WCS

Can't argue with your point about forgetting about work when you go home. However, that raises another point, that of the amount of time you spend away from home. Even many SH companies now send their pilots away for tours of up to five days to say nothing of the amount of time the LH boys 'n' gals spend away sometimes.

I think that this subject is done to death every so often. We are arguing cross purposes here: from your post I take it that your stance is that remuneration should be based on academic achievement. I am absolutely sure that it takes far more study to become an engineer than it does to become a commercial pilot. However, I believe it should be based on responsibility and accountability. Also, captains don't come out of a CAP 509 course with 210 hours under their belt. Let's face it the types of salaries you are talking about are senior captains on jumbos and 777's. People who have been waiting up to 17 years to get there. Sure, there are charter companies who pay their captains a fair whack, but I wouldn't want their job, at least not the SH side of it!

Then of course there is the precariousness of the job. You have the instance of the chap who was initially sacked for ridiculing a scaremongering racist pax (admittedly doing it on the PA was a bit unnecessary!). Not to mention the various health problems that can get you grounded as mentioned above.

No, we don't get calls out of hours because we have strict laws on rest periods and duty times which the CAA have seen fit to impliment. We have to abide by them or risk losing our licences. If you had genuine concerns about the quality of your work due to lack of rest, then it is up to you (as a body) to make those concerns known and make a case for introducing restrictions.

Instead of beating us down and bleating about how good we get it, why don't you make a case for improved conditions for yourselves? The wonderful thing about capitalism is that it is self regulating and you makes your choices and takes your chances.

[ 06 November 2001: Message edited by: Secret Squirrel ]

Secret squirrel in his last paragraph makes some sense. The reason that flight crew have their ivory tower is that as a body they have a very strong identity. Most companies think twice about taking their flight crews on over any issue. Why do you think there has been very little news on the pain flight crews are taking while engineers are loosing overtime, allowances, pay and even jobs. Pay is set by market forces but status is decided by the strength of your bargaining position. If it were different then certifiers would have First Officer status, at least. This is not such a ridiculous suggestion when you consider the contribution a certifier makes to an airlines operation. The reason we don't is that our representative body is not strong or cohesive enough to bring pressure. We even have cabin crew and in flight beauticians as members now. Secret squirrel has a point when he sayes we need to take this issue in hand as a body, and force our status higher. Your thoughts please.