What’s the deal with the “pilots are drunks” cliché?
Because there’s been a lot of cases of drunk airline pilots.
I’m not really aware of the cliche. I don’t think it’d be to do with cases of pilots going to work drunk, though I acknowledge that it does happen. I suspect the cliche maybe older and stem from the world wars.
Yes, I agree with all that. When flying was a much more risky business than it is today I’m sure there was more of a dare devil culture associated with it, including drinking.
Nowadays pilots (in the UK) are subject to the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 which has extremely strict limits of alcohol use.
I don’t know how to cut and paste a section from a pdf document but if you scroll to paragraph 4.4.1 the limits are laid out there.
When you read headlines about another pilot being yanked of the flight deck seconds before flying 500 passengers to Timbucktoo for being drunk it rarely follows up the story if it so happens that when the pilot comes to court the case is dismissed.
So I suppose it’s hardly surprising the public are often of the opinion that the sky is full of drunken airmen.
It does happen but statistically as a group they are no different from any other group I would bet.
Jay Leno does drunk pilots jokes regularly as part of his monolog. That would make the cliché public, current, and widespread.
… but if Jay Leno is the primary vector it is understandable that those who do not watch late night television are unaware of this cliche…
Just to make a distinction: There’s a difference between pilots drinking and pilots flying drunk, as pointed out by 1920s Style “Death Ray” and Vetch. Plenty of pilots have a drink after flying. I rarely drink, but (when I was current) I liked to have a beer (and some Mexican food) afterward. Sometimes two beers. Not because of anything that happened during the flight, but just because it was a satisfying end to an activity that’s guaranteed to put a smile on my face.
Decades ago drinking was more socially acceptable. (There was a thread about three-martini lunches and the practice of businessmen of keeping sauce in their offices and offering clients a drink.) Drinking alcohol was a ‘lifestyle thing’, and it fit in with the rough-and-ready/steely-eyed/devil-may-care Pilot. So it was natural for pilots to get together at the end of the day and hoist a few, and some pilots who ‘lived the image’ may have hoisted a few too many. Even today there are people who think that heavy drinking proves one’s manhood.
But pilots who drink before flying are fairly rare. Pilots who fly drunk are rarer still. Before I started flying I smoked a little weed and snorted a little coke at parties, and if the occasion called for it drank more than I should have. But when I started training I stopped the drugs, and would never think to have a drink before flying. It takes a great deal of commitment and money to earn a pilot’s certificate, and there’s no way I’d endanger it! I can be a pretty wacky guy on the ground, but I do take flying seriously. I feel that a lot of pilots feel the same way.
So ‘hard-drinking pilots at the end of the day’ I see as a cliché that came about when flying was seen as something ‘macho’. Pilots flying drunk is a rare thing that gets a lot of publicity when it happens.
Hey! That was *my *thread! Woot!
Amber, I don’t know your location, but in the U.S., “pissed” means angry, not drunk.
It usually means angry. But I’ve heard it used as ‘drunk’ in Southern California for over 25 years.
Indeed. I generally refrain from drinking the night prior to flying, but if I’m on an overnight trip it is a regular occurance for the crew to have a few drinks together over a meal. It’s a pretty social job.
I forgot to mention that it is a violation here to drink within eight hours of acting as a pilot.
Same here. No drinking within eight hours but also you must not be under the influence of alcohol (which I interpret to mean no flying when hungover.) Anyone who’s had a few drinks before would know that you can still be quite drunk after eight hours.
“Pissed Off” means angry. I have no idea why America decided to remove one of the words, and thus be annoyingly ambiguous about what they actually mean when they say “Pissed” (because from what I can tell, from a US person’s mouth it can mean either).
And here. .04% or more, nor ‘under the influence’.
Just to be pedantic, I’ll note that it’s eight hours before acting as pilot.
You are correct. And pedantic. 
And the last two rental agreements and the pilot’s insurance I had both stated no drinking withing 24 hours prior to flight or your butt wouldn’t be covered in the event of an accident. I call it “legislation by insurance” but hey, I already had a practice of no booze 24 hours before anyhow.
Why you should own your own airplane… 
Ah, but if I owned I would only fly the one airplane instead of the 17 or 18 different ones I’ve been able to womanhandle.
When I figure out which one airplane I want, then I’ll find a way to own it. After I get employed at a job making enough to allow for such luxuries.