I am not defending either the motives or practices of CX. I have never worked at CX either.
I am merely trying to say that the previous generation of pilots had to work their way up from light twins, turboprops, etc to eventually end up as a SFO on a shiny jet with a somewhat decent salaryand a few thousand hours TT. The Aviation industry is a difficult environment, has always been.
It appears to me that the cadets expect to earn vast amounts of money and buy family size homes in the most expensive city when they have only a few hundred hours experience under the belt. They are only spared the slugging away on a delapidated light twin or turboprop. The previous generation also earned peanuts during their low-time years.
They seem to be even unhappy having to make good a number of years at CX. Getting paid a salary even during their training period, doing Zero-to-Hero in just over a year. It took me over 7 years to get my PPL to ATPL (subjects) part time and another 2 years full time flying to get my full ATPL.
Just a question to some of these impatient ones..... If you are a B777 or A320 Captain by the age of 30, what are you going to keep yourself interested with until your retirement at 65 or 70 ? Complaining about the boring airline food, the useless cabin crew, bitch all day about your 'right to get confirmed rebate travel' and... and .... and....
Aviation is a life long journey with many peaks and troughs. Beautifull views may become scary ones too. Making lifelong friends that may bring you lots of happyness or strenious proffessional and personal relationships.
It takes many years: lots of hard work, lots of stresses and strains, lots of practice, and above all, lots of patience...
I sometimes wonder if the cadets do not miss out on some 'real flying' by not doing the 'regional turboprop fight-it-out in the thunderstorm and icing' experience as a young and enthusiastic pilot. I have found it to be a very good learning school for both myself and my flying skills. Today, they are also the source of my best flying memories and passenger stories, especially after the cockpit door became locked (post 9/11). Without that, airline flying is very much 'just transport' / computer sidekick, etc...
Last edited by Nirak; 29th Jul 2012 at 09:33.