Well it finally happened

ProfEngr

Member
Not to disparage Bart in any way, but I suspect some of his "brethren" may have an agenda in this regard. Feelings run strong on both sides of the fence. The posts I've seen on Twitter.........:eek:
 

Old Man

Active Member
They do, and it has been well noted at just about every stage of the ARC committee meetings and in every Part 333 Waiver application. Putting myself in their shoes I can understand their fears of having small flying objects that are hard to see being operated by untrained and uncaring people that could put the their lives at risk. There's also the specter of what semi or fully automated flight will do to their livelihoods. They put a lot of time, money, LOTS of money, and effort in achieving what they have and to see it disappear in favor of some video gamer that has virtually none of the skills they have has to be painful. But times change and people have to change with the times or get left behind. The smart commercial pilots should have started learning the drone game years ago, when it became evident the changes weren't going to stop. They would be positioned to be at the top of the hiring line now, be the instructors instead of the labor, and get to go home every night to boot. Currently it's ex-military snatching up all the open positions and enjoying a healthy pay raise.

They should have seen this coming as previous flight crew positions have been phased out of the cockpit. Passenger airliners used to require 3 and 4 crew members. Now it's just 2 and in large part both of them are along for the ride unless something goes wrong. Then we have a slow reduction in pay scales that started back in the late 80's-early 90's and continues even now. The carriers don't like their pilots it seems. Anyone that rides coach knows they hate their passengers. The American carriers anyway. The European and larger Oceania carriers treat them a lot better.
 

Having passenger planes remotely operated without a pilot on board will probably come true in the future. I personally hope I never see it. I like having the pilot up front who has a personal stake in the outcome of the flight. If he screws up he dies, that's a great way to motivate him into not screwing up. If its just some guy in a control room somewhere he isn't personally connected. If he screws up the worst thing that can happen is he gets fired and its possible he may not even get fired.
 

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