I've seen lots of airline pilots in flying clubs flying Skyhawks and Skylanes
- besides using them for personal transportation, they also use them to
maintain proficiency. I am not used to seeing them holding themselves above
other users - and particularly the instructors, who check them out just like
everyone else.

In this particular club, both the chief pilot and the second pilot are ATP
rated, and have flown everything - In addition they fly six hours a day in
small aircraft, IFR and VFR, which gives them a proficiency level much
greater than almost any airline pilot, who does not have the time to do this
much recurrent training.

I believe this particular pilot was brazen about it because he knew he had
something to cover up, and as a previous contributor pointed out, he probably
used some bravado to bluff his way through something that he knew inside was
not very cool. Many people feel that's probably good enough, and he has
probably done the work already of correcting this judgement error. Others
feel the opposite - "if he did it once, he'll do it again". Some of these
people want to go for the jugular, file complaints, write to his airline crew
chief, basically cause him as much harm as they can, because they feel he
should not be flying. I don't agree - but then my opinion does not enter
into it.

This thread has generated more discussion than I imagined, some of it
bordering on hostility, which is far from what was intended. I also didn't
intend to invite far-flung speculation about what "might" have happened -
even if it's not proven to Johnny Cochran's standards, it is pretty much
assumed that this pilot made a serious fuel management error, and endangered
the lives of his passengers. The "ethical dilemma" was whether this incident
should be used, as some feel, to try to get the guy out of the left seat
forever (which may or may not be possible) or whether to deal with it "over
lunch" as suggested here, and based on his reaction, hope something has been
learned.

G Faris