Anyone interested in the Profession anymore?
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Anyone interested in the Profession anymore?
Difficult one this really. But just interested to know if you feel part of a profession, or if its all me me me. Which forum should this be in.........dunno.
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Profession?
No.
A profession would have certain standards of behavior and conduct.
Every time some schmuck shows up drunk for work it makes us look bad.
Every time you show up unshaven for work it makes us look bad. (It has to do with your O2 mask not sealing properly, primarily something that Europeans are bad at).
Every time a training bond or a self sponsored type rating is brought to light we look bad.
Every time someone accepts a flying job making peanuts it makes us all look bad.
The list is long, and it is not all a new thing, it was just a lot easier to hide back in the old days. Once the airplanes started being called "the bus" it didn't help at all.
I would like to see some decorum, dignity and respect regained by the "profession'.
Sadly being a professional pilot is the last thing I want my children to grow up to be.
A profession would have certain standards of behavior and conduct.
Every time some schmuck shows up drunk for work it makes us look bad.
Every time you show up unshaven for work it makes us look bad. (It has to do with your O2 mask not sealing properly, primarily something that Europeans are bad at).
Every time a training bond or a self sponsored type rating is brought to light we look bad.
Every time someone accepts a flying job making peanuts it makes us all look bad.
The list is long, and it is not all a new thing, it was just a lot easier to hide back in the old days. Once the airplanes started being called "the bus" it didn't help at all.
I would like to see some decorum, dignity and respect regained by the "profession'.
Sadly being a professional pilot is the last thing I want my children to grow up to be.
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DA50Driver, are there any particular Europeans that you think are unkempt and unshaven, or just every single one of us? I wouldn't want you to have to generalise if you didn't have to.
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Zoso
It has been going around for some time the UNPROFESSIONAL Look/Action, lack of respect. I will fly for peanuts types,. The money trail has followed, the behavior pattern.
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Sometimes I am tired of my duty plan - again no free weekend with the boy this month. Sometimes I am tired of management telling us again - the company is in danger because of the regular crisis of the year. Often I am tired of security touching me.
But every time for 26 years now I am proud to put on my uniform, to unlock the power of thousands of horses on the take off run, find a way through storm and snow and bring our passangers safely to their destination.
But every time for 26 years now I am proud to put on my uniform, to unlock the power of thousands of horses on the take off run, find a way through storm and snow and bring our passangers safely to their destination.
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Every time you show up unshaven for work it makes us look bad.
I am tired of management telling us again - the company is in danger because of the regular crisis of the year
Just a numbered other
Every time I pack my tea bags for work - I feel proud
Every time I stop at Boots to buy my in flight sarnies - I feel proud
Every time I let security frisk me and go through my bag - I feel proud
Every time I finish work deafened by the noise my company won't ptotect me from on cost grounds - I feel proud (so proud I bought my own noise cancelling headset which I'm not allowed to use)
Profession? No. Now a part time job for rich kids, who don't seem to mind paying more up-front for the type rating than tey'll earn in their first year!
Roll on retirement.
Every time I stop at Boots to buy my in flight sarnies - I feel proud
Every time I let security frisk me and go through my bag - I feel proud
Every time I finish work deafened by the noise my company won't ptotect me from on cost grounds - I feel proud (so proud I bought my own noise cancelling headset which I'm not allowed to use)
Profession? No. Now a part time job for rich kids, who don't seem to mind paying more up-front for the type rating than tey'll earn in their first year!
Roll on retirement.
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Calling passengers 'self loading freight' on a public forum doesn't help much either.
These are the people who pay the salaries! and a lot won't appreciate the joke.
These are the people who pay the salaries! and a lot won't appreciate the joke.
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Counting the time
Dear Colleagues, shaved, unshaved and all in between.....
It is not funny anymore to call us "Aviators", we became rather "Obstacles" in the calculation: We earn too much and do too less. Why the heck do those guy´s get so much paid for nothing? they sit there for hours and the "Autopilot" is flying. Not only in public opinion also the company employees have that in mind when they asked about the tasks of Pilots.
I agree that flying became too cheap in both ways: Acountants are running a Airline today and have a vocabulary that is disgusting. Managers having previous expirience at Fast Food Chains and try to implemente that mentality into the Catering and inflight service.
The support and planning personnel knows flying from the virtual world and not from actual expirience and there decissions are based on synthetic values how they make your monthly roster.
The devaluation of the currency is your problem and the payrise is less then the local currency is traded against the leading currencies.
