There will soon be no reason to be a pilot

GRG55 said:
As Tesla (and some others) are discovering it's a much simpler problem to build an "Autopilot" for an airplane than it is for an automobile. Fewer things to hit up there, among the many reasons.

And we already have highly autonomous planes. Commercial airline pilots have shifted towards becoming technology systems managers, sometimes at the expense of deductive reasoning and stick-and-rudder skills, as Air France 447 (and some other examples) so amply demonstrated.

But to paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of the death of pilots are greatly exaggerated.
Click to expand...
The number of things to miss is irrelevant. It's the one you hit that matters.
 
Hi everyone.
U... is incapable of doing any thing right. Unless another company, with some credibly, gets involved they will never make that work. They may kill some people in the process, assuming they can pay some critters in the right place, to allow them to do that.
 
James331 said:
6a00d83451b80969e200e55067bb678833-640wi.jpg





Why are you ashamed of being a pilot?? Seems odd.
Flying isn't really a private activity IMO, bit of a difference between what you do in the bedroom with your woman and flying a plane around.

I don't have any pilot stickers on my cars for the most part, but I'm proud to be a pilot, I enjoy it and people are interested and ask about it, god knows I didn't get into flying just to talk about it, I got into it to do it, but hey people are interested and it can have some side benefits too, my closing ratio for girls I've taken up is pretty good.

There's a difference between going out of your way to let people know you fly, and being proud, I don't go out of my way to tell someone, but if someone asks what I did last weekend I have zero issue saying I went flying.
Click to expand...
IMO it’s different for us as we make a living at it. Not sure about you, but often when I meet new people they ask what I do for a living. That often starts a conversation about aviation.

If I was a plumber, I likely wouldn’t mention to most people that I had a PPC.
 
EchoKilo said:
As I've stated before to people like you who are light speed to judge me and "read me my rights", you're free to have whetever opinions you wish about me and my motives. Just don't sit there and act like I should give a damn what they are. I WILL become a pilot for whatever ding dang dong motherflippin' reason I damn well please, and I don't give two floating elephant dicks what your schmuck ass thinks of them. Understand?
Click to expand...
I don't see anywhere that he was 'reading your rights' he's just opposing your idea with his own opinion, as most do on internet forums. As far as I can see, what you wrote in the above quote destroys any credibility for creating a constructive argument that you have presented us with in post #1.
 
James331 said:
Why are you ashamed of being a pilot??

There's a difference between going out of your way to let people know you fly, and being proud, I don't go out of my way to tell someone, but if someone asks what I did last weekend I have zero issue saying I went flying.
Click to expand...
I'm not ashamed either. But I'm the type of person that would let the other guy talk about themselves indefinitely. And thus, most of my acquaintances don't know I'm a pilot.
 
Zeldman said:
I don't tell people I am a pilot, I tell people that I sell woman's shoes at a small store in the mall with a guy named Al.

No one gets the reference.....
Click to expand...
I know Michael Moye. He's an awesome guy. Stepped away from the industry entirely after MwC and is a normal person, although much funnier than most.
 
Zeldman said:
I don't tell people I am a pilot, I tell people that I sell woman's shoes at a small store in the mall with a guy named Al.

No one gets the reference.....
Click to expand...
We used to tell the folks at the bar that we were in “high speed aluminum tubing.”
That always responded with “oh, nice.”
In other words they had no clue.

What do I say for the Airbus?? High speed composite tubing??

Note: this was at the bar. The last thing you want to tell a bar patron is that you’re flying their flight tomorrow.
 
Stickman said:
Considering that self driving cars keep killing people, I am doubtful that the public is really too excited about sitting in a self driving air machine.
Click to expand...
Yes. For those that understand the variability and capricious nature of weather, and the multitude of failure modes, some of which are mitigated by technology( i.e. auto feather for one, but many more), until my pilot has skin in the game (i.e. his own life being at risk also), don't count me flying with a only a robot or remote control any time soon.
 
