In late 1963, after a hiring hiatus of nearly seven years, all the major airlines in this country began hiring programs which would in some cases nearly double the size of their pilot seniority lists. TWA was among them. Because the airlines owner, Howard Hughes, had a long relationship with Hollywood, TWA was considered “The Airline of the Stars” and TWA aircraft were constantly seen in movies, along with those of the equally legendary Pan American. Because of its extensive domestic and international route system, it was considered by many pilots as the go to choice when applying for a job.
With the coming of the jet age, the FAA mandated that every jet had to have three qualified pilots in the cockpit. Since many of the major airlines had large four engine aircraft as part of, or even the major portion of, their fleets, and these airplanes required a non-pilot “Flight Engineer” as part of the cockpit crew, the position of “Second Officer” was created.
These FAA required third pilots basically had no function to perform on most flights. Sometimes they would keep the flight log, noting the times checkpoints were crossed, and copying down air traffic control clearances and radio frequencies, but these functions were traditionally the job of the pilot who wasn’t at the controls for that leg. We laughingly called them “Designated Eaters”, since mainly they just sat there and observed the other crew members perform their duties, and consumed a meal when crew meals were served.
To get around the FAA mandate, the airlines began hiring pilots and training them as flight engineers. These “Pilot/Flight Engineers” would hold both pilot and flight engineer certificates, but were prohibited from flying the aircraft unless an extreme emergency existed. So, whether you were assigned to initial training as a First Officer, Second Officer or “Pilot-Flight Engineer” was strictly up to what the airline needed on any given week. It was just “Luck of the Draw”. As pilots, who loved to fly airplanes, it was shocking and demoralizing to have been randomly selected for a P-F/E initial class.
Another problem was that those assigned as Pilot-Flight Engineer were given both a pilot seniority number and a flight engineer seniority number. That was ominous, because although it was generally accepted that once all the professional flight engineers received the company paid training to obtain their FAA required Commercial Pilot license with an Instrument Rating, the newly hired P-F/Es would be allowed to move up to First Officer, and eventually Captain, there was no contractual guarantee that would happen. We could be stuck in the Flight Engineer position forever, which was totally unacceptable. Continue reading Gosh, It’s Really Burning!
It’s official. The lunatics are now in charge of the asylum. Mayors and city councils in various Democrat controlled cities around the country are now proposing to defund and/or disband their police departments. Civil order would now be maintained by some amorphous, non-threatening organization. Perhaps “Black Lives Matter” or the Southern Poverty Law Center would be tasked with setting up “Militias” to keep the peace. I’m sure they would do a far better job than the racist organizations currently in control.
There are airline pilots who are alcoholics. That’s a simple fact. However, they are an extremely small portion of that group, due to the severe penalties which are imposed for the infraction of even attempting to pilot an airliner under the influence of alcohol, or any other drug for that matter. These days, crews are given un-announced drug or alcohol tests before or after flights on a regular basis. Since I have been out of the cockpit for nearly 14 years, I can only realistically comment about the timeframe prior to that. Please understand that there always is humor in all phases of life, including this serious issue.
An old joke about Marine Aviators goes: Question? “What do you do if the girls in the bar at closing time don’t live up to your standards?” Answer “Lower your standards!”