So, you're the one.... Yes, Ma'am!

Most of you in the airline business have likely heard of this guy by now. You might even be expecting this blog to be another installment of bashing, but it won't be. Instead, I've got some different angles to talk about.

First off, if you haven't heard of Mr. Tim Martins, here's a little background info. He's an FO for American Eagle. There was an article in Airline Pilot, the Airline Pilots Association magazine called, "Wise Beyond His Years." The article was about FO Tim Martins, and in it he made some very impressive and specific claims about himself. Most notably, he flies F-16s for the 177th Fighter Wing of the NJ Air National Guard, and works as a firefighter and paramedic for Ladder Company #2 in NYC.

Well, once this article ran back in April of this year, there was quite a stir. This article made this guy out to be a role model for the ALPA Code of Ethics. However, no one was able to substantiate his claims. Turns out, the 117th Fighter Wing has never heard of him. That is when it all began to unravel.

So, first and foremost, this was a huge embarrassment for ALPA. I know you can't check every single fact every single time when publishing a magazine, but the irony of this is just too funny. Turns out the guy is totally full of shit about his background, has a history of being full of shit about lots of things in his past, yet he was touted as such an upstanding and exemplary pilot. Some of the quotes from the magazine:

"F/O Timothy Martins personifies pilot professionalism and living by the ALPA code of ethics."

"He is what ALPA stands for. Tim is ALPA."

"Nominated by F/O Ray Nicoll(Delta), F/O Martins was selected from an excellent field of pilots recommended by their peers."

Yikes. Yikes, yikes, yikes. A turn of events like that just makes your stomach churn. This article has since been removed from the online version of Airline Pilot magazine.

I will admit, I do understand a little of where FO Martins is coming from. I wanted to be a fighter pilot. Lots of us did. Hell, there isn't a pilot I've flown with yet that can't stream at least a few quotes from the movie Top Gun. No, the movie wasn't realistic at all, but it was damn entertaining. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about what might have been if I had been able to be a military pilot. Perhaps fantasy just went a little far for FO Martins. Perhaps he's even got a diagnosable medical condition where his brain has trouble keeping fact apart from fantasy. I don't think there is any screening for that in any FAA medical certification.

I certainly don't envy the position he is now in. I can't imagine him being able to get hired at any other airline now. With how much exposure this now has, he'll always be known as as a dishonest pilot. That's got to be tough to live every day with if he's still flying the line now. I've also heard that some ACTUAL fighter pilots are really steamed about this.

Let's look at it another way. OK, so he was full of crap. However, he didn't break any FAA regulations, he didn't do anything unsafe, and no one was in any danger for what he said. *shrug* The biggest problem is that it's an act of dishonesty. That doesn't reflect well on a professional pilot. That said, I think Mr. Martins would have a brilliant career in politics ahead of him. Or, perhaps airline CEO? After all, those are two very profitable careers that seem to reward dishonesty more often than not. Senator Tim Martins? I can see it happening.

The other point that came to mind for me was all the talk on the "internets" about FO Martins when this whole thing blew up.
http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/military/49320-military-poser-alpa-magazine.html
This thread has since reached epic proportions, however, at least at first, I was very impressed with the pilot groups out there as they weren't immediately going for the jugular. They were saying things like, "Hey, this doesn't sound right." "Lets get some information and see if this guys is really full of it." People were actually taking this very objectively. There was a suspicion and so they went forth and gathered actual information before hanging the accused out to dry. It was short lived since his story could not be validated, but that's fine. At least they gave him a chance. In an era where the media paints the accused to be guilty before proven innocent, it was great to see people attempting to give him the benefit of the doubt while they tried to dig up validation on his story. If only we could all be more like this more of the time.