I’m going to stick my neck out here and say I take
deathcruzer’s post at face value; I suspect he / she isn’t out to wind us up (apologies if you really are a troll).
I wouldn’t necessarily ignore an opinion just because I don’t like the message.
And even if it is a wind-up, so what? This is still a valid discussion, and it is vital that wannabes have as much information as possible on their chosen career before they commit themselves. I don’t hear anyone arguing over that point.
One of the problems with being a wannabe is the paucity of information from ‘the horses mouth.’ There is a whole training industry out there that will try and convince you commercial flying is the best job in the world, but they’re not entirely unbiased now, are they? I want to get as many opinions as possible from current and former commercial pilots, as well as wannabes who are further up the training ladder than me – people who are doing what I want to do and have already got the T shirt.
That’s one of the principal reasons Danny set up Pprune in the first place – to give wannabes the chance to seek information and advice from professionals. Before 9/11 we at least had the chance of an occasional jumpseat ride with which to glean information (and very enlightening it was too – I now know which hotel at EHAM holds the KLM record for bedroom gymnastics, but I digress).
Now the flight deck door has been closed on us, we are more dependent than ever on resources such as Pprune. I would like nothing better than to see this thread filled with pages and pages of advice from commercial pilots,
all of which will be helpful to me in shaping my plans. At the same time, I recognise that it’s a bit unrealistic to expect every single airline driver in the whole world to say; “Come on in, the water is lovely”. That doesn’t make their opinion any less valid, and I would humbly suggest that shouting ‘troll’ at the messenger isn’t going to encourage them to put finger to keyboard.