Not too short but too far
@ Tommy Robinson and Birdy 767
Having read your coments, I would like to reply that whilst you are undoubtedly skilled personel, I really don't think ( personal opinion) you represent the peak of humanity you believe you are and should be , either by natural ability ( TR) or bureaucratic means ( B767 ).
B 767 first.
Since I am renovating an old house, I often consult UK tradesmen ( artisans' )websites. Plumbers are always calling for restrictions on their work because of cheap Poles and others spoiling their market ( by the way we are only talking about water here, gas is regulated by law ). To me this sounds a lot like you pilots bitching about market conditions although you are already protected by licencing regulations and learning costs ( barriers to entry as Warren Buffet would say ) and are already complaining from a much higher level ( but that would explain the much greater level of self-pitying whining, wouldn't it ? )
When times are good you naturally don't post about how superb things are and how easy it is to screw the airlines, but when they are bad you are out in force and the employers are Beelezebub whereas they are simply your mirror-image !
B767 - This is a zero-sum game: your gain is a loss for airlines and passengers, so try and accept it as that and live with the swings and roundabouts. If you really want to involve the tossers in Brussels, then I think you ought to be sectioned ( means sent to a hospital for mad people ) because they truly are the arseholes of the world.
TR - No longer have your mail in front of me because I haven't mastered this forum by a long way, but will try to reply from memory.
Was it unfair that your relative failed his ATPL ( ?) on a bad day ? Obviously the stakes were enormously different but I failed my driving test on a "bad-day" i.e. I wasn't good enough on the day, which was judged o.k. for the test.
Irrespective of the money/time involved testing procedures are still open to variation due to human involvement: if there is no proof of fraud/incompetence/breach of procedures, then better to forget and try again or give up and try something else.
Finally , as a comment to the pilots' self-image as being 1 in 100,000 , I would like to summarise ( from memory) something I read several years ago ( don't know where) about pilots in WW II.
This basically said that after basic screening for health and sight, a group of young men ( 18 - 25 ? not volunteers ) could be taken for pilot selection - ) and approx 20 % would be taken for pilots.
This was for combat missions lasting 6- 12 hours, in sub-zero temperatures with phenomenal adrenaline-boosts when crossing the enemy ( !) coast with AA -fire, night-fighter attack until the target and then AA- fire over the target, followed by exactly the same all the way home with miserable navigation-aids.
The sober conclusion was that a significant number of young men were capable of being pilots during a period that was 100 times more demanding than is currently experienced by airline-pilots.
Take this into account, compare and think where you are in this situation
Don't push it.
Pilots are not super-humans but skilled individuals selling their services like accountants, salemen, architects( lots of lives at stake there)