Last edited:
Clip4 said:
Actually there is a company now developing a system Cirrus owners where a ground pilot/operator flys the plane. The advantage is the owner does not need to take a pilot saving weight for other passengers or pay a pilot costs associated with an overnight stay. The owner would be trained to pull the chute if it goes to crap.
Click to expand...
Finals week, and I'm grading the final exams and last programming assignment (second semester for CS majors). Trust me, you do not want most of these students designing or writing the software for remote piloting.
 
You guys are doing it all wrong.

You are supposed to wear an aviator watch and when someone mentions it, you tell them it’s a pilot’s watch and that yes, you are a pilot.

You should always wear aviator sunglasses and ... well same thing.

And if you aren’t wearing a leather flight jacket with at least 5 aviation patches, WTF is wrong with you?

Also always carry the latest aviation magazine of choice or a book by Bach, Gann, etc. with an obvious aviation title. Great conversation starters that always lead to “yes, I am a pilot”.

And finally, always end any conversation with “gotta go, I’m flying tomorrow” or “something a bit more subtle that still gets the point across such as “gotta run now, I need to go preflight my plane”.

Let your awesomeness out!
 
murphey said:
Finals week, and I'm grading the final exams and last programming assignment (second semester for CS majors). Trust me, you do not want most of these students designing or writing the software for remote piloting.
Click to expand...

now that there is funny....
 
Stickman said:
Considering that self driving cars keep killing people, I am doubtful that the public is really too excited about sitting in a self driving air machine.
Click to expand...

"Keep killing people"??? There has been... 1 death from a fully autonomous car, right?
 
I don't tell people I'm a controller because they will ask how stressful it really is. I get tired of telling them it isn't 8 hours of constant stress but that its 10 or 15 minutes at a time a few times a day.
I don't tell people I'm a pilot because they will tell me the "you'll shoot your eye out" version of "those things always crash" and I really don't feel the need to convince them otherwise.
I do however have this license plate on the front of my truck:

817cVoLOWcL._SX463_.jpg



floating elephant dicks?

Is that the "in" thing to say now?
 
MtnMarcus said:
now that there is funny....
Click to expand...
No, it's really scary! I've got one student who's on his 4th time thru the class, and hasn't realized that perhaps another major would be more appropriate. Last email from him (about 10 min ago) he's now swearing at me, and demanding I help him pass the class because afterall it's his 4th time thru.

What I really want to reply, and what I ended up replying are very, very different.

His vocabulary of obscenities is very limited.
 
Zeldman said:
I don't tell people I am a pilot, I tell people that I sell woman's shoes at a small store in the mall with a guy named Al.

No one gets the reference.....
Click to expand...
Dad used to say if you can sell women's shoes, you can sell anything!
 
Wow, this settled down. When I read it this morning, I figured it was going to get locked, or someoned get the ban hammer...
 
asicer said:
I'm not ashamed either. But I'm the type of person that would let the other guy talk about themselves indefinitely. And thus, most of my acquaintances don't know I'm a pilot.
Click to expand...

Seems like a one sided conversation?

Ether way to each their own
 
bnt83 said:
autonomous air taxi? And people already ***** out airport noise, or the helicopters on air tours, or the helicopters landing at medical facilities, or the... Or the noise from the local shooting range...
Click to expand...
"Ultimately, company officials say these skyports will be equipped to handle 200 takeoffs and landings an hour, or one every 24 seconds."

There's people that spend all day trying to shut down the local drome because occasionally a C150 flies over their house.
 
paflyer said:
"Ultimately, company officials say these skyports will be equipped to handle 200 takeoffs and landings an hour, or one every 24 seconds."

There's people that spend all day trying to shut down the local drome because occasionally a C150 flies over their house.
Click to expand...

These were also the same people who said we'd be in flying cars by like 1980.
 
