...a profession...
well ,as far as recieving financial remuneration for our 'flight' toil, the job may still be refered to as 'that'... Yet, Ive refered to it for years now(20+ on 72's & 73's)as "a white nigger workin in a black man's world" where the black man= CEO+Exec management. We can, though, escape their relentless empire(duck shoving)building-held up with THEIR strings&mirrors-and just do what WE ALL do best ,and that's fly the wing. Flying with low timers is an opportunity to influence in our own diplomatic way this art of conservation of energy,if only for our 'professional' satisfaction. As computer controlled automation has become the norm{738 RNP(0.1)RNAV}rather than the exception, I totally agree with previous posts re pilot obselesence. The day is not far off(less than 10yrs is my guess)when it will be an Air Safety Reportable Item whenever VNAV PATH/SPD is disengauged. The spepo's havent been flying all those UAVs around Arabia(see country as a collective prior to the Balfoure Declaration)just for the fun of straifing a few Bedous, these missions are all being logged and 'route redundancies' proven. There may still be a 'window' for a young bloke starting out today, but hell if Id let my two sons play this game. It may have 25 more years to playout, perhaps...