Ppl, Cpl, Me IR, MCC, B737, mission creep yes but that is the market!
Okay this may put me further infront of the firing line but.......
Yes I do clearly see the difference between SSTR and paying for line training but unfortunately the airlines don't. I actually advocate paying for all the above. If the Ts&Cs slip for everyone else then that is market forces dictating that that is where the industry is.
Do you not think that the coalminers, shipbuilders, weavers, seamstresses and cotton pickers of yesteryear did not have a time when their trade (I specifically did not say profession, another thread methinks...) lamented the destruction of their Ts&Cs.
The reason for the need to SSTR is no different for the reason to pay for line training. It is simply because right now if you do not pay for it you will not get a job unless you are very lucky as it is not a meritocracy. If you do not have 500hrs plus on type there are hardly any jobs available to you. So after having SSTR'd you then HAVE to pay for line training as if you do not you stay unemployed.
This is sad, this is wrong but this is still reality whilst airlines still refuse to invest the money in actually selecting pilots properly and taking the best applicants the selection criteria remains disposable cash.
Do I see where this leads, absolutely but if that means that I have to pay for my own command assessment, pay for my own uniform, pay for my own car parking, pay for my food at work, loose my generous pension, etc, etc then that is life I would do and fly a B737 from the left hand seat for 50k a year if thats what it paid because I want the job more than the Ts&Cs. If you are not prepared to do the same then perhaps I just want it more than you.
Just because I have sacrificed and paid £80k to get where I am just not mean that I should now sit back and reap the rewards. I love flying and if I can earn a living do it then that is a bonus. Those who don't like it talk to their managers and shareholders. Would I like the days of earning 100k and a job at BA for all who met the grade, yep but they are soon to be the days of history. Today you get ahead by selling your soul, I remortgaged the family home to be where I am and if you think that is too great a sacrifice well unlucky I don't and there are plenty more where I came from. Why do you all believe that you should have your dream job in a highly competitive market and also earn more than a lawyer, accountant or dentist.
You get what the market can afford, deal with it and enjoy the flying and Ts&Cs as they are if they change reassess. If you decide it is no longer viable then tell me, I and my generation will do your job for less and you can go and do something else in an industry that works the way you dream it should rather than one controlled by the reality of market forces.
Supply and demand is really simple, market forces demand that I do it for less and less. I supply it until I can no longer support my family and if I get driven out of the industry by the decreasing Ts&Cs because some one wants it even more than me then the world doesn't owe me a living......
VT
Last edited by Vortex Thing; 25th Jul 2008 at 12:52.