Either way you look at it though.....it seems like you boys get a pretty good deal. Nice aircraft, good work, although I don't believe you do as much flying as we in the GA world do, but hey, its about Quality, not Quantity isn't it???
..... oh...and I can't imagine that you have to go through all the crap and work quite the hours we do, doing all the ****iest jobs just to get a start. But I'm not complaining. I could have joined up if i wanted too.
Going back up the thread a little..... there are us young guys (and girls) that are willing to scrub/sweep/clean/mop/anything to get to fly, but I take the point that they are becoming less and less of them willing. Everything seems to come to easy to a lot of people. I know a lot of people that aren't even willing to drive 3-4000 km away from their comfy lifestyle on the coast to get their first job...let alone when they get there live in a swag in the hangar and get paid 300 a week to be up at 530am everymorning sweeping, and be the last one to leave the hangar at night to make sure everyone calls in and cancels SAR, (When you cover three timezones, they come in pretty late) and then to be in the hangar to answer the phone on sundays to make sure everyone else can have a day off. After all...you aren't called a slave for nothing are you???
But it was also one of the best experiences of my life. The learning curve is huge when you have machines coming in every 12 days for their hundred hourlies, and given that we have 15, thats more than one a day sometimes, can't beat that for SOE time. But thats just the busy time of year. There was always plenty of lawns to mow, sprinklers to move, things to fix. I don't know anyone who actually made it through that slave stage in one piece that regrets doing it, however I do know a few that quit early on and whinge a lot. But where are they now???
(probably in a highly paid job with Normal hours and a life outside of work, oh, and not to mention something other than a shipping container to live in.....
)
Sorry. I tend to ramble on a bit.