I feel for you but you have to play the game in order to get hired. It isn't a meaningless number. It raises a huge red flag for most recruiters that either the person doesn't have time management skills, learns slower then others, or can't deal with the bureaucracy of college. College isn't meant to have people working three jobs and going to school full time. If your grades suffered then you should have taken fewer classes. If you needed to graduate ASAP then your stuck with the reality that that number will be looked at for at least the next 10 yrs.

If you realize that your gpa is your weak point then you need to tell them that you worked three jobs to pay for flying and I would still expect them to hold it against you. You need to fill the rest of your resume with some impressing stuff. Volunteer, gold seal instructor, take a few graduate level courses at a cheap school (and get A's), learn another language etc... make it a small blip on your record vs the last big indicator they have to judge you on.