My problem with the simultaneous 19 L/R approaches is this, and I believe it's serious: when the 19L traffic is downwind, the tower lets us on 19R know "He has you in sight." Fine—until he turns base and goes belly up to us. He can't see us, and if he overshoots he's right in our face. Sooner or later, two planes will…

Amen, brother. Noise abatement privileges convenience over flight safety, an unbelievable reversal of what ought to be the priority. Fortunately, at least with the 737-800, there's no power cut required. Still, noise abatement profiles are just plane absurd, IMHO.

All very true. I understand My airline has over 20,000 pilot applications on file—getting an interview, much less getting hired is a slim chance. There are many, many very good regional pilots that will never get to the majors or if they do, they'll be on the bottom for a long time.

Yes, still flying and writing and drawing.

I think that I, like most military pilots, "know how hard it is," a reality driven home when the first in our class was killed on a mission. More followed.