Steve Kelley for April 11, 2021

But…

…I prefer to give my money to companies that run thier businesses in ways that I approve of and want to support. Like businesses that make things like equality and ecology a priority.

Remember folks: It’s not the falling out of the sky that matters but the sudden stop that does!!

:-(

Congratulations, Mr. Kelley. with this you are batting .250 this week. Good by any major league and congressional standard.

“So just give me that good ole’ ‘Pence-white’ male pilot,” says the passenger.

Don’t forget the Chuck Yeager drawl.

Some years ago I flew to London via British Airways on a flight with both the Captain and First Officer being female. The Brits are not so male dominated in their thinking. The have had a couple of female Prime Ministers. On balance we Americans are really quite ignorant when it comes to the concept of equality. And I say this as a 72 year old white male. We need to do a lot better…

why not content of character and COMPETENCE……ignore ’checking boxes"

i worry about gravity when i’m walking down the street…

Steve, you’ve been very clear that anything “Science” related only applies when it serves you. The rest of the time you turn to “alternative facts”. I’m completely willing to say you would happily draw a ‘toon about a “gud krizzchen” being able to fly a plane better than a United Airlines pilot by just yelling "Geezus take th’ weeel!"

I flew for an international airline for 32 years. During that time, I was a check pilot and instructor in both the aircraft and in the simulator for Airbus A320, Boeing B-767, and B-747 aircraft. After my retirement, compulsory at age 60, I became a contract instructor and government delegated check pilot in Boeing B-767 and B-787 simulators. At the age of 70, enough was enough, and with a push from Covid-19, I decided to fully retire.

Over my career, just over 20,000 flight hours and god knows how many 4 hour simulator training and checking sessions, I can assure you that race and gender play ABSOLUTELY NO ROLE in pilot competency.

Fortunately people of color seldom are blond so it should be okay.

The implication being that people of color aren’t as capable dealing with gravity?

You know how to end racism? Quit defining everything and everyone in terms of their race, gender or other meaningless trait over which they have no control.

The days of allowing only white males to be airline pilots are over. Get over it.

Snarky cartoon, A.H. (Y’all can figure what the initials are for in terms of the cartoonist.)

Just pick the best person for the job. Period.

Gravity is just a theory and shouldn’t be taught as fact in government schools.

Racist much Karen?

Something that most people don’t comprehend is that when you are hiring for a position, there are typically multiple people who qualify. It isn’t a binary situation of “Perfect for job” vs “will kill everyone due to incompetence”.

There have been many times where I’ve been hiring and it is a dilemma to decide between two or three candidates. “This person is good in this aspect, but that person is better in another aspect… hmm both would be good at the job, but which one do we choose?”

Historically, the situation has been “out of all of the qualified candidates, which one looks the most like me”… sure this might not have been a conscious and deliberate thought, but it happened, and it happened a lot. The challenge now is trying to get past that bias.

And this has been proven to be true. The most famous study showed how having a “blind audition” for a symphony increased a female candidate’s chances of being chosen by 50%. Even though the adjudicators were absolutely certain they weren’t being biased in their choices before. Another study had people remove their names from resumes, and people with foreign sounding names suddenly had an increase in being selected for an interview.

Bias exists. Saying “oh, lets just pick the best person” is a BS lie, because it is NOT that simple.

And of course Kelley knows that all the best pilots are male, white, and Republican.

Whenever somebody says gender and race don’t matter to them…it often does

That’s what the GQPers, aka as conservatives, are fighting for… patriarchy, hierarchy, strict father family, dominator culture (as opposed to partnership culture).

I prefer my pilot to not be drunk.

That said, I don’t want a pilot that got in just because he was white and male.

My Bro in Law, who was a pilot for his entire career (Air Force first, then American Airlines) sent me a link to the announcement titled “United announces it will no longer hire only the best pilots”.

The truth is, of course, that no airline can hire “only the best”. They need hundreds of pilots. On average, those pilots are going to be… average. And that has to be okay because they have to cope with that reality using procedures and practices that allow average pilots to do a safe and effective job. And, of course, using enforcement of those procedures. So imagine for a moment that you’re in the market for a couple dozen new pilots. They’re going  to be average, plus or minus perhaps 10%. In that 20% band around average there are a LOT more people than you need to hire. If you choose to hire only from one of redheads, lefties, women, minorities, folks with straight hair — or curly — you’ll find plenty. Even if you require they meet two of the unimportant specs. (The important ones are already there because: Average. They will all speak English with good facility, they will all be able to actually fly the plane, learn the procedures, etc.)

Amen

And we can’t have both ability and diversity? Gender equality means just that, Mr Kelley, no matter your gender, it’s your ability. Why should not airline staff reflect the population in general? Nobody is talking about firing male pilots to make way for females. Simply reflecting the diversity in the nation.

People naturally gravitate towards the people that are like themselves. Diversity needs to be encouraged to get people to move away from this inclination.

It’s so typical of Kelley to try to make something like this out to be something pointless and stupid.

Kelley, you moron, the idea behind adding diversity to flight crews has nothing to do with customer satisfaction. It’s intended to create sorely needed equal employment opportunities for women and minorities.

Right on, right on…it’s all about gravity.

The leftist demand equality as the most important goal they have. I’m sure if Candice Owens was running for President against Old joe in 2024, the left would support her 100%!

I really do not carte who is in the cockpit as long as they are the most qualified. How about airline hire by qualifications instead of race, gender, or other nonessential parameters.

I do too!