Engineering apprenticeship - 5 years
Engineering degree - 3 or 4 years.
SARTOR route to CEng - 8 years
SARTOR route to IEng - 7 years
Self improver to frozen ATPL - 3 years.
I am an engineer, I also fly. I enjoy both and don't intend giving up either. But I have no illusions that a self improved ATPL is anywhere near so hard as my engineering qualifications.
The big difference is cost, it is much CHEAPER to train an Engineer than a pilot, and that's what seems to set the culture. None of us started work with a £40k debt to pay off, and it should be admitted that whilst learning our trade we usually made enough to live on, even if we were never actually well off. No engineer had to sell his granny to become one.
It takes an Engineer (or more likely several dozen) to design, built and install an autopilot. I'm not saying that an autoengineer isn't possible, but no pilot could design it, and no engineer would - we aint that daft.
G
[ 19 October 2001: Message edited by: Genghis the Engineer ]