Captain Steve ranting again about being forced to retire
Posted by UA888@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 89 comments
In his latest video, about the Newark 767 incident, Captain Steve is ranting again that incidents like this could be prevented by keeping the most experienced pilots and forcing them to retire at the age of 65.
"Thousands of pilots were forced to retire. All this experience out of the window"
Here is the video https://youtu.be/IZE88BsKwqA?si=hUimeq8AyCIocDLh
His ranting starts at 14:20
Am I the only one who is annoyed by him?
In my humble opinion, he is so arrogant and the only reason why he is lobbying so much for the pilot retirement age to be raised to 67 is because he misses that hefty paycheck that came with his seniority.
felinefluffycloud@reddit
Youtube is shaping the behavior of any creator. I don't blame him entirely.
Puppy_1963@reddit
Bit wild thinking that if more senior pilots hang about it would fix 'all the things'
While I agree experience is a good thing and shouldn't be ignored, that experience should be getting passed down the line, always.
I am going to be somewhat controversial and say sometimes 'experience' actually equates to complacency.
One of the most significant cases I recall resulted in the worst loss of life in a single aviation accident at Tenerife back in the late 70's
adoggman@reddit
Juan Browne is the only aviation YouTuber I still watch. Even Mentour Pilot has gone down the algorithm chasing topics and clickbait thumbnails/titles route recently.
DecentlySizedPotato@reddit
Mentour got bought out a while ago and has to chase the algo now, sadly.
UA888@reddit (OP)
I had no idea he was bought out. I didn’t even know that YT private equity thing existed.
DecentlySizedPotato@reddit
It's very common with large channels. You will notice the channel starts releasing more videos, often with higher production values, but will gradually get more boring and "safer" as they chase the algorithm. They also sometimes introduce new hosts so they don't depend on one person to be the face of the channel in case they want to leave.
trollied@reddit
Thgeir website is awful, but it's these people https://www.electrify.video/our-brands
SuperFriendlyAv8or@reddit
Damn and Veritaseum too, that's really disappointing to learn. I used to watch those videos alongside Vsauce years ago...
CaptainGoose@reddit
Heh, I wondered why Veritaseum seemed to have changed a bit.
Adjutant_Reflex_@reddit
They have a recent video on the buyout. It was basically either get bought or he was too burnt out to continue the channel.
SuperFriendlyAv8or@reddit
I mean I get it, he's been running the channel for like 15 years and I'm sure it takes a LOT of work so I don't blame him for wanting to get some money for his efforts. But man I wish these investors would try to keep the channels the same in spirit instead of wringing every last click out of them. Anyway I digress...
Honestade@reddit
That's wild, no wonder his content has changed so much
UA888@reddit (OP)
I hate these types of websites. Reminds me of Zara. Useless minimalism.
carrickshairline@reddit
Cockpit Casual is an amazing channel. Ferry pilots flying all sorts of types and being honest about their experiences. Steve Giordano is a great guy.
Equivalent_Yogurt_58@reddit
Juan Browne and Pilot Debrief ar my go to's.
Left_Chemistry_9739@reddit
I quit Pilot Debrief when they got sponsored by an ambulance chasing plaintiff's law firm. These are the same folks who have been destroying general aviation.
Shanky912@reddit
I used to watch pilot debrief like crazy but eventually I just found his titles and thumbnails SO distasteful I just won’t watch him anymore
obalovatyk@reddit
He used the word 'shocking' every other sentence. I had to stop watching him.
4litersofbaggedmilk@reddit
It’s always the intros and how this is the worst and etc. I just kinda stopped for the exact same reason
obalovatyk@reddit
I wanted to like him because he does a lot of the lesser known general aviation accidents.
SpatulaWholesale@reddit
"Here's what you really need to know about"... followed by something uninteresting.
"What happened next will shock you"... followed by something not shocking.
Overall, though, I find Pilot Debrief very watchable and see these as more fun catchphrases at this point. He's really into the swiss cheese and showing how the holes line up, and he presents the story with some good history and context without being over dramatic.
wdatkinson@reddit
Sounds like a drinking game?
