Originally Posted by
freshairborne
Honestly, reading about all the mistrust our passengers have for their pilots is pretty discouraging. A quick unofficial observation of posts on FlyerTalk tell me that as I stand at the door and bid farewell to my passengers as they deplane, 7 of 10 of them believe that their pilots are untrustworthy.
Actually, by the time I make it back to door 2L (757) all the "elitists" have gone, and its just the "kettles" still deplaning.
I'm a "kettle" myself, given that I don't fly as a passenger all that often, nor do I ever ride anywhere other than "steerage" when I do.
What's the derogatory term-of-the-day for pilots these days, anyway?
A load off my chest, rant over, flame away.
FAB
Fortunately your statistics are based on a biased sample. In my teaching and research on technical safety I have interviewed United pilots both formally and informally. They are a dedicated professional and careful group. They are even sometimes funny. We had a flight delayed because captain's chair malfunctioned. He came into the cabin to apologize and he must have been 6 foot 6. He said the first officer was 5 foot 4 and someone had just averaged their heights .