There will soon be no reason to be a pilot

Commercial flyiing will never be without a pilot imo.
Passengers, while subconscious in nature, like to see a human with “skin in the game.”
 
Three of the funniest posts on PoA are right here in this thread. Holy crap, I choked on "why, was she ridden a lot?"

As for prestige, nah. 20-30 years ago you could feel good about being able to fly, something most people couldn't. Now, with google earth and drones most people couldn't care less about being able to see their house from the air.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
I'm sure the General drove just fine after that landing...

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I was in one of the Carolinas at a race. For crowd entertainment there was a General Lee that was going to do a jump. The car sped up, hit the ramp at around 80MPH, jumped several cars, then crashed into the pavement. The front end just buckled up into the engine compartment, the entire front of the car was bent upwards, 2 of the tires blew, the radiator was busted, glass broke, parts fell off and tumbled after the car....etc...

The crowd went silent. Then you could hear people saying, "Oh, that wasn't the real General Lee. The real General Lee would have kept on driving..." :rofl::rofl:

Not all landings were Tv perfect.....

th


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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.
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I wish that were true, but this has been more my experience:
asicer said:
As a matter of fact, I'd venture a guess that most of the people with whom I'm acquainted probably don't know I'm a pilot and the minority that do likely aren't very impressed.
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Most people say this when I tell them I'm a pilot...

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-but you can't like, fly into the real airports like real pilots and the airlines can, right?
-do you wear a parachute?
-isn't that very dangerous, those small Cessna's are always falling out of the sky
-my nephew has a drone
-I flew on a small plane once when we vacationed in the Caribbean
-do you have to tell the airports where you are flying?
-so you're rich?
-oh, so like, can you fly us to Hawaii?
-wow that's really cool, I wish I could fly a plane (just kidding, never heard that one)

**the only thing most people think is cool is when I tell them I can make it to Norcal in 2-2.5 hrs... or fly to Sedona for lunch and back, etc.

Plus, even if the sky falls and all commercial planes are flown by autonomous computers as pilots we can always go flying on our own... either in a rented plane or in one we own (those that are lucky enough) which is ultimately why I got my license, so *I* could fly a plane
 
Tantalum said:
-do you have to tell the airports where you are flying?
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LOL, I've gotten that one quite a few times, it's such a weird question. Like, do you have to tell the DOT where you're driving? But I can excuse ignorance; the weird part is that this would be the first thing that comes to mind when the topic comes up.

You left out the most common one that I seem to get, which is "is there heat in the plane?"
 
A guy I once worked with told me about a question his young nephew asked him....

"Gee unca Roy, how do airpanes get so small when in the air..??"
 
PS - most hobbies are like this. My brother gets the same way I get about flying when he talks about free diving and spear fishing. I also love skiing, but to people that don't ski it's not that exciting.. it's a thing they watch on the Olympics or did once and hated it. Any specialized hobby is going to feel the same. The difference is, up until around the 1970s/80s flying was a little more prestigious but I think that's also largely perpetuated by an illusion of how great Pan Am was (even though by all accounts it was a ****ty airline with horrible safety record) and the likes of James Bond, Catch Me If You Can, etc. jazz it up. Archer plays to that trope... which is why I love that show so much (but I'm about to go off on a rambling tangent.. so I'll stop here)

They even got the little vent right, the PTT, the strut fairing, etc.
upload_2018-5-10_12-49-29.png

but my favorite... note the full up elevator, step on mlg strut, pitot location, cabin vents on wing, etc. etc.
upload_2018-5-10_12-51-17.png
 
dmspilot said:
"is there heat in the plane?"
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I get the cabin comfort questions once we're already in the plane. The revelation that a 172 does not have AC, a fan, or really any type of climate controls other than some vents is usually a big surprise to people

Which I guess explains why now when I take people up flying for the first time in the Cirrus, they don't understand my excitement when I'm like "look, it has heat and AC just like in a car!"
 
There was not, and is not, any reason to be a pilot unless it's something you want to do.

