industry. Anyone who's been in it for more than a few years can see the difference.

For the last decade airline managements have been successful in degrading our profession. They have pitted pilot groups against each other through whip-sawing. They have pitted employee groups against each other by lying to one group about the others. They tell schedulers and dispatchers that flight crews are the enemy of the company. They've rebid all the ground positions to lower-paid contractors and say it's because we're paid too much. They've given us more responsibity and less control of our environment. We ask for catering, fuel or cabin service and rampers tell us to get lost. Even pax feed off this and have no regard for the scope of the flightcrew's job.

And then the airlines and pax complain when when we are not effective at doing our job or display the effects poor morale and a beaten-down attitude.

Even ALPA has had a large part in this. Beginning with Babbitt, they have driven a social wedge between the layers of our profession. As a result we don't even respect each other. How are we going to gain the respect of mgmt, fellow employees or the flying public if we treat each other with contempt? And Skiles, even though he's correct about the competence of the Colgan 3407 crew, fuels the fire by casting all non-major pilots in the same light. Funny he didn't paint NW188 or the DAL taxiway pilots with the same brush.

Now Babbitt, who shares responsibility for starting much of this, has the gall to say he is concerned about our lack of professionalism. But the fact is we are responsible for ourselves and our profession. NO ONE is on our side. Not our employers, co-workers, ALPA, or the flying public. We need to be the ultimate professionals, even in adversity, and prove we're worth the pay and respect we deserve, and then fight for it.

 

[Dizel8]

Be advised that there are thousands of guys like me who would gladly do your job for less money and a have a better attitude about it.

As someone who has experienced the same as you, I find your attitude despicable, but maybe you can make this job not worth having!

 

[Linedriver]

We are each responsible for our own professionalism. Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching, and a person's character is defined by whether or not they do the right thing, even when it's not the easiest way. Self-discipline, diligence, and attention-to-detail are important in how we do our job.

However, professionalism has suffered in our industry. Anyone who's been in it for more than a few years can see the difference.

For the last decade airline managements have been successful in degrading our profession. They have pitted pilot groups against each other through whip-sawing. They have pitted employee groups against each other by lying to one group about the others. They tell schedulers and dispatchers that flight crews are the enemy of the company. They've rebid all the ground positions to lower-paid contractors and say it's because we're paid too much. They've given us more responsibity and less control of our environment. We ask for catering, fuel or cabin service and rampers tell us to get lost. Even pax feed off this and have no regard for the scope of the flightcrew's job.

And then the airlines and pax complain when when we are not effective at doing our job or display the effects poor morale and a beaten-down attitude.

Even ALPA has had a large part in this. Beginning with Babbitt, they have driven a social wedge between the layers of our profession. As a result we don't even respect each other. How are we going to gain the respect of mgmt, fellow employees or the flying public if we treat each other with contempt? And Skiles, even though he's correct about the competence of the Colgan 3407 crew, fuels the fire by casting all non-major pilots in the same light. Funny he didn't paint NW188 or the DAL taxiway pilots with the same brush.

Now Babbitt, who shares responsibility for starting much of this, has the gall to say he is concerned about our lack of professionalism. But the fact is we are responsible for ourselves and our profession. NO ONE is on our side. Not our employers, co-workers, ALPA, or the flying public. We need to be the ultimate professionals, even in adversity, and prove we're worth the pay and respect we deserve, and then fight for it.

Very well said.

 

[livin'thesim]

As someone who has experienced the same as you, I find your attitude despicable, but maybe you can make this job not worth having!

You despise me because I won't refuse a job to push pay up?

If you want 120k and I'll work for 90k, who are you to tell me what salary I should be willing to accept? Maybe 90k feels like a million dollars to me.

Maybe it is not all about the money. If I have a decent schedule and acceptable pay, I'll take the job. I'm sorry that the whole world isn't willing to help enforce a cartel.

It's called freedom. Freedom for me to decide the wage I'm willing to work for.

Simple economics.

I would never cross a picket line, of course. But if a new company was starting up and they offered me 60k for right seat in an Airbus, I'd take it. It's better than what I have now.

We must accept reality - a currently enormous oversupply of pilots is going to make wage gains challenging.