How many of the people I went to school with earn as much money or enjoy work as much as I do?? NONE that I know of.
Good for you. I am sincerely happy for you. But I feel that you are in the minority.
There is virtually no career which is the same now as it was in the "good old days"
I agree. But I think that aviation has gone much further down the pan than most careers. I was flabbergasted when I heard that the US Airways captain (a US Air force veteran) who landed in the Hudson River had not had a payrise in ten years (with inflation, no payrise = a paycut).
My son is going into medicine and my daughter into engineering. I do not know a single young adult going into aviation. Not one
I think you have hit the nail on the head. From the day I first sat in the cockpit of a jet flying to Spain as a child (pre 9/11), it was my dream to become an airline pilot. Recently I have done all my research into the profession. I thought that could cope with the lack of job security. I even thought I could even cope with reduced terms and conditions, just as long as I got to fly. In the end however I decided that there has to be a line drawn somewhere and after much soul searching, I am studying to become a lawyer instead.
Being a pilot is no longer respected as much as it ought to be. Money itself is not important, but how much you are paid reflects how much your employer values you. For the majority of you pilots (especially the newbies), little money = little respect. In my opinion there are two reasons for this;
Firstly, the increased automation on the flight deck means that a lot of bean counters in the airlines see you pilots as a unnecessary expense. Some seem to have the mentality that "if, as Airbus suggest, these things can fly themselves, why the hell are we paying TWO guys good money to fly the bloody thing!?" Flight engineers are a thing of the past, are paid first officers going the same way? This is a European biased view (where a lot of newly qualified guys with 200 hours go straight onto heavy jets)- maybe someone can comment on turboprop life in the States?
Secondly, the marketing men who sell seats for £0.01p have devalued aviation. Yes it is wonderful that the loco's have opened up the world of flying to joe public, but it leads to a perception that operating an aircraft is cheap and easy. It isn't. Even today when I see a pilot in an airport I am filled with a strange emotion that I guess is a mixture of awe and envy. I was talking to my housemate about this the other day and he thought it was ridiculous. He sees pilots as over glorified bus drivers, an opinion that I hear is prevalent in the US and is slowly starting to creep in here in the UK too.
I'd rather make it in law, get my PPL and my CPL and fly for the love of it without administrators sucking the love out of it. And I think that's a crying shame because I feel that I (and other potential pilots) could have contributed a lot to this profession.