Hey, wint3rmute I love my job. And I care enough about it that I don't want people joining it under a misapprehension of what it really entails. Most of all, I don't want to have to fly with people who whinge about it not being what they expected.
So, as the schools will not whisper a breath about what it's really like, we have to tell the warts'n'all stuff here. Why don't the schools tell the truth? Mostly because they don't actually know what working in the airlines is actually like in the 21st century - many don't even posess an ex-airline pilot on their staff! But, by Christ, they'll hype it up to the eyeballs and then some...... because they need the Wannabes' dosh. They don't give a flying toss what you discover once you've qualified and they've got your £60,000.
Don't believe me? Go and ask your school's instructors when they last flew in an airliner as other than passengers! Ask them what are the prevalent issues that airline pilots face, as identified by BALPA and the IPA? Where are the lectures on the downsides of our lifestyle and how to cope with them - and, most importantly, how to prepare your family for them?
Because of the perceived glamour, the downsides of airline flying are dismissed as whingeing, but the reality is that it is as hard as any career out there - and maybe harder than most. The NHS environment has become a byword for poor working practices, long shifts and burned-out workers (and profligate spending on fripperies, consultants and management - but hey, this is a pilots' thread on a pilots' site!), but it's not the only one to suffer these problems - just the best known.
'Keep your eyes open, and don't believe the hype' is really the message we're trying to give. If you stick to that, you're far more likely to avoid disillusionment and to actually enjoy the realities of this career.
Scroggs