You're not suggesting I think Colombia is a city in Cali, are you? LOL. C'mon man.

Sure it was awkwardly worded as a stream of thoughts, but there was a pause (as you pointed out) meaning the overnight was in Cali (CLO).

I later found out I did mispronounce Guayaquil though. A lot of people don't realize the G is silent. Sorry.

Thanks! I never expected it to go anywhere, to be honest. I started the vlog for my writing (side gig) and the small following I have there. They asked for the comparison of the airline life, and I made a video. It was intended to be a comparison explaining the transition as a follow up to the previous video.

That video had less than 500 views until a few weeks ago and I had ~125 subscribers.

At some point YouTube took interest in the video I made a few weeks before about how I became a fighter pilot in the first place and all of the other videos took off with it (relatively speaking). I still don't really understand how their algorithms work.

Definitely not trying to be a tool. Sorry if it came off that way.

Not toolish IMO. But it is similar in format to some recent pilot vlogs which have been pretty dooshy, so maybe somebody jumped to conclusions. Some folks are sensitive about it I guess.

Meh...seems like a “look at me” Instagram, social media ***** to me....sorry.
I know that if he was currently in a fighter squadron and doin this, every roll call would have something funny to say/do with him

Probably start with “so tell us about yourself”
And end with everyone drunk and laughing at the video playing above the bar.


I think it’s pretty awesome that he is a writer...I’ll give him that

It’s easy to critique people from the other side of a keyboard. Also, while I do harbor a general distaste for the narsacistic nature of social media and YouTube “influencers”, I don’t think the video poster had that intention. I think it’s an honest video to help mil pilots looking at crossing over, while also serving as a marketing platform for his books.

Problem is it’s not titled that way so anyone can see it. The other issue is that he tells the general public that being airline pilot is easy. In the 20min video that must have been said at least 10 times. Basically he gets little satisfaction from the job and does it for the money (to be clear, we all do it for the money). That feeds the stereotype that we and our unions are trying to fight which is we are over paid bus drivers. In a time when we are fighting constant threats to discredit our importance, level of responsibility, erode our pay and benefits, and legislation to look into single pilot operations, this video doesn’t help our cause.

According to the video a fighter pilot does a much harder job for a whole lot less money. So that begs the question, why are we paying airline pilots this much? Different angle but the same damage as the Instagram and you tube stars of Ryan Air and regional airlines that glamorize the job while working for next to nothing.

Or rather, why are we paying fighter pilots so little?

I’d agree with that too.

Non-union and enough of a cool factor to draw more than enough people in just for the type of work

They get paid the same as any other service member, with some hazard pay (similar to other specialties), and retention pay (specific to airframe, as-needed to manage the force structure).

It's probably not practical for the government to give them legacy airline pay, instead they should try to manage the career path so as to be something people want to do. But actually the government really only needs to keep them for the 10-15 years between ADSC and retirement eligibility. After 20+ years, they only need a relatively small handful of colonels, and even those for only a few more years. Very few officers can get anywhere near age 60, and you'd need a lot of stars on shoulder to even have a chance.

It's probably a losing battle to retain enough folks in this airline hiring climate. Instead, they need to make sure they attract them to the reserves, so if they ever really need them, they're available and current. IMO they might need to move some planes to the guard/reserve, since that's where all their pilots are headed anyway.

Wow, where to start...
It ain't the pay; it's the loss of swagger. And time away from home.

The AF has 12,300 pilots; DL, UA and AA each exceed that. The USAF (or Navy/USMC) could easily pay Legacy pay rates by purchasing one less F-35/B-21/pick-a-plane. But that won't solve the institutional problems that are at the core of the pilot shortage. :(

The US Post Office LOSES more money per year than the USAF annual budget for the entire nuclear force...money's not the issue.

By "not practical" I didn't mean fiscally. It would be a political issue with the rest of the military (and the public). Targeted retention bonuses get after that somewhat, and justified by empirical retention data.

Like I said, plan B had better be keep them in the reserves and even that's not going so great.

Don't forget, most of the USAF resents the heck out of the pilots and would freak the hell out if mil pilots were paid what they were actually worth (like doctors are, both mil and GS). People understand doctors getting paid a lot, but they absolutely freak out with jealousy and resentment if pilots get compensated at market value.

