Have a bloody good mate in ATC....
Ex military driver and does the occassional civie sortie.
Good money at the moment but you gotta read between the lines. a lot of the stuff about how well paid they are is akin to the stuff that mentions how well paid pilets are! The big boys maybe, but bug smasher drivers, not necessarily so(depends on the company though-in case boss reads this!
) Not all ATC guys earn mega bucks and some of them get stuck in Enroute "Cubicles" (note Dilbert principle) for years....Nothing makes that seem like fun!
The changes of recent times indicate a gradual decline in the position of the ATC. As my good mate mentions, "yeah we might earn a bit more money, but is it better to have a full bank account at the end of the day, or a full fun account?"
It is into the latter category that most drivers fit. My choice is a fun account, although I must admit without a change in the current regime, most of us will never be able to accumulate sufficient to retire on......Superannuation is an illusion for the PAYG mugs like most of us, without the higher earning potential whether that happens to be in QF or AirServices Australia
It is not the industry so much as the fact that the working poor as a group are growing. you simply find it near impossible to accumulate sufficient to retire upon when you earn less than 40K per annum, no matter what the job. Unless you live on fresh air for 30 years....Coupled with the fact you spend huge dollars getting into this..
I'll hop off my soap box, fun account will be full hopefully when i retire, and I'll spend whatever is left before the kids get into it (if they come along that is!)
"9 iron james"