It's just a job?? (for pilots)

[Kip Powick]

I was cleaning up some files today and found, buried beneath some old Sim/Flt reports, this item. Many eons ago, when I was a fledgling pilot, Scuba 02 presented me a plaque upon which were etched these memorable words. The epitome of an ego builder, and thought I would post it here for any pilots who sometimes feel that they are just “doing a job”.

"A pilot must possess the innate faculty of selective and instinctive discrimination of stimuli of the sensory-motor apparatus to harmoniously adjust metabolic changes in physiological and psychological equilibrium in such a manner to comprehend and assimilate instruction in the attributes essential to perform intricate and complex operations which constitute the details of pilotage .”

feel free to copy and paste

[Guest BigSkyGuy]

Sorry Kip. I wanted to post something but the 'post new message' function wouldn't work. There has been a lot of union bashing of late surrounding the red team's woes. Here is something that is maybe more on the mark.

"Perhaps the most critical element of the successful low-fare airline business model is significantly higher labor productivity than traditional network carriers. The difference lies in labor productivity, not in unionization or even wage rates. According to a recent HBS Case Study written by a member of our team, Southwest is the “most heavily unionized” US airline and its salary rates are considered to be at or above average compared to the US airline industry. The low-fare carrier labor advantage is in much more flexible work rules that allow cross-utilization of virtually all employees (except where disallowed by licensing and safety standards). Such cross-utilization and a long-standing culture of cooperation among labor groups translate into lower unit labor costs. At Southwest in 4th quarter 2000, total labor expense per ASM was more than 25% below that of United and American, and 58% less than US Airways."

Seems to me that if everyone just got along instead of trying to prove their invaluability, things might be better.