Pinkaroo.
BA 747-400.
Year 9 First Officer.
£4800-£5200 pcm after tax inc alllowances.
Close to 900 hrs per year.
13/14 days off pm
final salary pension.
Health care
LOL
Staff travel
BA Eurofleet Maincrew
Year 3
1200-2100 after tax inc allowances
Close to 900 hrs per year
10 days off pm
NO healthcare
Staff travel
NO loss of job cover
And CC are overpaid according to you fellows! CC must take a paycut to save the company?
Many years ago, back when the command course was residential and held in leafy Surrey, we spent a day being lectured on aviation law by Russ Kane, an Aer Lingus Captain who was also a barrister specialising in Aviation Law. It was an illuminating, sobering, and very....scary.... day. He highlighted exactly the responsibility that holding the position of aircraft commander means in law, and all of us walked out of the room, heads spinning, thinking what on Earth were we doing this for. Montreal Convention, Warsaw Convention, ANO, ICAO, but the single biggest thing he impressed home was this....
You know that big book in the cockpit Pinkaroo? The one that is red on ETOPS aircraft, called the "Tech Log." Well, signing that places certain responsibilities on the aircraft commander. Certain legal responsibilities that can be pursued through court to the end. The Aircraft Commander, by signing acceptance of the aircraft, signs those responsibilities onto his/her shoulders by dint of holding the licence granted by the issuing authority.
Do you know the bottom line of that responsibility? If you want it, given your role within the company, you can have it. However, you neither know it, nor take it on your shoulders, that is why primarily there is a fundamental difference in remuneration. After all, there is in reality only two ways that you are rewarded, it is for revenue generation( as in premiership footballers) or acceptance of serious responsibility.
Next time you venture into a cockpit, take a look in the document folder; its location varies within aircraft, but I'm sure the Flight Crew, (not Flight Deck, that is the location in which you will find the Flight Crew, not their designation) will show you.
Then, find the insurance document. Have a look at the single-incident liabiity figure. That is what you, as Captain, sign on to your shoulders every time you sign an aircraft out, on the behalf of the company. Yes, of course it is a worst-case scenario, crashing an aircraft into a convention hall full off nasty, rapacious American Lawyers would be an example, but that's the figure.
You can argue for similarity of treatment all you like, but you are not legally responsible for the $2 Billion merely by inhabiting the same aluminium tube.
If you want to be responsible for it, and all that entails, then by all means, have it. However, you don't, therefore your role, and mine, are in no way compatible. Not an emotive point, merely a legal statement of fact.
An aircraft is not a democracy. It is a pyramid. A legal pyramid, with the commander at the top, and everyone else, copilot, crew, passengers of no legal consequence when it comes to culpability. Sorry, but that is how it is. Of course, people will aim for the biggest pockets, and go for the company as the Commander is the company's representative, but that is why the differential exists.