I don't voluntarily bring up the fact that I'm a pilot, but a very common question is, "What do you do?" or "What did you do?"

But I know, if I answer truthfully, that the next question will be, "For what airline?" followed by, "Why did you decide to do that?"
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Not even the ones on TV - they wrecked something like 300 '69 Dodge Chargers and AMC Ambassadors...
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Which is why it is so darned hard to find one, and so expensive when one is found and when one is found it still needs to be checked to see if it was ever airborne or not.

The Charger that is, not to many people collected the AMC Ambassador....:lol::lol:

I remember one show where the Duke boys were chasing someone that was driving a '69 or '70 Chevy pickup. Except in some of the shots it was a '69 or '70 Ford pickup....:rofl:
 
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.
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asicer said:
I don't think it's that prestigious, esoteric or elite. As a matter of fact, I'd venture a guess that most of the people with whom I'm acquainted probably don't know I'm a pilot and the minority that do likely aren't very impressed.
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@EchoKilo, what @asicer is trying to say is:


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Q: How can you tell if you're in the same room as a pilot?
A: They will tell you.


Q: What's the difference between God and a pilot?
A: God doesn't think he's a pilot.
 
StevieTimes said:
Q: How can you tell if you're in the same room as a pilot?
A: They will tell you.


Q: What's the difference between God and a pilot?
A: God doesn't think he's a pilot.
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StevieTimes said:
Q: How do you know when your date with a pilot is halfway over?

A: They stop talking about themselves and start talking about their plane.



See that big four engined plane over there? That's a C-130... As I said, I fly a C-150!



(I'll stop now)
https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1nnlyd/joke_how_can_you_tell_if_youre_in_the_same_room/
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Do you really know that many pilots that think it’s that big of a deal, or are you just telling jokes?

I know the pros don’t really talk about it unless it’s related to work (asked by others).

If a PP is bragging during a social event... well that’s silly imo.
 
Kritchlow said:
If a PP is bragging during a social event... well that’s silly imo.
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True and I don’t talk about it very much at all but in reality it is no more silly than the guy bragging about his new truck, boat, motorcycle, or other new toy. Or the person talking about his trip to the mountains or beach or wherever they went.

If someone asks about my weekend or my week vacation, I’ll tell them that I went flying or to Sun-n-Fun if that’s what I did. I don’t brag but I don’t hide it either.
 
EchoKilo said:
I don't give two floating elephant dicks what your schmuck ass thinks
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Dude, lighten up
We's just some good ol' boys
Never meanin' no harm
Beats all you never saw
Been in trouble with the law
Since the day we was born
Staightenin' the curves
Flattenin' the hills
Someday the mountain might get us
But the law never will
Makin' our way
The only way we know how
That's just a little bit more
Than the law will allow
Makin' our way
The only way we know how
That's just a little bit more
Than the law will allow...
 
Kritchlow said:
Do you really know that many pilots that think it’s that big of a deal, or are you just telling jokes?

I know the pros don’t really talk about it unless it’s related to work (asked by others).

If a PP is bragging during a social event... well that’s silly imo.
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Yes, my responses in this thread have all been completely serious.

The link to the reddit jokes I included at the bottom of my thread? Just more signs of my disdain.
 
I will never ride in an aircraft unless a human pilot is at the controls. Regardless of how good the technology is.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Dude, lighten up
We's just some good ol' boys
Never meanin' no harm
Beats all you never saw
Been in trouble with the law
Since the day we was born
Staightenin' the curves
Flattenin' the hills
Someday the mountain might get us
But the law never will
Makin' our way
The only way we know how
That's just a little bit more
Than the law will allow
Makin' our way
The only way we know how
That's just a little bit more
Than the law will allow...
Click to expand...

My business partner, her aunt is Mirriam Johnson.
 
I'm glad they haven't figured out the flying car yet. Could you imagine someone flying one of them while on a cellphone? Sometimes we take our mechanical devices and our knowledge for granted!
 
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