But surely pilots are paid for their skill and expertise rather than the hours they work?
Reminds me of the allegedly true story of the US company which pioneered the air freight principal of flying the freight into a central hub, sorting same and then flying the freight out again to different destinations (sorry cannot remember the name of the company). There were severe penalties if things ran late in the night and there was a huge "hangar" with lots of conveyor belts etc to sort the freight. One night the whole system stopped and they were running round like headless chickens trying to work out what had gone wrong. They called the engineer in who reckoned he would have it fixed within a few minutes. He went to a junction box, opened same, took out his screwdriver and turned one screw, upon which all the conveyor belts etc started to work again. The company owner, somewhat relieved that all was well again asked the engineer how much he owed him. "$10,000 dollars" he replied. "$10,000 dollars - isnt that a lot ?" the owner asked. "Well", said the engineer "it would have cost you a lot more if I had not fixed the problem". The owner agreed and went off to get the money from the safe but before doing so he said "When I get back with the money I want an itemised receipt!". As he handed over the money the engineer gave him receipt with read: -
Turning screw...............................$10
Knowing which screw to turn..... .$9,990
I would suggest that being a pilot is very similar in the sense that most of the time it is, as they say, money for old rope BUT what you are really paid for is knowing what to do when things do not go accordingly to plan!