Dissed in the Flight Deck

This is a funny story that my training partner told while we were in ground school a few weeks ago.

We often have visitors to the flight deck in the form of small children, either before or after the flight. We welcome them into our office with varying degrees of enthusiasm, depending on the child and how much sleep we got at the hotel the night before.

Mac shared the story of a 12 or 13-year-old girl who was urged to see the flight deck by her parents, who then waited for her outside the airplane. An experienced air force pilot and now a captain and instructor pilot at our airline, Mac is generally eager to give kids a fun and educational experience. In the usual fashion, he showed the young girl, who was smacking a piece of gum, around the control panels and pointed out what various switches and levers do. After each tidbit of information, she would roll her eyes and say "whatever" as she continued to smack her gum. A the end of the session, she declared "Whatever, take a picture, double loser, DUH!" complete with the hand motions that go with the phrase. As she said "duh!" she whirled around and sashayed out the flight deck door and down the stairs to her waiting parents.

Mac had no idea what hit him. His first officer informed him that he had just been dissed in a big way and the two of them spent the next 20 minutes practicing the skit until they had it down pat. He performed it for us in ground school when he thought we needed to lighten the moment. Fantastic!