[quote=BYMONEK]Heavy
I don't have an axe to grind with BA. My issue is with BALPA. So please don't get all defensive and assume that we're all BA wannabes because that makes you appear very arrogant.
bymonek,
re-read my post. did not mention ba wannabee's, my quote was ba hating wannabees. their seem to be a lot of them about. hate ba for no obvious reason but desperate to climb the slippery pole by any means possible.
as for you 'not good to mention names on pprune'. point taken but don't think i've exactly unmasked an unknown as his name was on every balpa document we recieved for several years.
i agree that a drive to suceed is required to achieve a career in aviation. my point is that as the mol's and ww's (hope that's discreet enough for u)of this world attempt to drive down t&c's, 170hr flying school graduates who are willing to do anything for a job scare me. i for one was not prepared to sell my right arm for my first job. if the raf had told me i wasn't up to it i would have tried for a sponsorship, if that failed i would have used my degree in a career i was more suited to.
if u believe that the demise of the airlines fully sponsored schemes and the reduction in manpower from the forces has caused an increase in the standard of pilot applying to the airlines then u and i are talking to very different recruiters.
if u believe that the t&c's being offered to new entrants at any airline are being offered in the hope of attracting the best pilots and not the cheapest pilots then may i humbly suggest that your being niave, even with 20yrs+.
so is it a suprise that as the airline management have worked out that jar-ops and the caa will let them put 170hr pilots in jets and those pilots seem prepared to workk for almost nothing to get experience that those of us, u included, 15-20 years down the line find the t&c's we thought we'd signed up for are now in danger?
don't get me wrong many of the folks i fly with where 170hr pilots on joining ba and are very capable and able bunch of aviators. probably why they passed a very difficult selection process. the vast majority of them would have had no chance, like me, of raising the 60k for their atpl and thus would have found jobs elsewhere.
so as i said my biggest fear is a chap with a new f atpl who's dream is to fly a 757 for a charter company and is willing to do it for almost nothing and dosen't see that 10 years down the road there may be a guy willing to do it for free.