Frankly the piloting establishment do themselves far more favours than we do ourselves. Look at the numbers
- To become a technician, about 5 years
- To become a CEng, minimum 8 years (I got in on the old rules with 7 years), usually nearer 10-12
- To become a frozen ATPL, can be done in a year, usually nearer 3 admittedly. Another 18 months of right hand seat flying will give the full ticket.
What the pilots did (and quite right) is make their tickets licenses to practice. Reach the required standard, or leave - very simple. Why the hell don't we do the same in Engineering (yes I know that there are CAA licenses etc. but hangars and design offices are full of people without them, using somebody elses qualifications and signature - you'd never stand for that in a cockpit would you!).
G