Woftam, It's not that we are slagging you off, I personally do not think pilots are over paid but that we as engineers are underpaid, most of the guys in this forum know what it is like be in the sharp end holding a flight crew licence in some form or an other, most of the heavy metal drivers I work with a good guys and close friends. Airbornespanner - you speak the truth man, some many of the LAMEs that are well qualified and motivated are chosing to apply their talents else were, it is a shame,I still want to be a hands on engineer but that is not possible and still maintain some sort of normal life style....shame I do so enjoy getting the spanners out.
The recruiting issue is now a world wide problem and the quality of some of the trainies that I have had over the last few years has been very disapointing, most of the people you want are turned off by the industry once they find out that the money and conditions are not all they are cracked up to be still the odd good one gets through and if you can keep them on the floor in stead of being draw off to the flight deck they usually turn out to be good LAME's.
Blacksheep, I know what you are saying....we never seem to stick to gether but that I feel is because we are such a diverse group and do not have the command structure that is present with the pilots, but sticking together can have some adverse affects....Ansett New Zealand for inst.!!
Keep the comments coming guys/gals it's good to get a bit of this out into the open eh!