Originally Posted by
Davetastic
You make it seem like the last 250 pilots hired here are the dregs of society....give them some credit. I AGREE that nothing can compare to a lifetime of experience....but pay won't automatically attract those with a lifetime of experience. In all likelihood, those with the lifetime of experience are going to stay parked where they are currently sitting.
Yes.....a legacy candidate with no CA time will face just as many challenges as a new hire here would with respect to a few differences. A 14hr flight and an ops bulletin saying "this switch should be on prior to flight" is not hard to comprehend. Are there no dmi's or ops bulletins on the 747's at other carriers?
I get what you are trying to say but in a "very controlled passenger domestic environment the WX is just as extreme as anywhere and with regards to sensitive cargo......are passengers not sensitive cargo? And what is so hard about plotting? and radio calls? So what you are saying is that legacy pilots have learners permits and we mighty Atlas pilots are the semi drivers?!!!.............(withdrawn).
I am not taking anything away from our plight to continue to fight for better work rules and pay rates but it is frustrating that guys on this forum seem to exaggerate to such an extent to make it seem that we do a job SOOOOOOOOO much different than the legacies that we should be paid more. Yes we should be paid more. But our operations are not so drastically different. They move metal...we move metal, farther.
You're kidding right? Do you actually work here? How many different variants of a 747 or a 767 do they fly at other carriers? How often do they swap, daily, between passenger and cargo ops and between day and night ops while transiting the globe under a crappy contract with shoddy work rules/minimal contractual protections and declining experience levels? How often does a pilot at legacy carrier fly a 747-8, a 747-400, a BCF and an LCF in one pattern? How often do they get min rest while doing this? How often do they circle the globe in less than a week? How often do they circle the globe twice in a month? How often do they sit the 3 kinds of reserve that we do and get paid below industry standard for it or not paid at all (R-1)? How often do the legacy guys have to play travel agent for themselves because the responsible party didn't set up air or ground trans and couldn't bother to make sure the hotel was squared away after an 18-20 hour day? How often does a legacy guy have to fight to enforce a shoddy CBA against an entity that pushes its boundaries at every opportunity? Your right, it's basically the same job... (insert sarcastic tone here) why should we get paid more? Heck we should thankful for what we have... maybe we should even seek to work for less because our job is actually easier... it's not like we carry people or anything...