What parts of ‘old school’ airline pilot life do you miss?

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BrtFrkwr@reddit

Showing an ID tag and going around security.

Skinny dipping the pool at 3am the flight attendants.

Real crew meals.

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happierinverted@reddit

My old boss said he was blessed to be flying post penicillin and pre-AIDS ;)

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Icy_Huckleberry_8049@reddit

Oh man, yes, by passing security by showing an airline ID. Stopped in the early 80's, though.

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Spock_Nipples@reddit

We were bypassing security all the way till 2001.

All I had to do was scan my crew badge at the ramp gate at DFW and walk straight to the airplane. At outstations, we just walked through ops and out to the airplane. No security check.

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spitfire5181@reddit

Flight PSA 1771

Don't remember if this is actually true or not. Supposedly in the transcripts you hear:

Shots in the cabin.

FA runs to the flight deck and says "we have a problem!"

Pilot says "wait what's the problem?"

Shooter walks up "I'm the problem!"

More shots.

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swakid8@reddit

Yes, it was true… That was on the voice recorder.

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HoverStop@reddit

Going through “security” with my Leatherman in my bag.

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flyingcanuck@reddit

Having the buying power to afford a home, a vacation/summer property, a boat, a couple of cars, the kids education all while the Misses stayed at home.

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This is still more or less attainable for most mainline guys and gals with some kind of reasonable seniority. Just depends where you live, what kind of vacation home you want, where it is etc (I.e. just like it did 50 years ago)

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flyingcanuck@reddit

Definitely not possible in Canada if you've started your airline career in the last decade.

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aye246@reddit

Yes true, sorry—I do understand Canadian airline pay is different than.

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gromm93@reddit

It's funny, because it's right there in his user flair.

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ivytea@reddit

come to southeast Asia with me

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ducky2000@reddit

Doing Jepp updates in cruise (said no one ever). Finishing one of those god awful USA Today crossword or sudokus. When the previous pilot leaves a new magazine to read (Playboy, Maxim, Car and Driver, etc) . Not having to wear a vest on the walk around.

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MrFrequentFlyer@reddit

Honestly, if they can’t see the white shirt they aren’t going to see the yellow vest.

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gromm93@reddit

Yeah, but the CSA approved hi-vis is fuckin' magic man!

Also, I'm reasonably sure that it's all "If you didn't see that, you have no defence" and they just kind of kicked the can down the road through multiple lawsuits before mandating that everyone outside a vehicle is fair game unless they're in a hi-vis.

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lefrenchkiwi@reddit

I’ve been saying exactly this for years

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YamComprehensive7186@reddit

Makes me sad thinking that was what seems like just yesterday.

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CatchMe_If_YouCan@reddit

No influencers.

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govseek@reddit

I get what you mean, it can be corny. But as someone on the younger side going through flight training, I do appreciate the large amount of videos when it comes to the daily life of pilot type of videos. Kinda gives me info and insight to what it’s going to be like later down the line for me in video format.

Although I do know they are edited in a romanticized way

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killroy451@reddit

Big Fan of Joey Muccio for fitness and chasing the good life I said it

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opsman25@reddit

I think some influencers who want to educate the public are alright. Think the mentour pilot guy or the kid that went to United after flying caravans in Hawaii. But others like the boner pill guy are a stain on the profession.

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gonnageta@reddit

Boner pill guy?

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PM_ME_YOUR_FOQA@reddit

I don't believe that a single one of them does it "to inspire future aviators". I think all of them without a single exception have a huge need for validation. "Look at me, I'm a quirky pilot". And the rest is just an excuse to be an insufferable douche.

Have some self respect. Most of us don't want one of those tools next to us if we gotta run driftdown over an ocean.

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MovieEuphoric8857@reddit

Amen brother

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SnazzyStooge@reddit

Long before my time, but would be really nice to have their travel perks. “Zed fares” are no match for “hey, my family and I are here to fly first class to Paris, thankyouverymuch!”

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mrezee@reddit

Eh. I’m glad I don’t have to wear a suit on the plane as a nonrev anymore.