SpatulaWholesale@reddit
Mine too, although Mover and Gonky (and C.W.Lemoine's own channel) bring good insights without the clickbait.
And of course 747 Gear for the snacks.
profpendog@reddit
Pilot debrief is more like pilot unbrief IMHO. 5' of content repeated over 20'...
AdriftSpaceman@reddit
Mentour is owned by private equity, that's why his click chasing habits have gotten way worse.
TruePace3@reddit
What about Greendot aviation
Trallalerotralalala@reddit
Greendot my goat. Even wyngx is really good imo
TruePace3@reddit
Greendot is straightforward
Wyngx is a good story teller (not that it's bad)
AdriftSpaceman@reddit
I don't know this one.
ThisIsMyBigAccount@reddit
Give Cockpit Casual a shot.
Blue_Etalon@reddit
Juan is the best, Hoover on Pilot Debrief and for comic relief, Gonky and Mover. added to that list.
I can't really blame YouTubers with large followings doing whatever they can to squeeze clicks and dollars out of the sky. Captain Steeeve is annoying as heck and the absolute worst is Dan Gryder and Probably Cause.
ecco311@reddit
I still watch Mentour, but not as religiously as 2 years ago for example. It's a shame, but there has definitely been a big shift in his content since he started doing YouTube full-time.
bellsie24@reddit
You're so right. That private equity money comes with consequences......
wdatkinson@reddit
Your soul......
ecco311@reddit
He deserves all the success. He's a great guy and his content has been a staple for many years. And he'll likely have the numbers on how his content reaches greater economic success.
But yeah... All of this certainly didn't change it for the better for me.
This change can be seen more harshly in the Mentour Now channel I think. A lot of the content there just doesn't feel so natural for him anymore. It's stuff that needs to be pushed out ASAP because it'll generate views in a certain timeframe.
N205FR@reddit
Mentour is like the Brave Wilderness channel, horrible thumbnails and titles, great content. If he titled everything as mundane as Juan Browne’s boring titles the channel would be perfect
Straezin@reddit
Juan Browne is the goat.
I still watch a lot of Mentour Pilot videos, but I avoid his current events/whatever channel “Mentour Now” because it does feel way to clickbaity
Thequiet01@reddit
His ones about past accidents are still quite good.
BrixtonBiker@reddit
Many of those are researched and (co/)written by u/admiralcloudberg. If you've not come across their writing before, it's worth checking out... https://www.reddit.com/r/AdmiralCloudberg
SpatulaWholesale@reddit
Mentour Pilot used to be so much better.
LYuen@reddit
His podcast is still good
Toastern@reddit
I think the content of Mentour’s videos is as good as ever, it’s just the thumbnails that are made for clicks (annoying but understandable, IMO).
UA888@reddit (OP)
Yes, he is great.
JoopWrongla@reddit
I love posts like this because I can see how miserable people make themselves over a content creator. Don’t like his stuff? Why are you even watching it.
You say you don’t watch then complain about his most recent video at 14 minutes in. He makes valid points, 65 is not an age to cut off directly, it should get harder for pilots at that age to keep flying but it should not necessarily be 65 as I know many pilots that age don’t agree.
You also shove some sort of “he misses his senoiority salary” oh eat shit, he probably just misses flying. Some people love what they do, and obviously there is not a single real pilot in these comments.
Miserable people on Reddit everywhere.
ThrowAwaAlpaca@reddit
In Europe we protest when they make us retire later.
Also his argument is just dumb, it doesn't make a difference if you leave at 65 or 67.
UA888@reddit (OP)
Exactly, plus junior FOs pretty much always fly with senior captains.
Ok_Depth9164@reddit
I have seen near-65 year old pilots do the dumbest shit because their brain is in cognitive decline. Recency of experience, overall health, and having had good rest are by far more important.
on3day@reddit
They also have trouble adapting to new ways of thinking and can be extremely hard to change their views on things.
