Originally Posted by KC10 FATboy

I know steel workers and truck drivers who make $120,000+. However, the difference is, when you have a couple of hundred of lives in your hands, people want you to be educated. And having a college degree just isn't just a piece of paper. If you go to a crappy school, it is, as well as a waste of your money and time.

A professinal pilot is just that, a professional. You aren't a plumber or any other traditional tradesman.

You are part of the problem I'm afraid. We should and expect to demand more from the people we put in the cockpit. If we don't, and any Joe the Plumber can get trained to do it, we might as well say goodbye to anychance in having a profitable career.

What scares me is, there are thousands of pilots flying who have never been schooled in the areas I mentioned above. Many of whome are just winging it.

I think we need to take the European approach to hire education. Instead of educating people to make them "well rounded", we need to train them to be masters in their fields.