Abagnale,
Question!! How would you even know if they "paid to fly"?
If you worked for Lion Air for 2 years as an FO where does that say "pay to fly"? You dont have to say that you paid to fly on your CV only an idiot would put that in bold writing.
The industry is changing its not like how it was 20 years ago where the airline trained you from PPL or paid for your type rating...have you forgotten there is a world wide recession! Airlines are only just staying a float and your still expecting great pay and training paid for.....Yeah right,
obviously there has to be a limit on what is fair pay and sh*t pay.
How can you guys who already got jobs, say to new pilots that you want them to sit it out for a few years/ "wait your turn" till things get better. If you are lucky enough to have the money you should take control of the situation.
Aviation has always been a never ending pit of money!! I personally think it comes down to jealousy, some people have the money to do it whilst others dont so they complain, and if you have the money you would do the same.
Its not the pilots who wreck the industry its the market and the airlines themselves...us pilots are only the monkeys doing what the organ grinder says. If the requirements where 500 TT and then the airline trains you up then there wouldnt be a need for TRTO or line flying schemes, But if the airline wants 2000 TT and 500 hours on type how they hell are you going to get that!!???.
New pilots are in a catch 22 situation..."Need experience to get the job, Cant get experience because you need a job to gain it"...so these schools are breaking the cycle or you could say found a gap in the market.
Paying to get yourself in the right hand seat and fly AND get paid for it is wrong and that is the true definition of pay to fly. Paying to fly in the RHS for 500 hours WITHOUT getting paid then after your back on your own two feet trying to get a job is not what I call paying for a job at all. All you have done is paid an FO to take some time off and have a nice holiday for a year.
So my advice is, instead of slatting the scheme off how about you actually look into what the program is about then make your judgement, because everyone who complains about it dont really know what the program is about or how its run, all they see is PAY TO FLY!!
P.s Quote "stop turning this profession into a monkey occupation." Well with Technology getting better and pilots using autopilots instead of flying it themselves, pilots are there for Monitoring purposes and for "Human comfort" Technology is getting better and better making flying alot easier why is the airline going to pay a guy £120K a year to turn a few knobs on an MCP and auto land it at the end?
A phrase that an engineer told me comes to mind, "you can train a monkey to ride a bike, but you cant get him to fix one"
Last edited by punk666; 10th Dec 2009 at 12:04.