Special natural aptitude
I wish someone could specify what "special natural aptitude", and "natural abilities", you would need to obtain an ATPL ?
In my humble opinion(did my ATPL 22 years ago), the average Jo, stands a much better chance of beeing successful at memorizing a multiple choice question bank, than earning a degree in medisin or ingeneering. Most student pilots do not have any seroius problems with the practical training either( I was previously an instructor )
But education level is not very relevant to what your net income is, an uneducated rough neck, doing odd jobs on the deck of an oil platform in the North sea, working shifts two weeks on, four weeks off, in many cases makes more than an airline pilot.
The airlines figured out long ago that you don`t have to pay pilots premium salary to employ them, there are even numnuts out there willing to pay to work. Do the airlines employ "the best and the brightest" ?
Not anymore, they employ people pursuing a dream, and who are willing to pay for it.
I am still paid well, although not as well as before, this will not change until pilots are in short supply, and I can`t see that happend in the near future.