USAF absolutely HATES their pilots. Resentment is far too mild of a word. No way they'll ever get paid enough to retain them, so either the JOB is cool or the JOB sucks. Right now, the JOB sucks because it's mostly queep and very little flying, while working within an organization that hates you and twists the rules to ensure that pilots are measured for promotion with the exact same criteria as some shoe clerk desk jockey who works in a clean office, has nothing more stressful in their day than ensuring the coffee pot is cleaned occasionally yet still wears a utility uniform, and who might deploy once in their career to a rear echelon staff job.

Edit - This is nothing new. Look up Bill Mauldin's comics and his references to the stereotypical "REMF".

I own, and cherish, a hardback copy of "Up Front" by Bill Mauldin. A true classic.

If only pilots accounted for the vast majority of General Officers even though, unlike their peers in maintenance, security, and others they rarely lead large groups until later in their career, they could change the system... Oh wait. Pilots run the Air Force.

There's some truth here. In the other services, almost everybody routinely goes over the horizon as a team for expeditionary operations as a matter of course. AF launches the warfighters, but most of the rest stay behind in their offices in CONUS and go home at 5:00 pm.

You stay past 3:45?

I'm in the Navy...

I was thinking a 2:30 BX shelf check

Not for much longer...cyber and space are taking over slowly but surely.

The idiot flying on the outskirts of a hurricane jamming up the radio constantly asking for altitudes with good rides.

But did he ask for a wind check?:rolleyes:

No..cyber and space are growing domains yes - but the primary mission of the Air Force remains putting airplanes in the air. So yes, Pilots run the Air Force, as they should. While they don’t lead large groups of enlisted people early in their careers, the combat leadership of leading a formation in hostile territory, managing a diverse crew in podunk locations, and planning / executing operational missions more than makes up for the lack of leading a handful of airmen in garrison.

You do realize that there are many Captains and majors in the USAF that will lead squadrons of nearly 1000 before most pilots ever lead more than a formation, right?

The smug little man, marching chest forward and head held high in Seattle last week. Your light up wheels on your rollaboard made us all look. I salute you Captain RJ Astronaut.

There aren’t any Captains leading Squadrons in the Air Force, and very very few squadrons have a 1000 people. That’s a tad exaggeration don’t you think? Let’s also be honest, the SNCO is actually usually running the show at the flight level. By the time a non rated officer is leading a 1000 people their rated peers have more than enough leadership experience needed to command.

Not saying it isn’t eye opening as a young LT to have many airmen that you are in charge of. Just saying that a rated officer’s leadership journey doesn’t shortchange their experiences needed to command.

The Republic FO on duty in DTW with the Bluetooth speaker hanging on his bag blasting Beat It while walking through the airport. You Sir, are an embarrassment to this profession.

People.. Get pics or video for all future TOTD posts!

TOTD: the uniformed pilot filming other people in the terminal

^^^^^^^^^^this

Just as bad as the Fashion Police:mad:

Michael Jackson is from MY day. Everything coming back around again? ;)

Haha ... yup.
It used to be Fly, Fight, Win.
But now it's Air, Space, and Cyberspace.
Air is only about a third of the mission, apparently.

You can film him and put it here.

The Delta FO who couldn't keep her mouth shut while trying to argue with a philly ground controller. What makes her a tool is that the controller was coordinating the arrival of an emergency aircraft and had told her to standby and she still couldn't ****
Very disturbing
:rolleyes:

Cut her some slack. She probably came over to Ground flustered after a 10 minute beat down on 121.5 :D

Shoulda just told her it was light chop all the way to the runway, with no smooth taxi outs. That’s all she wanted to know.

What makes you think it was the First Officer?

Maybe he recognized his wife’s voice. :p

Nope ... :p

EXCELLENT point! I suppose it could have been one of the flight attendants...?

This Delta pilot for losing it over a RJ that's exiting the runway. TOTD points for losing it on the controller (if ground controller would actually control), on the RJ pilots (if they could be more professional), and asking for a phone number.

"Lighten up francis" = settle down Capn Happy



The RJ is simply exiting the runway with most likely another aircraft on short final behind him. The controller was absolutely right to say "well that's an exiting aircraft, so don't hit him, and taxi to the gate."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyqQ4lfWz3M

It DOES kinda sound like Captain Happy, no?