Who would you prefer in the cockpit? Han Solo or Mr. Spock?

Not a great autumn for pilots.

First, on Oct. 21, two Northwest Airlines pilots overshot the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport because they were distracted, according to federal authorities. The airplane was out of radio contact with air traffic controllers for more than an hour, a major national security gaffe.

If that wasn't head-shaking enough, police arrested a United Airlines pilot minutes before take off from London to Chicago Monday because he was allegedly drunk.

The inebriated aviator incident is under investigation and the Northwest pilots are appealing license revocations by the Federal Aviation Administration.

But "when you look at today's headlines, you see that aviation has been hit with a wave of bumps we can label quite appropriately as an extreme need to refocus on professionalism."

That's not me. That comment comes from new FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, a veteran pilot. "I can't regulate professionalism," he added. "There are still those who just ignore the common sense rules of safety.

In a Nov. 4 speech, Babbitt lauded US Airways hero Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger who safely landed a stalled Airbus in the Hudson River in January. "The good news here is that the system is dominated by and operated by and with professionals."

That's reassuring to hear. Because although we all love Han Solo, when I'm 30,000 feet up in the air, I prefer to think Mr. Spock is in the cockpit.

For perspective, I turned to Dennis Tajer, a commercial pilot from Arlington Heights with 25 years of experience and a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association.

What's the deal with pilots behaving badly? I asked.

"These are rare occurrences that happen," Tajer said. "And it's important to note that every day, millions of passengers travel safely across the world under the guidance of highly skilled and disciplined airline pilots who as we speak are handling aircraft emergencies and landing passengers at various destinations."

What type of emergencies?

"Anything from engine failures that are occurring to hydraulic problems," Tajer said, "not to mention an array of weather challenges that occur." On a flight from Chicago to Orlando, for example, pilots can encounter large thunderstorms in Florida and blizzards in Illinois, he said.

With the Northwest pilots in mind, I asked what aviators are supposed to monitor during flights and if routine trips ever get boring.

For starters, Tajer said, there's myriad things to check - equipment, airspeed, engine performance, cabin pressure, weather, fuel status, conditions at the destination airport and alternate sites.

In the air, "there's a constant flow of information ... you're also in constant communication with air traffic control. People often think you get up there and turn on autopilot and sit back and look out the window. It's quite the opposite.

"The quieter it gets - the more intense I am looking for something that may be going awry."

To the question of the United pilot, Tajer refrained from talking specifics. Instead, he spoke about pilot stress, saying it's caused partly by layoffs and furloughs that increase hours for those with jobs.

"Since 2001, there's been a dramatic increase in duty hours, a dramatic increase in time away from family so that creates a strain on family ties," Tajer said. "That layered with dramatic pay cuts and, in some airlines, loss of pensions certainly plays into the increased stresses in the cockpit. We are human beings."

Fatigue is a related concern not just for pilots but the National Transportation Safety Board and FAA, which held a symposium on the issue this summer.

Tajer notes that pilots are required to do a self-assessment before they fly. "We're obligated not to fly when effects of fatigue and illness are on us." Unfortunately, "fatigue is insidious and the first thing that goes is judgment."

And that ties into Tajer's next point, the pilot brain drain. Pilot associations are seriously worried about the drift of experienced fliers into other jobs.

"With my company, we have a number of furloughed pilots and when we do recall them - only about half are accepting. That's quite a concern," he said.

The reasons, Tajer said, are job security, pay and benefits. Some commercial pilots are returning to the military rather than sticking with the private sector.

The solution? "Industrywide, there is a call to ensure the profession is prepared to retain and continue to attract the best and the brightest," Tajer said.

Stay tuned.

Readers ask me

McHenry County driver John Morris wants to know why construction on Virginia Road between Cary and Crystal Lake drags on when it was set to end Nov. 6? McHenry County Transportation Division engineer Wally Dittrich was on the case. "It's gone past the schedule because of the weather," he said. Hopefully, the road will be open by Thanksgiving but "it's day to day."