Zeldman said:
I don't tell people I am a pilot, I tell people that I sell woman's shoes at a small store in the mall with a guy named Al.

No one gets the reference.....
Click to expand...
Phreakin' philistines.
 
murphey said:
No, it's really scary! I've got one student who's on his 4th time thru the class, and hasn't realized that perhaps another major would be more appropriate. Last email from him (about 10 min ago) he's now swearing at me, and demanding I help him pass the class because afterall it's his 4th time thru.

What I really want to reply, and what I ended up replying are very, very different.

His vocabulary of obscenities is very limited.
Click to expand...
"Might as well join the &$^**@ Peace Corps."
 
Timbeck2 said:
floating elephant dicks?

Is that the "in" thing to say now?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I’m gonna need some kind of scientific proof that they actually float, and wasn’t just coincidental to the elephant’s position in the wading pool.
 
EchoKilo said:
Being a pilot carries with it a level of prestige and accomplishment. Saying "I'm a pilot" is a fairly prestigious thing which most people regard as esoteric and relatively impressive. It's sort of an elite thing you have to earn your way into. But soon that will all change. Daily flying will become routine and unamusing to people, pilots will become useless, and aviation as we know it will die. There will be no reason to be a pilot anymore. People will just be able to push a button on their cellphone and take to the sky instantly. No big deal.
Click to expand...

OK, you were at a party and used the pilot prestige line huh, and the girl told you to **** off and no way she was going home with you.....it happens.

Listen, those of us that fly or used to fly for a living are mainly there for a paycheck. Most enjoy flying whatever it is they fly, but very few are Travolta types and don't try to impress people because they're a pilot or even advertise they're a pilot.
 
I remember reading as a kid in the 80s that by 2000 all aircraft would be unmanned and there would be no more need for pilots. Glad they were wrong.
 
James331 said:
Seems like a one sided conversation?

Ether way to each their own
Click to expand...
Yup. If someone can't stop talking about themselves it's usually because they enjoy talking about themselves and are uninterested in me. I just nod my head with an empty smile on my face, maybe ask some detail about what they just mentioned and in my head try to arrange my schedule, solve a logic problem I've been thinking about or calculate some math problem I've been working on.

They're happy, I'm happy and the world becomes a better place.
 
EchoKilo said:
Pretty soon in our future, being a pilot will mean nothing. Planes will become autonomous, and Uber even has plans to introduce autonomous air taxis very soon https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/05/08/uber-flying-car-prototype.html.

Being a pilot carries with it a level of prestige and accomplishment. Saying "I'm a pilot" is a fairly prestigious thing which most people regard as esoteric and relatively impressive. It's sort of an elite thing you have to earn your way into. But soon that will all change. Daily flying will become routine and unamusing to people, pilots will become useless, and aviation as we know it will die. There will be no reason to be a pilot anymore. People will just be able to push a button on their cellphone and take to the sky instantly. No big deal.
Click to expand...
It'll mean something to me, and so efff the rest of humanity, in this regard, anyway. 90% of my flying is for fun (for me), so an autonomous vehicle would be useless to me - 90% of the time. Just like caching a fish, versus buying a fish. If all you are interested in is eating, then yeah, buy the effing fish. If you like the water, being in a boat, or angling, comuning with the great outdoors, then the grocery store doesn't cut it.
 
Timbeck2 said:
I don't tell people I'm a controller because they will ask how stressful it really is. I get tired of telling them it isn't 8 hours of constant stress but that its 10 or 15 minutes at a time a few times a day.
I don't tell people I'm a pilot because they will tell me the "you'll shoot your eye out" version of "those things always crash" and I really don't feel the need to convince them otherwise.
I do however have this license plate on the front of my truck:

817cVoLOWcL._SX463_.jpg



floating elephant dicks?

Is that the "in" thing to say now?
Click to expand...

Just show them this video. Sums up a controllers job very well.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1509773299132822
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top