John Smith, I have a major problem with the idea we are massively overpaid. I was told by someone far wiser than myself that increased pay is a result of increased responsibility. We as Airline Pilots do not earn top wages necessarily for the skills we have, because as has been shown, most moderately intelligent people can operate an Airbus or Boeing when it's all hunky dory. Admittedly to varying levels of competence. We are paid because we are responsible for a couple if hundred lives, a couple of hundred million dollars worth of aircraft, and potentially billions of dollars worth of litigation, and when it all goes a bit wrong, bad weather, broken aircraft, that responsibility, that was always there, comes to the fore.
Unless you fly for BA or one of the major carriers, chances are your company would not survive a major hull loss that could be attributed to pilot error. So it baffles me why we consistently look to place the lowest level of experience at the lowest possible price into the cockpit.
The other often overlooked point is experience. The experienced skippers know when to ask for that shortcut, likely patterns of ATC, how best to avoid weather, when to go when not to go. They are generally just more efficient. And that's my viewpoint looking on at them as a reasonably inexperienced guy. The good ones, are in my opinion worth their weight in gold (or should be) to the airline because they just seem to make the whole operation run more smoothly, and yet we actively drive them away?
We can only up our T&C's if we stop being so self depreciating, and realise we are highly skilled professionals, with bags of responsibility. I also agree with all of the points about OAA/CTC pilot factories creating a massive oversupply. IMHO BALPA needs to start taking more of a front role on these issues, in addition to their work on Safety and other political lobbying. Too often I feel as if my union is more interested in protecting me from lasers, than they are an accountants pen.