basil fawlty
2nd Feb 2002, 02:02
Unsure as to which forum I should post this to..... .I have followed various threads on pprune for some time now, and would like to think that I have contributed something of use along the way, but I now feel that I need to make some points.. .I am amazed at the number of people continually complaining about the fact that it costs a serious ammount of money to get qualified these days, and the pay of first jobs is so poor. Firstly, there are more commercial flying jobs now than there has ever been,and the fact is that there are also more qualified commercial pilots than there has ever been! This is due to the fact that loans to finance the training have never been so easy to get, and so inexpensive to repay (low interest rates).The market is literally flooded (especially after 11/9) with CPL's, so why do pilots think that a high % pay rise is justified? Its supply and demand, simple as that. If the low seniority, "B" scale guys want a pay increase, try asking for some from those at the top end...I'd bet good money as to what the answer would be!... Human nature I'm afraid, you'd be the same under similar circumstances! (Don't think that because you are in the same company your senior collegues give a sh*t about you. They don't!) . .The people who are making LOTS of money out of the current situation (especially post JAA implimentation) are the flight training companies. Flying schools do go bust, but rarely from lack of business, usually incompetent management or directors taking too much out of the business....Just think to yourselves how many times you have visited an airfield in the UK and seen disintegrating sheds (left over from WW2) thats home to a flight school with a porsche or similar parked outside?! (Remember, during the Yukon goldrush, the prospectors made little money...the real profiteers were those selling the picks and shovels!) . .There seems to be no end of people, from reading this forum, who think that a job on the flightdeck is the be all and end all of everything. Let me tell you now that having experienced it there are a number of good points, (watching the sunrise at FL350 for example) but also a lot of negative ones which seem to be selectively overlooked. Yes, I'd rather do this than anything else, but at the end of the day its a job of work....no more, no less. I get the impression that many of you wannabees are in love with some sort of biased vision of what commercial aviation is all about. . .I hope that a few of you at least take the time out to think what its all about, especially you "older" (30+) guys. The facts (sadly) are you are far less likely to make it to the "big time" and "big money", so please please think about it carefully before commiting yourself. There are so many on here saying "yeah, yeah, go for it!" but its not their money, or their life is it?? You are taking a risk at whatever age in this game, but the older you get the odds lengthen considerably. Sorry to sound so negative, but that really is the truth, and about time someone said so.. .Rant over. (for now!)