Actually, I take mine off once every two weeks, soak it in the hot pot and call it coffee!!! No complaints so far.:eek:

Ain't it the truth. I'm getting pretty tired of educating these youngsters. I don't know what happened to all the "other" airline pilots. I think they got tired too. (like KillBill) I'm getting ready to move on also.

So two years ago, there's an FCIF telling the Ropes to wear 3 stripes because the ramp folks got tired of being told one thing by the 4-stripe FE, then another by the 4-stripe Captain. Any problems that still stem from this are certainly not the fault of a insecure or selfish F/O or current Captain.

Jetjock
 

I flew with Jetjok with him as the over 60 "guy in back". The guy is professional, curteous, funny as hell, and wore three stripes. He always treated me as if I "Earned" my left seat, and I valued his input and experience as a Formal (former) MD-11 Capt. (sorry, couldn't resist).

The week went by pretty quick and worked the way its 'sposed to. Everyone was professional, had a good time and did what we did without making it too difficult.

As far as him wearing diapers, I can tell you that if I keep eating those jumpseat cookies, I'll be in the ground long before he will.

As far as earned vs given, I don't know a single guy in my upgrade class that considered the upgrade a forgone conclusion. Everyone I knew worked pretty hard....if for no other reason: A) personal pride/professionalism B) It is a business decision to upgrade, pure and simple. You want to make sure that you put your best foot forward to increase the probability of better pay. Not taking training seriously is a poor business decision.

I was not picked by merit to upgrade, it was seniority, though I completed and "earned" it from the time I showed up till the last of a series of checkrides/quality checks.

As far as an FO who says "big deal, they didn't earn anything, it was seniority"....though somewhat true, it'll sound a lot more credible after you've taken the training and finished. Particularly if you could have upgraded earlier. Kinda like NMB complaining about poor captains, or the union.

As far as an S/O who wears four stripes, well...Jetjok is secure and confident in his decision to continue past 60 in the back seat, he wears three. The guy that wears four, was probably one of the first guys to use the FOM to back up "Captains Authority" when he was Captain. These guys could have retired, they chose to continue, they should be ok with that decision and wear three. It is poor form to do otherwise.

Earned vs. Superiority
 

LJ,

Pretty much right-on. I think where the 'earned' term gets misused is when someone thinks being senior or older has somehow made them better than someone junior or younger to them. I'm pretty sure that just because someone is senior/older to me, that doesn't make them a better person, better pilot or smarter than me. You might be for different reasons, but seniority/age is not it.

It's surprising that some people think this way, but they do. IMHO, the guys in the back who still wear 4 stripes do it for one of two reasons. They're either too cheap to buy another set of 3 stripes, or they think that since they're senior/older to most everyone and therefore superior, and one way they can show that is to wear their captain stripes.

When you make it to Captain, you have certainly earned a lot. You've earned the right to be in charge, to make more money and to have things your way, within reason. You haven't earned the right to think you're better than the guy sitting next to or behind you, unless they didn't make it through upgrade training.

It's a small minority that are this screwed up, but they exist.

On a historical note, we had a guy here who wore two stripes. He was our professional "navigator". He did the check out of new routes, distributed a trip book with all the do's and don'ts for getting in and out of foreign places and would keep you laughing for the seven hours it took to go from ANC to LHR. A great guy, since retired.

Loadmasters wear two stripes.

I remember him...I was a S/O on my first siba ride to South America and he was doing a route check. The guy was a riot and I had the worst hangover of my adult life trying to keep up with him. Only tried that once.

We actually have had a few that wear 2 stripes. Tigers had professional F/E's that wore 2 stripes. Haven't seen one around in awhile but they were/are here.

Past....