Real Life 101
There are still people reading this thread that are discounting the contributions from working pilots.
Emotionally they've discounted it purely because of the of preponderance of opinions and fact knocking at the foundations of their plans and dreams. Just like smokers and the facts......
Therefore they have decided that in terms of their intellect the offerings are partial, biased and untrustworthy. As with the thread on airines that 'demand' an integrated course lets put those thoughts to the test.You are invited to rebut the following line by line and point by point. Let's hope for a little more than the hollow silence following the last little excercise in truth.
1: The JAA written exams have almost zero practical use. They are simply a hoop to jump over to gain membership of a very exclusive club because there is no GA industry in Europe to weed out those who won't make it. In countries with a thriving, if badly paid, GA scene other hurdles are presented barring the way to a jet flight deck such as the requirement for a 4 year degree in the States. In small or emerging nations this can take the form of formal entrance exams or simply patronage, bribery or nepotism. For decades the tens of thousands of Eastern European pilots had to be lifelong members of the communist party as well as university graduates.
Your outlook or cultural background will be reflected in how you view each of these entirely artificial hurdles to getting on a flight deck. Not one of them reflects your skills as an aviator. They are simply an entry control mechanism.
The psychology works like this - because all these mechanisms are entirely artificial, can be interchanged with any other one and are inherently divorced from the reality of the job working pilots ignore and reject everything you are going through. Once a pilot is competent and comfortable on line they want absolutely nothing to do with the utter nonsense that preceeded doing the real job. This is a key to the next question so don't blow all your ammo answering this one!
2: Why do experienced, working pilots refuse to take part in the two wannabees forums? You can't stop them sticking their oar in at every possible and conceivable opportunity everywhere else on the site. By nature they are opinionated - this forum has the opposite effect. Why? I'm serious, why do they avoid these forums so assiduously?
3: The words of the professionals offering their thoughts on the modern profession in this thread more that accurately reflect the overwhelming opinion of those posting on the rest of the site. Forums which uttely dwarf the two here. Do you disagree with that?
4: However aviation mad a wannabee is, however much they've lived and breathed it they have as much real knowledge of working life in the flightdeck as I have of competitive football. Just because I'm a mad, passionate and very knowledgable fan doesn't mean I have the slightwest inkling of what is going on the head and heart of a
participating player.
5: Do you disagree that you are working extrememely hard and going into immense debt to spend 12 and 13 hour days behing a locked and barred door? Some reading this might find the thought of 30 or even 40 years of that quite depressing - some reading this will actually find that distressing. The average airline flight deck is an exciting wonderworld to most reading this. Like any work environment, even an A+E department, it just becomes where you work in time. Do you dispute that the average flight deck, locked and barred is also the size of an surburban downstairs loo? Do you believe that everyone reading this is fully informed and aware of that and is happy at the thought of up to 30 years or more in that space?
6: Are you disputing that we are telling wannabees the truth. Are you disputing that no training school, FTO or even trade union will ever inform a prospective customer or member of the facts we offer?
7: With a few honourable exceptions do you disagree that the vast majority of people in FTO's and clubs have never actually done the job they are training each other for in a spiral of unintentional ignorance and intentional marketing.
As an analogy if you speak to a teacher, policeman, paramedic or doc in a 'front line' inner city they will all have the shared experience of being joined by fully qualified probationers who were taught by those who couldn't hack it in that real same world. Not liking it or being able to cope is not the problem - their unwarranted, inexperienced influence on each new generation into the ranks is. Each wannabee spends a thousand times more 'influential' time with peer figures in aviation but without a moments airline experience than with actual airline people.
8: Should there be a place where wannabees can get the truth from people who are licenced, who are doing the job, who have succeded in getting through the system with no silver spoons getting in the way of RT and aren't taking a penny from you? You can't have that without telling painful truths at times? Do you dispute that we are being truthful?
Answers by teatime, best handwriting and spelling counts except mine
Regards from the Towers
Rob