RevolutionaryBug3479@reddit
Yeah, typical boomer
Dangerous_Mud4749@reddit
I don't watch Captain Steve. Mentour Pilot aims at the same market, but is much more accurate, well-researched, and doesn't have such a dumbed-down "infotainment" style.
But as to retirement age... many very senior pilots believe that experience is the main thing to stay safe. That is true only where the training is weak & ineffective. It's perfectly possible to train an 18 year old pilot to fly at Mach 2 where people are shooting at them, and for that pilot to be highly successful. But, the training (and selection process before that) is extremely expensive.
Training will fix just about any problem that the US aviation market is experiencing. Even the accident that started the whole 1500 hour minimum experience rule, the Q400 crash (Colgan flight 3407) would have been 100% prevented by better training, both for the individual pilots, and in the CRM field for them acting as a crew.
You don't need decades of experience. You need fully funded pilot training.
saxmanB737@reddit
I’ve lost all respect for the guy. I didn’t watch him much to begin with but I came across his video when the Republic pilots called the wrong frequency, JFK instead of LGA. He said their certificates should be revoked for the that. Not just suspended. Revoked. The pilots didn’t even have a violation. They simply switched and did a go around; the correct thing to do. Pull their certs! I left scathing comment, but it’s buried in the thousands of others.
doctorfortoys@reddit
Obviously plenty of people enjoy his content and he is trying to help people get over their fear of flying. If you don’t enjoy his videos and opinions, why not just watch something else? Honestly all the hate sounds like ageism to me.
HJSDGCE@reddit
I don't understand why you'd even want to continue working after 65. At 65 as a pilot, you'd probably have a loaded bank account. At this point, you should be chasing your passions.
Apprehensive_Cost937@reddit
Some people just want to work until they die, even if it means they'll have 300 people sat behind them in an airplane, when they do.
Acceptable-Land7827@reddit
I wonder who's even watching this guy. He comes off as a second hand car salesman. Surr, he's an actual pilot and sure, occasionally he has something useful to share.
But his personality is offputing.
However view count on his videos show that hundreds of thousands of people interested in aviation likes his style.
Go figure.
Ok_Stick_3070@reddit
What is his pension? I need to know that to understand is there is an economic incentive for him to continue flying
Sasquatch-d@reddit
US based airline pilots don’t have pensions
SpatulaWholesale@reddit
I find him very irritating. I watch a lot of youtuber pilots, and I unsubscribed from Captain Steve pretty quickly.
Yes, I'm sure 65 year old pilots have experience, but so do 60 year old pilots. So do 50 year old pilots. So do 40 year old pilots.
Age brings experience, but even then there's a bell curve of competence within an achieved grade, and I'm sure all pilots know other pilots they'd rather not fly with, while not having any specific thing to 'rat them out' for...
Who knows what happened with the 767 incident. So far it's clear they were below glide slope, but we don't know the 'why' yet. There were two pilots up front, both of whom have to be interviewed. If they both saw red over red, and just shrugged then they have some explaining to do. Was it that simple, or was there more to it? Was it fatigue? Was it a downdraft? Was it engine performance? Maybe they just suck... I'll wait for the NTSB Final Report.
Captain Steve, though...? Irritating AF.
737900ER@reddit
Isn't EWR 756 fairly senior?
Sasquatch-d@reddit
Yes. And especially those flying the 764.
74_Jeep_Cherokee@reddit
Probably on the top end but I could have held in the first vacancy after new hire so 1 month on property 2025
teh_hasay@reddit
Perhaps even more importantly, if the 65 year old captains made way for the younger pilots, maybe we’d have experienced pilots who didn’t need the rules changed to keep their medical.
philocity@reddit
Exactly. A pilot with 40 years experience is not twice as good a pilot as one with 20 years experience.
UA888@reddit (OP)
100%
He annoyed the heck out of me when Emirates SkyCargo Flight 9788 happened and he was so cocky to bet his video editor's salary that the reason for the crash was porpoised landing. Which turned out to not be the case as the issue was with reversed and #4 engine spooling up.
