Buddy, if that came out of your mouth on my flight deck I'd be sitting on my hands to avoid slapping you. Honest to god, you're exactly the kind of person our industry doesn't need. Then again, you might just be dense, either way stay out.
Your desire to work for free may well come true though if there are enough of you people in the industry. I'll tell you what, the airlines are more than happy to accommodate your request, in fact most of them would in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the pilots fighting for their rights through unions. One thing is for sure, you won't be making any friends with your mindset if you DO get hired one day.
6 months down the line when your company has removed all staff travel, food and water making you pay your own sim-checks, ID cards, medicals and graciously decide to decrease your pay because of fuel costs/decrease in pax loads/whatever other reason they think of you might start to wake up. When they then decide to re-base you to Poland indefinitely as per your contract, change your roster from 5 on 3 off to 5 on 2 off and remove 5 annual leave days you're not going to wake up before the alarm rings, you're going to be awake all night wondering wtf went wrong.
Well BUDDY if you were on my flight deck I'd be wanting to slap you right back as you have no right more than me to be there. You are exactly the sort of person who ensures that people find it hard to get in this indsutry. I learnt to fly before I could drive and have dedicated my life to being in aviation, my choice. Who are you to call me dense because I don't make you comfortable by my views. Get over yourself.
You are so worried about protecting your future that you forgot where you came from. I'm ever so sorry if it erodes your terms and condtions of life but am not so sure that have a god given right to good Ts&Cs any more than I do. I think it is worth it, I have earnt that right just as much as every pilot in this forum. We all have the right to choose. I am not some silly school boy following a dream. I have fought and thought long and hard about what I am doing and why, there is no naivety on this end of the pace stick.
I understand that the industry is changing, I understand that I am also neither part of the problem or the solution. If you want things to change tell YOUR management do not take it out on me for wanting success at a price higher than YOU may be prepared to pay. It is called a free market.
Times are changing, maybe for the better, maybe for the worse but they are changing and if you can not deal with it then do not blame me. I have no desire to work for free but if that is what it takes, I simply agree that I think it is worth it. You do not have to agree but you have no right whatsoever to berate me for not helping look after YOUR future, that is your job.
You don't complain that a nice house or car costs too much. You choose the balance that suits you and make the eternal compromise between value for money and desire. Look up Porter's five forces on google if you need help with this.
Re Ts&Cs unless you have not noticed which airline I DO work for. I already pay for my medical, food & water, ID cards and staff travel. C'est la vie. I still think it is worth it.
If as Scroggs suggests COULD happen my family decide that my passion for
flying is not worth as much to them as it is for me then that is unfortunate becuase I went to great lenghts to choose my partner well and she knows how much I want this and was under no illusoin that I would never be happy anywhere except in aviation that is my right and her choice. She seems to think that it is better than me being in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan or Iraq for 6 months of every year (when she didn't know if I was coming home. Many of us didn't) If i get sentto Poland or Timbuktu, that's life, I have been to wrose places and would again. Seperation will take it's toll I know read the last sentance but I'm probably going to come back alive when I am home nowadays.
I have the right to be passionate, I have the right to acheive my goals and I have paid my debt to a society with people like you in who think that you have the right to deny me my rights.
Re bullying management again understand that in a capitalist society market forces dictate how a market work. We chose our system, we voted in our government and we can vote with our feet any time we like. The thing that you are actually scared of is the terms and conditions changing to a point that makes the industry no longer viable for YOU. In effect you are saying that I should not be quite so vocal or quite so passionate as it may affect YOUR pension. You would in effect sacrifice my desires to sate your own. Well now, I would be dense if I would actually let that happen. Why don't you thin about that for a while.
If the changing face of the industry bothers you so much get of that high horse you rode in on and change it with the people who control everything. The customers and the market. (I refer you back to Porter's 5 forces) Make them understand that we are worth loads more of their hard earned money as we are more important than them, or just accept that we will gegt paid whatever the industry can sustain and it that is on the decline then accept it or change it rather than calling me names in a feeble attempt at defending you own insecurities about your future in the pretense of protecting the industry.
If you genuinely want the industry protecting then it is nonsensical that you would not want the hardest working and most dedicated poeple available to be part of that, people who will give thier all and who will maximise safety, and revenue (in that order) for said firm as opposed to those who would rather see a fat pension because they cannot keep up with the times. If you want security I point you in the direction of a property or other investment portfolio.
I suggest that you direct your energy to informing the customer and management of the problems. Not berating me for wanting what you already have, as if you have some right, more than me to so have it!!
