Jack wrote this in March, 2006:
Morning blogsters:
Some days those feeds pay the price of admission. Today is one such.
I see Canadian Airlines is being pondered in court. Union says flight attendants, mostly women, are as valuable as the pilots and mechanics (mostly men) and should be paid the same.
In fact, having known, and flown beside a fair number of gents who became airline pilots, I think the flight attendants are probably worth more than the pilots.
As far as the mechanics, it’s a mixed bag. Even though a lot of mechanics aren’t much count, I’d hate to go up in an airplane that hadn’t, at least, been examined by one occasionally. Even if the mechanic’s drunk or on something, it’s better than nothing.
But I think Canadian Airlines might be missing out on getting into the leading edge of a new concept. Adding fairness and adventure to flying, while cutting the cost in salaries.
When a person gets his boarding pass, his number is placed into a hopper. Then, while everyone is standing in line by in the boarding area, they roll the squirrelcage around a few times and draw numbers for the pilot, co-pilot and navigator positions.
- Passenger pilot: “Wow! Cool! I always wanted to fly one of these things!”
- Passenger co-pilot: “No big deal. They practically fly themselves. About like driving a car with a 200 foot wingspan. If you get nervous just hand the controls over to me. I’m a long-haul truck-driver.”
Flight attendents? Hire hire waitresses away from Denny’s and Applebys and let them try to survive on tips.
Wonder if there’s any way I can make Canadian Airlines pay me if they adopt this idea….
Someday I’ll tell you a few stories about flying, either in the same plane, or playing around in the air, future airline pilot in one airplane, me in another. Chasing cows, throwing rolls of toilet paper out the window at 3000′ AGL and seeing how many times we could cut it without having a mid air collision, before it (or one of us) hit the ground. That sort of thing.
Best to you,
Jack
So Far From Heaven 