We can complain as much as we like but: The smell of JetA in the morning when the "Drogon in the back" is growling in a guttural fashion, or when you fly north of the 72nd in June and is dusk and dawn at the same time, when you brought your ship safe back thru all odds to the ground and landed on the spot then we are proud of what we do and we have forgotten all odds until we get the next: Call from Dispatch, contact with the HM-BAA Security check, note from the Management that we are in the red and we need to save more money to increase the shareholder value..... that is the moment I am calculating my remaining time as per today: 6 years, 5 months and 12 days, then I am done and put the hat on the hook, as a professional Pilot. My Poston Engine Rating will be renewed after that and when it is severe CAVOK then I see myself sneaking into a Airfiled again, just for fun then.....
I have meet so many people in Aviation who where great characters, who either helped me in the beginning to become what I am today. I meet nice and interesting Individuals as who travelled with me on a flight and we spoke about interesting subjects, they sometime enriched my horizon. I could make people happy when we had them in the Flight Deck for a visit and some of them made the dream come thru.
Today? We are the obstacle at the security checkpoint and not seen at the last line of defense in some cases, we are not the ones who want to kill everybody in and with the Metal we are moving, we want the people save meet theire relatives on the other end, (Destination) have a enjoyable journey and remember that time they had.
We are seen as the Cost incentive factor and not as the save the day person when we work into discrection and extend the duty time to the max. to ensure 24/7 that the ball is rolling and the clock keeps ticking. A old saying is: Try an accident and then make the math.... SAFETY is a priority but the factor is unknown in the calculation.
So now I am off to the Office and see what comes next, I hope it is not another slam in the face. We have two cheeks, if we get hit on the right we can offer the left... Is that not where we are going in some cases the last decade??
It is not funny anymore to call us "Aviators", we became rather "Obstacles" in the calculation: We earn too much and do too less. Why the heck do those guy´s get so much paid for nothing? they sit there for hours and the "Autopilot" is flying. Not only in public opinion also the company employees have that in mind when they asked about the tasks of Pilots.
I agree that flying became too cheap in both ways: Acountants are running a Airline today and have a vocabulary that is disgusting. Managers having previous expirience at Fast Food Chains and try to implemente that mentality into the Catering and inflight service.
The support and planning personnel knows flying from the virtual world and not from actual expirience and there decissions are based on synthetic values how they make your monthly roster.
The devaluation of the currency is your problem and the payrise is less then the local currency is traded against the leading currencies.
We can complain as much as we like but: The smell of JetA in the morning when the "Drogon in the back" is growling in a guttural fashion, or when you fly north of the 72nd in June and is dusk and dawn at the same time, when you brought your ship safe back thru all odds to the ground and landed on the spot then we are proud of what we do and we have forgotten all odds until we get the next: Call from Dispatch, contact with the HM-BAA Security check, note from the Management that we are in the red and we need to save more money to increase the shareholder value..... that is the moment I am calculating my remaining time as per today: 6 years, 5 months and 12 days, then I am done and put the hat on the hook, as a professional Pilot. My Poston Engine Rating will be renewed after that and when it is severe CAVOK then I see myself sneaking into a Airfiled again, just for fun then.....
I have meet so many people in Aviation who where great characters, who either helped me in the beginning to become what I am today. I meet nice and interesting Individuals as who travelled with me on a flight and we spoke about interesting subjects, they sometime enriched my horizon. I could make people happy when we had them in the Flight Deck for a visit and some of them made the dream come thru.
Today? We are the obstacle at the security checkpoint and not seen at the last line of defense in some cases, we are not the ones who want to kill everybody in and with the Metal we are moving, we want the people save meet theire relatives on the other end, (Destination) have a enjoyable journey and remember that time they had.
We are seen as the Cost incentive factor and not as the save the day person when we work into discrection and extend the duty time to the max. to ensure 24/7 that the ball is rolling and the clock keeps ticking. A old saying is: Try an accident and then make the math.... SAFETY is a priority but the factor is unknown in the calculation.
So now I am off to the Office and see what comes next, I hope it is not another slam in the face. We have two cheeks, if we get hit on the right we can offer the left... Is that not where we are going in some cases the last decade??
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Unshaven
It is not every European, as I am one and I do shave. I even run a brush through my hair from time to time.
Beemer. if the plane is called a bus then it certainly needs a driver. If it was more like a limousine then I would have used DA50Chauffeur.
Beemer. if the plane is called a bus then it certainly needs a driver. If it was more like a limousine then I would have used DA50Chauffeur.
