The thought of paying college athletes is a pathetic statement. I made it in pure jest. They are offered a chance at an education, and also the chance to play on a big stage that for many will be the farthest they will ever go. To pay them is a travesty, and to call it any kind of indentured servitude is a horrible metaphor. Yes the universities make money off of them.. so what? If they don't want to play college ball, they should be welcome to go straight to the NBA or NFL.. or whatever. But when they go there and fail and wind up on welfare or whatever... not the university's problem. They are offered the chance to get a free education for their athletic skillset. No one is forcing them to play. I think that if they go one and done they should have to pay back the scholarship money so that someone that might appreciate it could benefit. It all sucks. I don't know that I would be very proud as a UK fan going forward knowing how they will be winning in years to come. But I am a bit more of a purist when it comes to college sports.. Personally.. I couldn't care less about a national championship in football. I used to love the bowl season when they had names like the Sugar Bowl, and the Tangerine Bowl without all the corporate sponsorship.. but like you said, it's all about the money. Sad

/rant

http://golf-pants.org/wp-content/upl...golf-pants.jpg

Mind if I catch a ride fellas...

Awesome...and the cigarette really seals the deal.:D

Timeout... that was not me that said what you quoted. I had quoted someone else and left out the quotes... I agree with you and know that you are exactly correct..

Just clarifying the record.

thats a goof. :D

but it is kind of funny in its own way.

it's kind of laborious typing on iphone.

Tsquare,

I agree with you 100%, and thought what you wrote was well said. I wouldn't have characterized it as a rant.

Line pilots are presented with a continuous series of potentially unsafe "conditions". Be they meteorological, mechanical or other. Each of those conditions is only truly unsafe if the pilot doesn't have the skills to handle it and/or the judgment and experience to know when to avoid it.
In order to recruit and retain professionals who possess those qualities you have to compensate them appropriately.
Its my opinion that our compensation has fallen well below that level.
Airlines are operating on a sort of "safety inertia" right now. We need to reverse the degradation of this profession or there will be consequences.
We're already seeing that reflected in certain accident reports.

At what level though? Regionals, or the Majors who have had the opportunity to cherry pick for the better park of a decade? I really hope we didn't hire a bunch of substandard pilots in 2010.

One only has to look as far as the safety record in India to tell you what a chronic pilot shortage gets you.

Completely agree with you about safety inertia too, or as I call it the kind of luck that wakes you up in the middle of the night.

I watched that whole video waiting for somebody to crash. Very disappointing.

Better, "I watched the whole video waiting for underboob."