Ok, I’ve just re-read everything that’s been written, and I’m about to wind my neck in, but not before I try to explain.
Firstly,
maxy101, I couldn’t agree more, the Dilbert concept (i.e. promote the incompetent) is rife in many other industries too.
Maximum, I’m not going to get into a slanging match with you, last night’s post was a little influenced by a nice Rioja, and perhaps wasn’t well thought out nor well put.
I think I need to address my “Tom Dick and Harry” comment. I hope I can illiterate this without digging myself further into my hole….. What I was meaning by this is that once the professional exams and the CPL skills test are passed then you can
call yourself a professional pilot. It’s a bit like an electrician calling himself an electrical engineer but not having any engineering qualifications, i.e. a little misleading. What I failed to make clear was that I am fully aware that a shiny new license is only a license to learn, I agree that there is
so much more to being in command of a pax carrying commercial flight. But I’m sure that you’ll agree that there are a few “professional” pilots out there who are “unemployable” (and after this contribution I’m probably perceived as one of them, if I wasn’t before!
) and this is where I was coming from with T D & H.
I am really sorry that you have seen my posting as an insult to your profession and to you personally. It was never meant to be. It seems that I’ve upset a few people with some ill judged comments, once again I’m sorry.
If you're the person that I might spend a few hours sitting next on the flight deck then, I'm sorry, but I don't want to
I retract this, it was written a fit of wine fuelled pique.
What I was originally trying to put across is that there is always a different perception of professions from those on the outside to those in the know. People think that my current job is glamorous, working all around Europe etc, but only I know the truth.
I know that this is exactly what you’re trying to do for the Wannabes, tell them the truth, which is great, but I suggest that a lot of Wannabes know the pitfalls, and still possess the desire to fly for a living and still “chase the dream” with eyes wide open. My point being that the grass is no greener in any other profession. it’s just that I perceive that what you do for a living is slightly less !!!!ty than what I’m doing at the moment.
I have a license to learn, and I have done and continue to do so, I have been a PPRuNer as long as you so I have read threads similar to this before, and I have found them invaluable because they have shaped my perception of what it is like in the real world. I also know, as well as anyone can who’s on the outside, how things have changed, I have PPRuNe to thank for that too.
I know I'm green, but a shade less dazzling than some. I shall bow out now, having learnt a valuable lesson, booze and PPRuNe don’t mix.