Flyboy Confidential

I'm not a pilot and never aspired to be one. Still, I'm fascinated by the message boards of PPRuNe, the Professional Pilots Rumour Network. It's a voyeuristic thrill to eavesdrop on what these macho dudes talk about when the self-loading freight (as they call passengers) aren't around. PPRuNe is the first place I check when anything avaition-related is in the news; often the posters have an inside line, or more knowledgeable theories than you'd read anywhere else. (And they frequently ream the MSM for inaccuracy in aviation reporting.)

Poking around, you'll find discussion topics from wind shear to queries about which Singapore bars have the most pilot groupies. There are some intriguing political threads too. A couple years ago, for example, there was a drawn-out row on the board over whether pilots on commercial flights should be armed. The American pilots, most of whom are ex-military, were generally in favor of arming pilots. The British and European pilots tended to be violently against it, though it seemed to me their stance was based more on a visceral revulsion to handguns than on practical considerations. Of course, this topic had been discussed in the MSM, but who cares what reporters and pundits think? It's much more interesting to hear from the pilots themselves.

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