Delta Disqualifiers

Met him once. Very nice guy and if it wasn't pointed out to me I don't think anyone would have known his past.
No, he was a typical Mesaba Minneapolis guy. More likely to be known for crock pot night at his house, or guy who invited all the pinnacle guys over for hockey night after the merger than to tell everyone he was a Olympian.

Quiet, intelligent, humble.
 
That's my point, of course the best of the best from our military are chosen, and they aren't all aviators. It just seems odd that that would be a question on an application, what would be the percentage of respondents that answered "yes".

I guess I really don't understand the pushback against an airline asking the question. Since it is simply a few electrons being pushed around on an online application, I don't see what the argument against it would be. What does it hurt? It is just another bit of info that feeds into building an overall picture about the applicant. How is it "odd"? Personally, I think that kind of experience, training, and knowledge is highly relevant in an applicant who was also otherwise qualified to be a 121 pilot.

How is it any less relevant than the other stuff they ask for on PilotCredentials, e.g. your high school GPA or what speeding tickets you had 17 years ago?
 
I guess I really don't understand the pushback against an airline asking the question. Since it is simply a few electrons being pushed around on an online application, I don't see what the argument against it would be. What does it hurt? It is just another bit of info that feeds into building an overall picture about the applicant. How is it "odd"? Personally, I think that kind of experience, training, and knowledge is highly relevant in an applicant who was also otherwise qualified to be a 121 pilot.

How is it any less relevant than the other stuff they ask for on PilotCredentials, e.g. your high school GPA or what speeding tickets you had 17 years ago?
Well since everything takes money, and its a question 20-40 guys out of 15k applications, why waste the time asking a guy to program the question and the print a response when it WILL be on the resume anyhow.
 
I guess I really don't understand the pushback against an airline asking the question. Since it is simply a few electrons being pushed around on an online application, I don't see what the argument against it would be. What does it hurt? It is just another bit of info that feeds into building an overall picture about the applicant. How is it "odd"? Personally, I think that kind of experience, training, and knowledge is highly relevant in an applicant who was also otherwise qualified to be a 121 pilot.

How is it any less relevant than the other stuff they ask for on PilotCredentials, e.g. your high school GPA or what speeding tickets you had 17 years ago?

If you can't see the problem with this question, then you might be part of the problem.

I'm only saying this partially in jest. If you can't see that the question is so nonsensically egotistical, then you may want to take a step back and think about it a little more.
 
If you can't see that the question is so nonsensically egotistical, then you may want to take a step back and think about it a little more.

I guess I'm officially part of the problem, then. I don't see what is "egotistical" or "nonsensical" about acknowledging that someone who is an astronaut is an individual with a unique airmanship skillset, and that an employer whose business it is to employ personnel who possess a high degree of airmanship might find it useful to know if applicants for the job have that skillset.

For all of the drum-beating I see from folks in this thread and elsewhere about the value of hiring diversity of skill and experience amongst the pilot ranks, I simply can't fathom how this topic is even worthy of objection, much less one that ruffles feathers.

Since I apparently can't see it, then would you please lay it out for me?
 
@jtrain609 you can count me as part of the problem.

If American wants a lunar landing, good for them. It is their choice of who they want filling their seat.

You should have been taught about the Equal Opportunity Act in your fancy law school.
 
@jtrain609 you can count me as part of the problem.

If American wants a lunar landing, good for them. It is their choice of who they want filling their seat.

You should have been taught about the Equal Opportunity Act in your fancy law school.

Yeah, I don't see the big deal. I will say that seeking out astronauts may be just a little bit of overkill when it comes to the complexity of this job, but even if they hired ONLY astronauts it's not like there's a lot of them. It wouldn't really hurt the rest of our chances any more than anything else on the application.
 
I guess I'm officially part of the problem, then. I don't see what is "egotistical" or "nonsensical" about acknowledging that someone who is an astronaut is an individual with a unique airmanship skillset, and that an employer whose business it is to employ personnel who possess a high degree of airmanship might find it useful to know if applicants for the job have that skillset.

For all of the drum-beating I see from folks in this thread and elsewhere about the value of hiring diversity of skill and experience amongst the pilot ranks, I simply can't fathom how this topic is even worthy of objection, much less one that ruffles feathers.

Since I apparently can't see it, then would you please lay it out for me?

It's simply unnecessary. Why? A few reasons.

First, you'd see NASA as a former employer. That's a bit of a give away.

Second, an employer isn't going to think an OV-101 type rating is a high powered Bronco. This is also a bit of a giveaway.

Third, there are only 480 people who have trained as astronauts. Chances are, the folks reading the applications already know who they are.

So what I'm really drilling down to is that you don't need it as a filter; the applicant with that experience will filter themselves with the rest of their application.

Any airline is, of course, welcome to use any non-discriminatory method they like in order to screen applicants, but I read it like this...

 
Can anyone here please explain the mathematical equation for a gravitational slingshot assist maneuver, to use the gravitational properties of two planets in this case the Earth and the moon in order to alter the speed and path to help accelerate a spacecraft in order to accelerate propellant and time problem.

The pilots up front needs your help so that we can make up for lost time in this delay to help get us to DFW faster, so ya'll can make your connections.

K. thx. Bye!
 
Can anyone here please explain the mathematical equation for a gravitational slingshot assist maneuver, to use the gravitational properties of two planets in this case the Earth and the moon in order to alter the speed and path to help accelerate a spacecraft in order to accelerate propellant and time problem.

The pilots up front needs your help so that we can make up for lost time in this delay to help get us to DFW faster, so ya'll can make your connections.

K. thx. Bye!
Mr. Nimoy died so no. Spock is the only guy i knew that could compute a slingshot timewarp using the sun, an Earth to Moon shot should be easy.
 
I think everyone is missing the point about the question. It's not because those guys are necessarily better pilots in the 121 environment. It's a prestige thing. You don't think Southwest loved every bit of it whenever someone mentioned "Southwest captain and former astronaut Hoot Gibson...?" They like having an astronaut associated with their brand, because the idiot public thinks "wow, that airline attracts astronauts to fly for them!" Will there be many candidates who can check the box? No. But I'm betting the software assigns a metric crap-ton of points for that box being checked.
 
I happen to think this is a pretty cool uniform to wear while flying:
u2-pilots-pressure-suits.jpg

Not for me. Great plane though. I'm more comfortable being able to scratch my nose if it itches.
 
I think everyone is missing the point about the question. It's not because those guys are necessarily better pilots in the 121 environment. It's a prestige thing. You don't think Southwest loved every bit of it whenever someone mentioned "Southwest captain and former astronaut Hoot Gibson...?" They like having an astronaut associated with their brand, because the idiot public thinks "wow, that airline attracts astronauts to fly for them!" Will there be many candidates who can check the box? No. But I'm betting the software assigns a metric crap-ton of points for that box being checked.

Wait... let me get this straight. You're actually defending Southwest now!?
 
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