Originally Posted by
KC10 FATboy
I think the material has too much slant towards being negative. Lets face it, many other careers have similar perils. People have to make informed decisions, but after reading this page, I don't see why anyone would enter the profession. And I believe that is probably not being fair to the profession.
I know where you and Albie are coming from, but I have one foot in the other side of aviation too.
Unfortunately the reality is that there is a lot of potential negative, especially early on. Unlike the past, the big financial payoff at the end is no longer available to most people entering the profession today. Dues paying used to make a lot more sense...
I would not refuse to recommend the profession to newcomers, but I would be very selective about who I recommend it to. The ideal person would have a true passion for aviation (as opposed to a passion for status, money, etc), would be young, motivated, educated, and single. And they would already be a private pilot...if a non-pilot wants to talk about airline careers, I tell him to go learn to fly then come talk to me.
We don't need any more mediocre kids who think it would be cool to fly a jet, have 20 days off a month, and make $300K by age 25...but couldn't have even succeeded in the general aviation world if it weren't for a puppy mill.