I prefer Mentour Pilot and Blancolirio because they are always unbiased in their reviews and wait for the actual investigation reports.
p1dfw@reddit
Just be glad you never had to fly with him.
DCmetrosexual1@reddit
I used to like Captain Steve… then I learned about aviation.
Sasquatch-d@reddit
What a wanker.
I can tell you at United the most senior pilots are already the ones flying the 767-400.
Available_Dingo6162@reddit
Steve the kind of guy who has not been near a flight deck in a long time, but insists on putting on a pilot uniform, complete with lanyard, even when doing videos from his beach house. So goofy.
Basic_Incident4621@reddit
I’m a real sap for aviation news and I have tried and tried to watch Captain Steve, but he is difficult to watch. Most of his 20-minute videos really need about 6 minutes of air time but he really stretches them out.
DisjointedHuntsville@reddit
Don't hate. Rage bait 🤣
Comment there saying "AI should replace senior pilots" and log off.
VermicelliMoney5421@reddit
He tried to be Mr Rogers but comes across as Don Knotts.
RobustManifesto@reddit
Omg Don Knotts was exactly what I thought when one of his videos came up on me feed. Only one I ever watched
spacecadet2399@reddit
You're so close to figuring it out...
UA888@reddit (OP)
Just reading the tea leaves 🍃
happierinverted@reddit
All professional airline pilots should chip in to pay this guy to get off YouTube.
And pretty much every pilot should also chip in a dollar each for Juan Browne to continue to make content. An experienced pilot talking to pilots.
UA888@reddit (OP)
Seems fair 🤣
Due-Inspector3084@reddit
Captain Steve was the one who had the worst takes on the Air India 787 incident. Published a video hours after the crash just to spread nonsense for clicks. And then he did it again and again until it turned out he was all wrong.
johnny_briggs@reddit
He wears a lanyard and a pressed shirt so I trust him 100%
/s
Murpet@reddit
Never was a fan but everything he posted re that was the final straw to move from being aware of him to genuinely disliking him.
Taskforce58@reddit
Not counting a bunch of plane spotting or history channels, the only aviation channels I care about are Juan Browne and VAS aviation.
Andyrew96@reddit
Captain Steve is clickbate nonsense. He clearly has a lot of aviation experience but then seems to completely forget that and guess/assume in every video to the point where a couple of days later he is usually proven wrong. Don’t waste your time with him.
gappletwit@reddit
Hardly a rant.
velosnow@reddit
Simple don’t watch turds like this.
CollegeStation17155@reddit
Bingo. Never watched him, never will… he doesn’t deserve the clicks.
Thequiet01@reddit
I tried once around the Air India crash. Didn’t even make it through a whole video.
Ok_Library_1031@reddit
Well I don't watch him to begin with, because I found him incredibly annoying to begin with...and as a pilot he should've had the decency to NOT do daily videos on crashes that have just occurred. But anyway, he's still not as bad as Patrick Smith, plus that's my story with 99% of aviation youtubers, including Mentour Pilot and Chloe.
Whether someone is fit at what age, really varies depending on the person. I don't think it's right to put a blanket age limit on it, or that age limit would have to be much lower. The co-pilot in the Amazon Prime 767 crash, for instance, had clearly become unfit to fly either mentally or physically at an age much lower and a lot like you & I non-pilots.
ThePurpleHyacinth@reddit
I won't click on the video because I don't want to give him more views. My neighbor was recently hit by a car on his bicycle. The driver was an elderly man who claimed he didn't see him in time to react. If being elderly causes one's reaction time to slow down and causes them to be less aware, I question whether it's safe for them to drive a car, much less fly an airplane with 200 passengers.
Lou_Skunnt69@reddit
Boomers gonna Boomer. Rules don’t apply to them.
Maleficent_Sir_5225@reddit
Boomers are all over 65 now. It's Gen X you need to start complaining about.