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I am afraid you are all correct!!!It makes me very angry,when Headmasters of State Schools seem to have salaries over £150,000,and even Tube Drivers have salaries over £60,000,with gold plated pensions to go with it,and generally Civil Servants under the Blair/Brown regime simply ran over the rest of us,who had their Pensions eroded,or changed to Money Purchase,and Salaries with no increments or 1-2% because the Airlines were in hard times.If we went on strike,or even complained the P45 and the door was the only response from management,or a quick sim check and a black on your 206.The current ATPL First Officer has or his parents have,paid the best part of £60,000 for an equivalent Degree Course,to be paid in washers,and some nearly have to work for free!!This is one of the few professions where you are Line Checked and Sim checked every 6 months,with the job on the line,because you are told there are masses who want your job,so you had better be good,and then medically checked to make sure you have not cracked up!!!!!!:I used to have a 10 days on with maybe 5 off roster,living in ever decreasing standards of Hotel,trying to sleep during the day in parts of the world with high humidity,and temperatures with loud wurlitzers that may or may not work properly.Then after a full work period to fly or position back to UK and then drive home in a state of exhaustion,to have to do it all over again in a few days time.It used to be the best job in the world,but now I just wonder and thank God my Kids are not interested.Even if you survive to retirement,and many of my friends and colleagues have not even made my age,then the Aviation Induced Divorce Syndrome can hit you,because you have been away so much and the Kids have run riot!!The Mortgage has to be paid and life has to go on,but is Aviation now worth it??
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I live in a part of the world where being a pilot is still a career, where only crappy companies and smaller charter and cargo operators accept self sponsoring. We have a crazy idea that pilots are the last line of defense and in my home base I am not even frisked 
We work as hard as pilots everywhere but we insist on a yearly increase of 6% and we respect our profession enough to demand that no pilot -not even deadheads and positioning- should ever go on board with some stubble.
We are leaders and insist that even the most junior first officer should act in that manner, we know our manuals, maintenance manuals, loading manuals and cabin crew manuals so that we can maintain our position as pilots, and not as "backups to the autopilot"
We stand up to management everyday on issues that seem trivial to our counterparts up north, but we refuse to allow our erosion of rights to start.
I am not patronizing anyone, sincerely, I wish you have it as sweet as us
, I am just answering the question, I might lose the passion one day but if we can maintain our standards, I might be in here for the long haul.
We work as hard as pilots everywhere but we insist on a yearly increase of 6% and we respect our profession enough to demand that no pilot -not even deadheads and positioning- should ever go on board with some stubble.
We are leaders and insist that even the most junior first officer should act in that manner, we know our manuals, maintenance manuals, loading manuals and cabin crew manuals so that we can maintain our position as pilots, and not as "backups to the autopilot"
We stand up to management everyday on issues that seem trivial to our counterparts up north, but we refuse to allow our erosion of rights to start.
I am not patronizing anyone, sincerely, I wish you have it as sweet as us
, I am just answering the question, I might lose the passion one day but if we can maintain our standards, I might be in here for the long haul.
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Arkroyal,
Re your second point, can't remember where you are based, but if it's STN you should really consider upgrading your self-catering to Pret a Manger.
You are worth it ! !
Re your second point, can't remember where you are based, but if it's STN you should really consider upgrading your self-catering to Pret a Manger.
You are worth it ! !
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I wouldn't fly for a high salary. I would fly a living. Alas, I will never raise the funds to support getting some stripes, not in this day and age anyway.
I suppose I will stick to being your friendly dispatcher! Can't complain really, its one of the next best thing which I really do enjoy, I'm proud to be doing what I do.
I suppose I will stick to being your friendly dispatcher! Can't complain really, its one of the next best thing which I really do enjoy, I'm proud to be doing what I do.
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I wouldn't fly for a high salary. I would fly a living.
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Unfortunately times change though. I'm willing to bet every penny I have (which is not many 
) that everyone out there flying today is not doing it "for the money". Sure its an added bonus, but it's just not there anymore.
Airlines going bust, redundancies.. In today's world, you have to pay yourself to do the job and take a low wage for the honor of sitting up front. It may be destroying the Pilot image for "back in the day" But times change, And I agree it is unfortunate. However people will still do what it takes for that honor, and will spend there life paying it off. It's sad really.
) that everyone out there flying today is not doing it "for the money". Sure its an added bonus, but it's just not there anymore.Airlines going bust, redundancies.. In today's world, you have to pay yourself to do the job and take a low wage for the honor of sitting up front. It may be destroying the Pilot image for "back in the day" But times change, And I agree it is unfortunate. However people will still do what it takes for that honor, and will spend there life paying it off. It's sad really.