Lost decade

Stone Cold

Stone Cold

Well-Known Member
I literally had a career military guy argue with me tonight about the lost decade and timing in this industry. He had a former Mesa guy agreeing with him that timing isn't everything in this industry. Both said the lost decade didn't exist. I asked the military guy what he knew about the lost decade and he said it didn't matter what he knew or when he started paying attention to civilian aviation.

How are people so stupid that are supposedly smart?

The real question is am I going to have an aneurysm flying here with stupidity for the next decade until I "retire"??
 
Stone Cold said:
I fly with a lot of pigs though. ;) :biggrin:
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So, it would seem, does everybody else. I just want to know when people go from young, open-minded and idealistic to old, miserable cusses.

And just a little perspective; there is a hot number of people in military aviation that their community can't wait to jettison like a bad burrito. When they get on the street they get to wear their military affiliation like they're battle tested heroes/excellent aviators when they were actually coloring in the corner the whole time and when they did get the chance to deploy they were sent home for being a waste of space before the ship even crossed the international date line. It is nearly impossible to tell the difference if you don't know what to look for.
 
Stone Cold said:
I literally had a career military guy argue with me tonight about the lost decade and timing in this industry. He had a former Mesa guy agreeing with him that timing isn't everything in this industry. Both said the lost decade didn't exist. I asked the military guy what he knew about the lost decade and he said it didn't matter what he knew or when he started paying attention to civilian aviation.

How are people so stupid that are supposedly smart?

The real question is am I going to have an aneurysm flying here with stupidity for the next decade until I "retire"??
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Dude, when I was a 6 year SkyWest captain I had many FOs ask my why I was staying at SKW instead of going to Delta. Some people are just clueless.
 
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GypsyPilot said:
Dude, where I was a 6 year SkyWest captain I had many FOs ask my why I was staying at SKW instead of going to Delta. Some people are just clueless.
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There's more to the story as this guy and I have flown together before, but I was astonished at the lack of self-awareness. He had no clue, but had a former Mesa guy cheering him on (junior to him of course). He shook my hand at the end of the night making sure all was good but it was really eye opening to see the stupidity of his argument.

Yes, drinks were involved. It is what it is. I am really not disappointed because of our previous discussions, but was surprised at his lack of awareness again.
 
Lost decade. Thousands upon thousands of mainline pilots were furloughed as fleets were parked. Older inefficient airplanes like the DC9, F100, Bae146, were parked in favor of RJs flown by regional partners.

After several years, just when it looked like a recall might be forthcoming the retirement age was raised to 65... prolonging the furloughs even more.

Upon recall around 2007... some were almost immediately furloughed again due to the financial crisis in 08'. By this point many had taken other careers. Some flying, some not.

Meanwhile at the regionals, stagnation. The shrinking of mainline fleets allowed them to grow RJ fleets... but there were no jobs for RJ pilots to graduate to.

Yeah. The lost decade was very real.
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It is impressive how all successful people are successful due entirely to hard work, no luck involved

And so, they simply engage in cognitive dissonance when it comes to just how short of a stick some pilots drew simply based on what year they entered the industry.

It’s both. It’s always been both. You just have zero control over the luck portion.

What blows my mind is how many people stuck around during the lost decade in these HORRIBLE paying positions. Even during the financial crisis there were much easier ways to earn regional wages. The tenacity is impressive for sure and they deserve every ounce of success they get, …..if they ever get it.
 
ZapBrannigan said:
Lost decade. Thousands upon thousands of mainline pilots were furloughed as fleets were parked. Older inefficient airplanes like the DC9, F100, Bae146, were parked in favor of RJs flown by regional partners.

After several years, just when it looked like a recall might be forthcoming the retirement age was raised to 65... prolonging the furloughs even more.

Upon recall around 2007... some were almost immediately furloughed again due to the financial crisis in 08'. By this point many had taken other careers. Some flying, some not.

Meanwhile at the regionals, stagnation. The shrinking of mainline fleets allowed them to grow RJ fleets... but there were no jobs for RJ pilots to graduate to.

Yeah. The lost decade was very real.
giphy.gif



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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You left out the final transition from 3 man to 2 man aircraft like the 727, DC-10 and classic 747s. That helped the fun right along.
 
Stone Cold said:
I literally had a career military guy argue with me tonight about the lost decade and timing in this industry. He had a former Mesa guy agreeing with him that timing isn't everything in this industry. Both said the lost decade didn't exist. I asked the military guy what he knew about the lost decade and he said it didn't matter what he knew or when he started paying attention to civilian aviation.

How are people so stupid that are supposedly smart?

The real question is am I going to have an aneurysm flying here with stupidity for the next decade until I "retire"??
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You should upgrade
 
Autothrust Blue said:
Have you…met a lot of pilots? ;)
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There are, generally, three major concepts I hammer into my primary flight students right from the beginning, whether they are career-oriented or not:

1) Rule one is fly the airplane. No matter what. Fly the airplane. Everything else is second. Fly the airplane.
2) Don't spill my coffee. I cannot teach early in the mornings without coffee. If you spill my coffee, we might die.
3) Pilots are the dumbest smart people you will ever meet. I am not exempt from this rule.
 
GypsyPilot said:
Dude, when I was a 6 year SkyWest captain I had many FOs ask my why I was staying at SKW instead of going to Delta. Some people are just clueless.
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Funny but sad hearing this as I’m doing non stop IOE these days being told they’ll be at United in two years after they upgrade. Then they ask me why I’m still here. “I don’t know, but it’s not for a lack of trying”.
 
Stone Cold said:
I literally had a career military guy argue with me tonight about the lost decade and timing in this industry. He had a former Mesa guy agreeing with him that timing isn't everything in this industry. Both said the lost decade didn't exist. I asked the military guy what he knew about the lost decade and he said it didn't matter what he knew or when he started paying attention to civilian aviation.

How are people so stupid that are supposedly smart?

The real question is am I going to have an aneurysm flying here with stupidity for the next decade until I "retire"??
Click to expand...

Pilots can be some of the dumbest most idiotic people you’ll ever meet. Sad, but true!

Think about the guys around the airport earning almost a half-million dollars per year complaining because the line at Chipotle is long and how the airline discount is only 10%

If it doesn’t affect them, it doesn’t exist.
 
killbilly said:
Pilots are the dumbest smart people you will ever meet. I am not exempt from this rule.
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Ssssss, oooooh, yea, I’m going to have to go ahead and sort of disagree with you there…

Having been exposed to a lot of “smart people”, including quite few with a some very impressive alphabets after their names, I can tell you pilots have no monopoly on this.

Some VERY smart people can’t wire a doorbell, know which end of the screwdriver does what, or even that diesel cars don’t run so well on gasoline.

Back in the day, we’d call that “the VCR always blinks twelve”…

1629815706186.jpeg
 
Richman said:
Ssssss, oooooh, yea, I’m going to have to go ahead and sort of disagree with you there…

Having been exposed to a lot of “smart people”, including quite few with a some very impressive alphabets after their names, I can tell you pilots have no monopoly on this.

Some VERY smart people can’t wire a doorbell, know which end of the screwdriver does what, or even that diesel cars don’t run so well on gasoline.

Back in the day, we’d call that “the VCR always blinks twelve”…

View attachment 60552
Click to expand...
What’s a VCR?
 
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