What exactly does the pilot of a modern airliner do?

[GRUNHERZ]

They get paid an incredibly large amount of money, always seem to be whining for more and threating strikes - but what exactly do they do in the cockpit in terms of flying the plane?

Any airliner pileits in here?

[whgates3]

next time you're on a plane, you should ask one.
you probably couldn't name a good paying job i couldn't trivialize too

[bounder]

er, it's simple. They fly the plane from take off to landing. Without them it would never get off the ground.

I would've thought you'd known that.

If you're referring to the large amount of technological help they get in flying these behemoths round the skies, it is all there to improve passenger safety and comfort, not to make their lives easier.

They get paid large amounts of money because the buck stops with them and they are not allowed to make mistakes.

I don't get paid as much, because if I make a mistake at work, the worst thing that can happen is someone will read the help file I am writing and say "hey that's not right".

If they screw up, hundreds can die.

[GRUNHERZ]

I have talked with a few airline pilots and I really got the impression that they dont do much. They pretty much say except for a little work during take off and landing, one or both of which can be automatic IIRC, they don't do  a lot.

[wulfie]

I know several airline pilots fairly well, and a couple of airline pilots very well.

Airline pilots get paid lots and lots of $$$ - to make the perfect call in about 1.5 seconds - about once every 10 years maybe. And in doing so they save 200-400 lives.

Like the time when the 3 guys up front landed an airliner that had no controls responding except the throttles...and made an approach and landed using 'differential thrust' - one of the most amazing stories I've ever heard involving aviation.

Also, landing is in no way 'automatic'. There are some very 'tricky' approaches in the world of commercial aviation. Think of it as taking a fully loaded passenger bus thru an icy S turn at high speed.

I have zero problems with airline pilots making tons of $$$. Pay the pencil pushers 50% of what they make and keep the damn pilots happy.

Mike/wulfie

[beet1e]

I have known quite a few airline pilots, or ones that have retired. One is a retired DC10 Captain (BA/BCal) who said he was glad to be retired. When I asked him why, I thought it was because he didn't like the company. That was not the reason. As he put it, the job of flying the plane was "...absolutely mind-numbingly diddlying boring. We used to have to twiddle a few knobs, but we don't do that any more - the knobs twiddle themselves". This gentleman used to have a race with his co-pilot to see how quickly each of them could finish the Telegraph crossword. Flying to/from the US, they would have a quick check round as they crossed every tenth meridian, and then carry on with the crossword. After solving 1 across, the captain told me he would think "nearly there - only another 9½ hours to go..."

[AKDejaVu]

In the running for top 10 stupidest posts ever.

AKDejaVu

[miko2d]

GRUNHERZ: They get paid an incredibly large amount of money, always seem to be whining for more and threating strikes - but what exactly do they do in the cockpit in terms of flying the plane?

 That would depend if you are referring to free market or monopolistic labor. We have both kinds practiced by different companies.

 In a free market you have a very dull job that requires pretty high qualifications - just in case something goes wrong. Business pays just enough wages to attract people with such qualifications - which depends on the number of such people out there and other choices available to them.

 In a (labor) monopoly case unions prevent qualified people willing to take the job for lower wages from entering the market. Then the same unions extort company to pay them whatever they can get - using threat of near-term ruin rather than long-term decline and bancrupcy. Since many companies are public rather than private, the CEOs have time horizon of a few quarters rather than a lifetime a private owner would - so they are not interested in saving a company in the long term by opposing unions.
 The actual justifications for getting more money are irrelevant since they are extorted anyway, but ritual terms like "responcibilities", "hard-working", "deserving", "starving" etc. are thrown around.

 miko

[GRUNHERZ]

Continue with the responses, all except Deja Vu's are exactly what I was looking for.  Basically it seems they are there for emergencies or special situations?

[Toad]

Originally posted by GRUNHERZ
except for a little work during take off and landing, one or both of which can be automatic IIRC, they don't do  a lot.

You do not recall correctly.

Takeoffs are not "automatic"; in fact, FAA certification does not allow the autopilot to be engaged below a certain varying altitude dependant upon aircraft (autopilot) type.

Landings, OTOH, can be automatic and in some cases in some aircraft (CAT III weather) they must be made automatically..... unless of course the equipment isn't working.

Cute little thread though. Do continue.

I think all we do are eat first class meals and pinch the air hostesses. But we are underpaid for doing that.

[GRUNHERZ]

Whenever there is some pilots strike I see the $150,000 yearly salaries and the demands for more and more. Then I hear pilots tell me how bored they are and that they dont much of anything so I get curious. I mean how many people who earn in the top 10-15% or more of US income groups go on strike? So what are the difficulties of these jobs? Do they fly 7 days a week and are never home? Again I did not get that impression from them? Are they overworked and the planes are hard to fly? Again I did not get the impression.. So whats the big deal if people getting paid $100,000, $150,000 etc are complaining or striking often?  Certainly anybody who is able to get beyond their childish pilots are gods fantasies can see here a genuine honest question that can be adresses rather straightforwardly.

[miko2d]

The reason is simple. Airline companies are most suceptible to extortion of all other businesses.

 Practically all their capital - which is mostly planes - is mortgaged. If you stop flying due to a strike, you save on fuel, operating expences, even salaries - but you still have to pay - what, $500,000 a year per plane - to the bank. Plus, the customers have a choice of switching to competitors easily but getting them back requires time - if only because most tickets are bought weeks in advance.

 So a strike/lockout a few weeks long would ruin an airline like no other business.

 miko

[Toad]

Well, Grun it's like this old chum.

I could detail a lot of stuff that I felt would answer your question directly and justify my salary. It would take pages of electronic ink and quite a bit of time.

However, you already have you mind totally made up and locked tight. (Sort of a common situation when you post, IMO.) So there's not a single thing I could write that would change your opinion one bit.

Bottom line is why bother?

Much better to feed that green monster and encourage you in your stereotyping.

Did I ever tell you about the time we all got first class meals going over to Nice and the air hostesses were very friendly? And then we spent 48 hours laying over at an great hotel right on the beach, which is of course topless, with native women and our own air hostesses? We went out to dinner at a great seafood place and drank gallons of French wine and got the air hostesses tipsy. Then we flew back and had first class meals going that way too. And they paid all three of us $255,000 apiece just for that ONE trip. Of course, that's the only trip we had to fly that year.

That's how it is...... for real pal.

[GRUNHERZ]

But why didn't you go on strike?

[Toad]

We did!