Showing the combatants how velveeta this thread looks to their fellow professional pilots.
Yup. This thread is a spiraling soup sandwich. Heck, the airline forum as a whole here on JC has the worst amount of complaining, griping, pissed-off-ness, personal attacking, etc, than anywhere else here.
Makes one wonder if anyone is truly happy with what they do as an airline pilot.
Sure, things are screwed up everywhere. But for a collective group of people who constantly harp about "unity!!" between airline pilot "brothers". The hate and discontent from one pilot group towards another.....to the extent of some even wishing ill-will for another pilot group in order to insure theirs goes forward; man, what hypocrisy. Airline pilots truly seem to be their own worst enemy. Not management.....but pilots themselves.
Here's something that I figured out a while ago. Now this is only an example for me and may or may not work for someone else: Back when I was active duty USAF, I started to really figure out just how full of crap the AF was, as my career progressed. When I'd have "pilot meetings" that had nothing to do with flying or tactics or combat; but instead focused on not getting speeding tickets on base, on stupid training programs like "trafficking in persons" or "don't ask, don't tell....and you", on making sure haircuts were within regs, etc. When I'd see countless idiots who were absolutely worthless at flying, but moved up the rank structure anyway; or otherwise eff-up/move up. When I saw that we as a nation.....and by extension, our military; and further, our AF.....weren't serious about truly fighting the wars we'd sent our troops to fight...that we were simply biding time and dragging things on for who knows what reason. When I saw all these things, I realized that I was working my ass off for an organization that wasn't worth it. I was pissed off over everything I was seeing, and any attempt to make a difference only made me more of an outside heretic in the eyes of "the church of the AF".
So I decided to be happy. I gave them the finger and transferred to the AF Reserve as a part timer, and changed my main employment to where I work now. Is there BS where I work now? Sure there is. But you know what changed? Now I deal with BS on MY terms, more or less; 8 hrs a day and no more, with full benefits. I still fly and do an important gig.....heck, to me securing the border 60 miles south of TUS is FAR more important than some border I could give two crap's about 6500 miles across the globe. Status isn't important....there's no mad dash for upgrades, no everyone trying to walk over everyone else, generally speaking. Just guys doing a job and enjoying it.....coming to work and going home. No SJS here. No more having to be forced to deal with BS on someone elses's complete terms for 14+ hrs a day, sometimes 6 days a week (7 days a week if deployed). Even the Reserve duty is part-time with little BS to have to deal with. And I find myself much happier. Not losing hair, losing sleep, typing angrily on an aviation website, in the airline section, arguing to the death everything....over something I voluntarily placed myself into.....makes "embrace the suck" take on a whole new meaning.
It's something that worked for me. Who knows, at some point, it might be worth it to someone else.....take the negativity I described, and fill in your own blanks. Your mileage may vary.
But something has to be done about this particular part of the forum, and the truly negative vibe that really seems to permeate within it. Sure, it can come from factors many are having to deal with. But taking it out on each other (the jumpseat denial thread a prime example of what NOT to do as pilots....talk about self-imposed whipsawing) isn't going to change things for the better.
Carry on.
Or is it all "Dinosaurs and Man Roamed The Earth Together" these days?
I would like to see some official reports.
