Originally Posted by
SkyHigh
Pilots are willing to accept a large portion of their compensation in the form of job satisfaction. It is a fact that college educated people will take an interesting sounding job or promotion over wages and benefits. Night school trained truck drivers will not. They need real money before they will show up for work.
This thread is timely and ironic. Just yesterday I was offered a truck driving job by a business acquaintance. The wages and working conditions I was offered as a new truck driver are better than what most regional airline captains get. Not only would the company would pay for my training I would be home every night and would get total control over my schedule.
I was told years ago by a former aviation employer that "pilots are a dime a dozen". Yesterday I was told by my business acquaintance that "intelligent responsible people who can test clean of drugs are hard to come by in the trades". I have value as a truck driver but none as a pilot.
SKyhigh
Wow, unfortunately you are so right and it says volumes about our industry.
I think if we want to bring back high paychecks, we need to up the standards and education to be pilots. And that is a tough sell because some of us wouldn't make the cut. I mentioned in another post a few days ago about how a buddy of mine went the Australia and his FAA ATP wasn't recognized. He had to go through all sorts of classes and flight training before getting the Aussie ATPL.
But as you pointed out, if there are people lining up to do the job because its cool and exciting all while accepting lower and lower pay scales, we are doomed.