Roncho
Nobody said you were immature. (Not on this thread anyway), in fact, I happen to agree with Pandora, in that you do have a valid point. The problem is that you seem to start off every posting by insulting someone, and even if this is just intended to emphasise a point, it actually ends up obscuring the point, because people won't read past it.
I agree with you partly (I think) apart from the BA bit. The whole point about the JAR regs is that they are designed to price private individuals out of the market, and force the airlines to recruit cadets based on personal qualities, such as BA do now. The fact is that this has just not happened yet, but if it did, then piloting would be like any other job, where all you need to have to get it is the right abilities and personality. If the airlines thought you didn't have the right stuff, then they wouldn't employ you, and this would make it harder for @r$eholes to sneak onto the flight deck (though not impossible, as this thread has shown).
I'm not saying that self-sponsored candidates are second rate. They still have to get employed, but then the pool of potential pilots is <artificially> limited mostly by the number of people with the commitment or money to get their commercials. IMHO this does not produce the pilots, but the problem lies with the airlines and their lack of enthusiasm in coughing up for training costs.
Pie
[This message has been edited by Pielander (edited 07 April 2001).]