"The Good Old Days"

[Dan Roman]

I don't get warm fuzzies about the airlines, old or new. What is vanishing from the world are the old-school FBOs with cut-shirt-tails on the wall next to yellowing polaroids of first solos. Teenagers obsess on Facebook and buy anything they want from Ebay and Craigslist. They certainly aren't out at the airport washing planes for rides. The steamgauge trainers are finally reaching the end of their lives along with the piston twins. A MILLION BUCKS for a piston Baron! The classic flight school is vanishing.

I've read that a third of all operating flight schools have vanished since 9/11. Remember the styrofoam cup compass? Remember that Sporty's C152 panel poster with the ugly brown plastic Cessna used? I have a framed one. Someday I will retire and recreate an old flight school, right down to the cheesy toy cardboard plane with the moveable control surfaces. I might even use old Jepp hoods for IFR. No glass, no retracts, no turbos. Real live working ADFs!

Maybe this is a thread segway, but this part of our heritage is vanishing right before our eyes. I'm still a CFI. I will always be a CFI. I hate to see it go.

Hang in there and keep flying.
One of the biggest threat's to aviation is laid out by your post.
Read "School for Perfection' by Richard Bach in "A Gift of Wings".

 

[climbhappy]

I'd love to instruct someday..in the mornings only. do one sorti, then go get breakfast.. come back and work til lunch...the house will need to be paid for and the kids out of college... but that's how I want to spend the final years....and don't forget...it's five o'clock somewhere.

 

[maru657]

Deregulation was pushed by Ted Kennedy and signed into law by Jimmy Carter. Neither of which have sterling Republican credentials. Deregulation wasn't a Republican or even a bipartisan issue. It was a Democrat issue with the purpose of bringing down air fares and making air travel more available to their constituents. It worked. But we're still suffering from the unintended consequences.

Although deregulation was in fact arthored by Sens; Kennedy and Howard Cannon, both Democrats, enacted by Alfred Khan and signed into law by Pres; Carter. The deregulation that we live under was built by his successor, Reagan. There were many labor protective provisions built into the original bill and these were stripped by the Reagan administration.
this in addition to the Patco strike forced a major change in aviation. Remember that while campaigning, Reagan promised to support PATCO. Other factors were the attitude of pilots at the time. refuseing to honor PATCO's picket lines, allowing the mandate of random drug and alcohol testing and finally submitting to the indignity of security screening with passengers. Most of us during this era thought deregulation was a good idea, myself included. We never read the "law of unintended consequences" or realized the weight or specific gravity of the rock about to fall on our heads. The stupidity of security screening for someone about to be at the controls should be a bellweather.

 

[Ty Webb]

Spot-on.

Another great idea by "Homeland Security" - give the FFDO's weapon to rampers to put in the baggage compartment . . . . how many weapons disappeared in the "sterile area" before that nonsense was halted?

 

[Twisted Mind]

Pilotyip,
I do agree with a lot of the things you say on here. However, I do not agree with the idea that more pilot jobs is better. If ¾ of the jobs are not worth having what is the point of having them? I would much prefer to have fewer but better jobs.

 

[glasspilot]

I would much prefer to have fewer but better jobs.

As long as you're the one left with the "better" job.

 

[pilotyip]

Seniority

As long as you're the one left with the "better" job.

that normally will go to the senior pilots

 

[glasspilot]

So I guess the guy above with 3,000 hours who wants fewer but better jobs will be out. Just wanted to make sure I understood his position on the matter.

 

[Twisted Mind]

Hey I will go out no problem. I have ditiched a few jobs that I did not think were worth having.

 

[waka]

Oh please. A bunch of old farts talking about how great things used to be. LOL

Maybe some of us on this message board don't appreciate the sexual objectification of woman you seem so proud of. We're soooo sorry that flight attendants are not thin enough for you. We're soooo sorry that you are too old to drool over them anymore. Plus, how come the best flight attendants that I ever have are gay guys then??

Things are much better now than they were back then when you old guys were sexually harrassing your crew.

Agreed. One has to question those who get nostalgic about treating women as a second class citizen. Hey, I appreciate a beautiful flight attendant as much as the next guy. However, they're not here for our viewing pleasure. An FA's looks has absolutely ZERO to do with their job.

 

[Ty Webb]

Agreed. One has to question those who get nostalgic about treating women as a second class citizen. Hey, I appreciate a beautiful flight attendant as much as the next guy. However, they're not here for our viewing pleasure. An FA's looks has absolutely ZERO to do with their job.

Thanks for taking an ugly one off the market for us.

 

[Kharma Police]

Agreed. One has to question those who get nostalgic about treating women as a second class citizen. Hey, I appreciate a beautiful flight attendant as much as the next guy. However, they're not here for our viewing pleasure. An FA's looks has absolutely ZERO to do with their job.

The original idea of putting a young attractive female (mostly nurses) on a plane was to help calm the scared sh!tless all male business passengers. We are talking the DC-3 days, no pressurization, loud, and always stuck in the weather. The rationale was, "if this young women isn't scared, why should I be?"

 

[HalinTexas]

I don't care so much for the present, but in reality, the past was no great place to be either. We romanticize it too much. Look to the future, and try to make it better.

 

[waka]

The original idea of putting a young attractive female (mostly nurses) on a plane was to help calm the scared sh!tless all male business passengers. We are talking the DC-3 days, no pressurization, loud, and always stuck in the weather. The rationale was, "if this young women isn't scared, why should I be?"

Thankfully, we have gotten away from that philosophy......at least, most of us have.

 

[FreightPup]

When
the clacker went off no one got all tight and scared because
Boeing built it out of iron, nothing was going to fall off
and that sound had the same effect on real pilots then as
Viagra does now for those new age guys.

Oh man...
That's my new favorite quote!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!