And on AA, you used to have to pay a service fee to nonrev in coach until you had 5 years of seniority. And you had to pay a surcharge to fly in first or business no matter how senior you were. They got rid of those about 10 years ago, thankfully.

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Equivalent-Web-1084@reddit

I swear the boomers were so lucky everything was far better and cheaper for them.

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bigshigdig@reddit

They should all be jailed for the crime of their birth date. When I get older I hope everyone is jealous of my stuff and how easy I have it.

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LateralThinkerer@reddit

Cheaper? Found a one way coach ticket ORD - PDX in my dad's stuff - $735 in 1967 (~$7100 now)

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gromm93@reddit

In his defence, everything but airfare was cheaper.

As per https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/tables/time-series/census-housing-tables/grossrents.pdf "average" rent for a 1 bedroom apartment in Washington state in 1960 was $350 in year 2000 dollars.

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Cool-Acanthaceae8968@reddit

They ruined it all by being the greediest and least productive generation of all time.

You know that Zed fares were because of them abusing the system.

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ButtCreamTeam@reddit

They could buy a house for a handful of skittles and now they complain about new fo earnings and they’re all studio apartment cucks

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NlCKSATAN@reddit

?

My flight benefits on an AAirline were pretty good when I had them. Business to LHR and back wasn’t that hard to get.

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Thats_my_cornbread@reddit

A new Cadillac every month

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_Cat1@reddit

The salary.

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TurntButNotBurnt@reddit

Flirty FAs

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PUBGLegend69@reddit

Hoeflation is real

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Cool-Acanthaceae8968@reddit

They still exist. 🍆

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Intelligent_Log515@reddit

Aren't they all one of the 3 Gs though? I heard there's a 3 G tilt these days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJXPTrI9QHQ

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Oxygen_Converter@reddit

Unfortunately they've all got grey hair and enough perfume to consider donning your masks.

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YamComprehensive7186@reddit

Having just two binders of material to be responsible for knowing vs the 6K pages buried in electronic format that gets an update seemingly hourly.

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YamComprehensive7186@reddit

Having just two binders of material to be responsible for knowing vs the 6K pages buried in electronic format that gets an update seemingly hourly.

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LowTimePilot@reddit

Only a real pilot in my dreams but in those dreams there was no TSA.

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whoaitsjello@reddit

A few people definitely ruined it for everyone..

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aftcg@reddit

A few? Remember who voted for Bush who enacted the TSA

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haveanairforceday@reddit

Did bush run on a campaign of increasing airport security? I wasn't old enough to know what was going on back then but it seems like it was more a response to 9/11 than a specific political push that voters supported.

But thats not the start of airport security in the US. There was a string of hi-jackings in the 60s and 70s, and from what I understand the DB Cooper situation brought a lot of public pressure to do something about it

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gromm93@reddit

Yes, I was about to respond with the rather *insane* number of hijackings back when just anyone could bring their firearms on a plane.

I'd also have to admit that the fare price was quite a lot higher, and "rich people don't crime, right?" was a thought process. Probably the very thing that caused the predicament.

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Horror-River-3861@reddit

Oh my God LMAO get a life

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aftcg@reddit

no

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Horror-River-3861@reddit

Understandable, have a good day sir o7

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Brambleshire@reddit

Paper Newspapers actually in hotels and sold in airports.
Real charted visual approaches, none of this RNAV visual magenta line namby pamby bs.
Airlines that don't exist anymore ( R.I.P. )
80s -90s era concourses. I used to hate them, now I miss them.
being led to the plane through ops behind the counter
paper release ( I don't want EVERYTHING on my EFB ok EFBs are great but I like to be able to pick something up and read it without putting in my passcode and flipping through menus )

That's all I can think of in this moment that I actually experienced. Basically everything else nowadays is far better.

I consider the old school new school devide to be the mid 2010s with the EFB/ digital revolution and the pilot hiring Wave of the last decade. We also entered into a new safety era. So much has changed from the digital advances and we've experienced a huge generational shift. There's been many eras and of course the 2000s aren't old school compared to the 70s but for discussion in the 2020s I consider pre-EFBs to be the old school era.

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