are you proud to be a pilot?
 

damn yes, I am proud to be a pilot.
I paid all my license, I fly for more than 20 years, and I am still looking to fly something new or ad a rating on my license.

I am an aviator, a pilot, and it' s not these monkeys in the aviation who will put me down. I fly for money, I feel I am needed, and I deliver an excellent job. I love to fly anything! small to big, it doesn't matter.

I am what we call a true pilot.
are you one? are you proud of your profession?

Slightly odd thread. I think there are many many people out there who are incredibly proud to be pilots, tell all their friends and always make a fuss about what they do (not saying you are like that) the problem is I expect everyone who is paying to fly 320's 737's etc or who have accepted laughable conditions just to be able to say "I am an airline pilot" make up a vast number of these "proud" pilots. Its funny though as these guys have a disease, mental problems and should not be proud, they should be ashamed of what they are doing.

I am proud of what I do, sure, it was hard to get here but I made it and believe I do a good job. I think if you made it without hurting the industry, know your stuff and are professional about your job you deserve to feel proud as it is not an easy industry to get into or do well in. I often feel like it is just a job, I expect it gets like that for many but that goes away the second I am standing on the apron looking up at that monster and I don't even really get to fly it yet :-) Starts feeling like just a job again once sitting there bored 7 hours into the flight but yeah I am proud of what I do.

'Very strange piece of dangerous jungle down there'
as Auntie Amelia might have said!

But that was in the old days of aviation, before it became a life style choice but when there were fliers around. Altogether a better word for what sums up some in our own minds perhaps.

Now a days, becoming a pilot is like buying a commission in the military in the eighteen hundreds or even the last century. It is just the same, the amount of money you have decides how far up in the commissioned ranks you can start yourself off. Let's say that an A320 rating makes you a Colonel and so work on down to a B737 which commissions in at a Lieutenancy? Then you get the new officers who decide how they are going to run their campaigns. Those could be called the P2F officers. Those guys buy their cavalry seats as the equivalent of an aide de camp. The experience might come with time but it is not necessarily earned. It comes in a candy wrapper with Ben Franklin on the paper.
So today, is flying a profession? Well, were the men who bought commissions in the old European armies professional soldiers? If you answer yes to that question, then who are the monkeys out there?

A) "What do you do for a living?"

B) "I'm a pilot"

A) "You don't do much do you, You just sit there?"
"The plane takes off and lands by itself doesn't it"
"Doesn't the computer do everything?"
"Isn't it boring, just sitting there?"
"I was going to do that but the money is crap isn't it?"
"How safe are ryanair, I hear they only employ the cheapest rubbish pilots"

B)

A) " I work in an office, I'm really important, it's really exciting etc"

sounds a bit like a line of lyrics, a little bit like "The Joker" :}

My version:
A) What do you do?

B) I'm an Airline Pilot

A) Oh, wow fantastic (looks suitably impressed). Who do you work for?

B) Ryanair

A) Oh. (Now looks like I just told him I'm a kiddy fiddler). :ugh:

In answer to the original question, I love my job but with the current situation with all these plebs paying to fly and destroying the lives of the rest of us then no I'm not proud of the profession.

OTOH, I pay no attention to these younger guys...if they want to pay, that is their privilege.
Having said this, I'm a senior guy, and when the company calles and says...'I hope you are available', I say....'of course I am, same daily rate as before?'
The company says...'yes, and maybe more.'
I say...'be there in three days.'

A win/win scenario.

Im too lazy to work and too scared to steal......... what else can i do?

yesterday Mr Computer wouldn't play ball...

Mr Aircraft still had to earn its living and then was manually flown for 4 sectors by its kind and keen crew.

I'm very proud indeed and drove back home with a great feeling of well deserved salary.

iam NOT proud of this profession.

gone to the dogs!!!! Not very many happy bunnies out there these days. Get rid to the bean counters

I'm a bus driver ....only on less pay:ugh:

Yes. Nothing I'd rather be.

Proud?? In the beginning yes. And now i'm talking about 3.5 years ago. But now??? If i can have a job for the same money and having a more regular job, i would not hesitate for a second. T & C going down, every year medical, opc's, english prof checks and all that stuff, no, it makes me every time wonder why i'm still doing this job.

I was a Royal Air Force jet fighter pilot for 12 years...Then a British Airways pilot for 22 years. Now I'm retired and 77 years old.

When I look back I have to say that the best time of my life was in the RAF and I just loved it :)

Proud........not anymore. The big orange machine kicked the pride out of me!

Where else can you get paid for doing something that you love. Sure beats working for a living:ok::O. The good old airline ID which gets me a discounts on hotels, food, car rentals around the world:ok:.

If you love flying then this is the place to be! :ok:

If you want paying, then go become a lawyer....;)

Yes the job has t and c beaten down, but you most surely be proud of your job! I know there are charity workers paid peanuts that are hugely proud of their job!

You dont need to be paid a lot to be proud of your job and achievements!

Yes you are not paid as what you were 10 yrs ago, but every day you climb aboard a hugely expensive piece of kit, fly the bucket and spade brigade to costa del sol, safely and on time. No matter how grim and miserable the weather is, you climb through it into blue sunshine. That is an achievement, and ask anyone that sits at a desk full time (I have been staring at the same spreadsheet since 7am, 12 hrs ago, and get paid less!) and they would swap their left nut to be in your office in the sky

Proud? One day I will set the parking brake for good and if I did not bend the metal and hurt or killed someone, this will be the day when I am proud to be a pilot. Not before.