"NOW, DON'T pick at the green," the old sim instructor behind me croaked. "Don't pick at the green" was his quirky way of reminding me, in the DC-10 co-Pilot's seat, not to ease the control yoke back until rotation speed-thus putting the aircraft symbol on the artificial horizon slightly into the greenish-blue 'sky'. I smiled at the quaint advice, even though I hadn't planned to pull back early on the elevator controls anyway.I had done three years of MD-80 line flying-which, on top of the two years I had done on the DC-10 Engineer's panel, gave me almost exactly five years as an American Airlines Pilot-and times were good. We had continued non-stop Pilot hiring, and though Hosehead and I, as new-hire 727 Flight Engineers, had prayed mightily that we might get at least 500 Pilots under us on the seniority list, we actually had thousands.
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