Professional Pilots...Are they really pro's?

The "normal" citizen who is not equipped with the basic knowledge of the aviation community, is typically unaware of who is actually flying their plane. Now, you're probably thinking, "people are not going to be able to meet every captain that flies their plane," but that's not what I'm referring to. What I mean is, they don't know the amount of training that goes into becoming a pilot and, nowadays, the minimum requirements that must be met by pilots just to receive a regional pilot position. Prior to the Colgan accident, pilot picked up regional airline positions and called themselves "professionals" with cumulative flight hours as low as 400 hours, but were they really professionals? I will touch of this later in my discussion.

People often say to me, "Barabe, what is your ultimate goal in aviation?" Well, I plan to make a career flying in the Navy. If you didn't already know, flight jobs in the Navy don't last forever, eventually I will be placed in a complete administrative position and no longer have the opportunity to fly. For the sake of time, I am only going to discuss, what I would like to have as my last flight job in the United States Navy. Also, I do not think it is necessary for me to elaborate on description of my "company" (Mrs. Wall I hope you understand).

Regarding my flight career, I would like to end up in an F/A-18 Super Hornet squadron. At this point in my career (if all goes well), I presume I will be the Commanding Officer (CO) of the squadron. As CO, I would fly a little, but but a lot of paperwork needs to be done. In this position, I would be responsible for implementing safe operating procedures and ensuring all Naval Air Training and Operating Procedures Standardization (NATOPS) and FAA regulations are being met. This is all in addition to having a flight job as well. On days I am required to fly I will need to brief all aircrew involved with the mission and flight and execute the flight, which may be located in a hostile environment.

A couple safety concerns I foresee arising when I reach this point in my career are previous conditions the relieved CO left me with and the attitude "mission over safety." As an incoming CO, I have no clue what type of working environment the previous CO left the squadron in. Since every person has their own way of running things, I may not accept his ways. For example, he may have a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it policy," which allows his maintenance personnel to have more time on the big problems and blow off little problems. I wouldn't be okay with that, because it's the little problems that create big problems and I would need to work hard to change that attitude he instilled. A big issue that worries me is pilots thinking the mission is more important than safety. Yes, the mission a pilot's top priority, but if that pilot dies, the mission dies with him. Now this would be a more difficult fix, because my boss could be breathing down my neck to execute the mission in unsafe conditions, which would require me to make the decision whether or not I want to piss him off or not.

As promised, I am coming back to the discussion regarding professionalism. In my opinion, professionalism is being able to provide a desirable attitude, commitment, and skill set when faced with adversity even in the most difficult of scenarios. Let's focus on a scenario to better understand this definition. Take the incident regarding the captain who forged the weight & balance so they can continue with the flight. The captain lacked professionalism, because he didn't have the commitment to safety to make the correct and safe "no-go" decision. Instead, he proved his skill-set was enough to execute the mission. Having one of these traits is not enough. Another issue that continues to show a lack in professionalism is the big airline's lack of commitment to it's regional counterparts. More specifically, I am referring to the clause that allows them to refrain from being responsible when an accident occurs at the regional level. This shows a lack of commitment to its customers, its employees, and safety. It also shows an undesirable attitude, as if all they care about is themselves.

If my time comes to be CO on an aviation squadron, I have a few ideas that will help me develop professionally. One, possibly the most doable, is constantly expanding my knowledge of aviation. Whether it's reading a book on accidents to learn what went wrong, or actually flying the aircraft and trying to learn something knew from every flight. Another method to improve professionalism, is maintain a positive attitude in the toughest of times. Granted, this one is much more difficult to do, but practice makes perfect and if I am able to control my attitude in any given situation, I could potentially control my attitude in the event a major event occurs in mid-flight.