"I can't figure it out," said Sid, my co-pilot. "The airplanes keep getting bigger but the coffee cups keep getting smaller." He was looking askance at his shot-glass-sized coffee that the flight attendants had just brought up."I wonder why they are so stingy on coffee. The passengers are just going to bug them for a refill. Wouldn't it be more cost effective to just give them a decent-sized cup to start with?There you go thinking and trying to mentally run the airline again, I said. You are obviously missing "el photo grande'" on this and many other management issues. That is why you are merely a highly skilled pilot and not an MBA from Georgia Tech. If it were up to you, we'd probably be spending all kinds of money making passengers happy and comfortable without giving a thought to buying Mini Coopers for senior management.We were passing through 18,000 feet, just breaking out of the clouds and took a short break to run the climb checklist. Sid got out the hard card and read it off:"Altimeters?"Two nine, nine, two."Exterior Lights?"Off.Once we got through the FAA-required formalities, we were back on the subject of size. One thing you have in the cockpit of a 767 is elbow room. It is one of the few airliners I've flown that has enough room to be comfortable and have a little empty space around you as you try to aviate. But for some reason, 767s don't leave much room for flight bags.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/features/ceo-of-the-cockpit-69-size-matters