Not sure why you took that as a personal attack on you, it was a jab at people like the XJ new hires that would flip their epaulets upside down to let everyone know they were on the 900.
Ah I see why you are confused, you're not acquainted with anything other than some stories you've heard. Let me help you out. I'll give it to you chronologically.
Mid '90's:
Mesaba, who was flying the Metro's at the time and had lost the Fokkers brought on the Dash 8. The FO's who were freshly hired were placed into the Dash 8's because the senior FO's were on the Metro's and nearing their upgrades. The Dash 8 (TURBOPROP btw) FO's turned their epaulets upside down to let everyone know they were on "the eight".
Fast forward ten years plus:
Late '00's:
Mesaba, who was flying the Saab's at the time and had lost the Avro's brought on the CRJ-900. The FO's who were freshly hired were placed into the -900 because the senior FO's were on the Saab's and nearing their upgrades. The CRJ-900 Captains, told the FO's to turn their epaulets around to have some fun with them, most of that stopped when a couple captains recognized the exercise and told them they were jackasses. A bunch of MEM Saab FO's, not wanting to be left out of the fun, walked around MEM and on the bus to the employee lot with their epaulets backwards telling guys they were on the -900. Some even put in their earbuds and sunglasses on. That got stopped pretty quick because it's just mean spirited.
There you go.
As for taking it personally, I did not, I took it for what it was- wildly overgeneralizing and ignorant.
I haven't been able to figure out why but a lot of new hires that get put straight into bigger aircraft get a superiority complex and look down on pilots that fly "lesser/smaller" aircraft.
That's ok I'll explain it to you slowly. Pilot's are mostly egotistical dbags. ... actually that's it. Took less time to explain than I thought.
It happened at XJ with the 900 and the Saab and it even happens at 9L with the Q and the Saab. The way those people act and talk, I'm kind of wondering if my member will grow a few inches just from moving to a bigger and faster airplane.
I remember when I was at Colgan. The Saab guys would barely speak to us after they divided our classes up into the 1900's and saabs. No I take that back, there was at least one day I could recall when they asked us on the way back from class why we thought we were stuck on the 1900 and they went to the Saab. They tried to hide their laughter. Stupid me I just wanted my first airline gig to be on the airplane my dad helped build (first airplane he worked on at Beech as an engineer). I upgraded in the Saab before any of the Saab guys did though, just at a better company with better pay and the contract you enjoy now (well after a couple years of snapping your pay up to our grandfathered rates I should say).
I don't know why pilots are dbags mostly. Thankfully on the jet at Mesaba there aren't many of them. Come to think of it, there weren't many FO's I can remember being dbags on the saab either.
You know what it is? (HINT: MORAL OF STORY COMING UP) Pilots generally are good people but there is so much innate dick measuring that a lot of them get bad reps for being dbags when it's often a simple misunderstanding of the situation and (oftentimes) a defense mechanism for being very anxious about an industry they just got hired into and don't know much about.
