Doug Parker said:
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Come on - Let's hear about the reeeaaalllly bad ones.....................
We have one Captain nicknamed "Peek-a-boo"
Another one was fired after he hung out a cockpit window to clean the windscreen while his FO taxied - apparently forgot to take his Prozac
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I remember both of those pilots well. We used to call the second Captain you referenced as "Jiminy Cricket." I was flying with him once to New York. He was very big into Ballooning. He won an award from Popular Science and that was the reason why he picked up the trip. Anyhow, in the morning we were all waiting for the van in the hotel lobby that was to drive us to JFK. He had his award "unwrapped" and proudly displayed for all of us to see. His friend was with him, and that gentleman still had his award wrapped up.
FWIW, he always backed up the flight attendants. I remember one time he came out of the cockpit, while we still on the ground, and reprimanded a passenger who was giving us grief.
As for Peek-A-Boo, you have to understand the story of how he got his name. Allegedly he would use dental mirrors to look under the doors of FAs in hotels to see if he could catch a glimpse of anything. There was also a rumor that he somehow would make his way into FAs rooms and somehow pry out the peephole and turn it around so he could see inside their room while out in the hall.
I will never forget a flight attendant I was flying with came back from the cockpit and said, "Guess who we are flying with? He held up a napkin to his eye, where he had punched out a hole, and had "Room 208" printed on it. We all knew who the Captain was without ever having to ask!
We also had a Captain on the 757 who was very methodical about the way he ate his food. He would eat fried rice and push it all into a big pile on his plate. He would then take a bite, and proceed to push it all back together again. After about the 10th time he did this, I left the cockpit.
We had a First Officer, now a Captain, who we nicknamed "stinky." He would wear the SAME uniform shirt for his entire 4-day trip. By the 4th day, he was, well, stinky!
We also had a Captain (reference "Gone with the Wind" for his name) who would clean the "door sills" on the aircraft. He would open the aircraft door on the ground and proceed to clean the inside. He actually pointed this out to me one time, and said that it made the aircraft perform better or something like that!
I guess I could go on forever!
Kathy