Sorry Sunfish - just lost me with your last post.
A professional pilot doesn't get paid per flight hour. As a professional my job doesn't stop - I don't have a and don't believe in Sign On / Off times, outside of the realm of flight duty restrictions / requirements. From reading Flight Safety and numerous publications to keep my finger on the pulse, ammending those damn Jepps ('cause someone decided to change a star to an asterix.....), backgound reading on systems, knowing & understanding the latest rule changes and airspace, turning up for work clean, ready and in uniform, and so on, and so on.......
There are and I've seen it time and time again of "clock watchers" not lifting a finger till their official duty starts. Their choice, but they are noted in senior pilot and managerial meetings, and not pleasant to fly with for any number of reasons.
About the GPS: a professional pilot is prepared for it not working with bearings and radials for the destination, ground speed checks, PNRs, CPs, etc for the sector being flown. If your instructor can't teach you to do that then you're getting ripped off sunshine!
A professional pilot is also ready and prepared for an abnormal or emergency situation. That is a given, and personally, the least amount of times I can get paid for that then the better.
There are pilots existing with different levels of "professionalism" and you Sunfish seem to paint all with your tainted view derived from your flying school and this forum. Get a grip and some professionalism of your own before painting us all with your contaminated brush.
Last edited by TopTup; 22nd Sep 2004 at 02:42.