RedeyeAV8r

Sky high I am beginning to see why you never made it in this industry. You have a pretty low opinion of yourself and the Job. Comparing a Professional Airline Pilot to a Garbageman is idiotic.

First point, there aren't any 6 month wonders flying Big Airliners that I have seen, let alone any Captains. Every Major Airline requires a 4 year degree, Comm-INST-MEL. Most desire an ATP with 1000 hours of PIC turbine. You don't get that in in 6 months.........let alone 1 year or 2.

Oh And your Parametic "Friend" needed a 4 year BS degree in nursing before he or she could become an Physicians assistant, which requires atleast an additional year of school as well as On the job experience. (Good on him/her BTW for having the drive and intitative.)

The 2 careers (Airline Pilot and Doctor) are different I'll grant you. But both are Professionals. Both "require" college and years of technical school and on the job training. I can't perform a appendectomy or Triple By-pass, But I'll bet your typical Doctor can't perform many of the tasks Professional Airline Pilots do on a daily basis. Money really has nothing to do with it........

And if you talk with many Doctors one on one, they will tell you that their job isn't what it use to be either. HMO's have destroyed many a private practice and now require the Doctor to have and assembly line mentality in the office..........no more than 10 minutes per patient, we must keep the productivity up.

SkyHigh

RedeyeAV8r,


Actually I have an accurate opinion of airline pilots. In the 1960's major airlines hired 20 year old kids with 200 hours and not a day of college. In 3 months they were serving on the flight deck. Though I have never been in the military I have been told that the military invests only a few hundred hours into training before they take a roll as line pilot to be followed a short time later as aircraft commander.

College and minimum flight times are false restrictions placed upon the application process by HR to restrict the flood of airline hopefuls. It is not difficult to become a professional grade pilot nor is college and experience all that necessary. Modern planes are making it easier everyday.

Medicine requires a high degree of dedication, intellect and education. The ranks of doctors are restricted by many factors. Their profession has suffered however most do far better than the majority of major airline pilots and can look forward to a bright future. The reason is that they have a rare and in demand skill to offer. An airline pilot can be made in less than six months. It takes more dedication and time invested in training to become licensed to cut hair.

A more interesting question is "why do you think you are worth so much"? Right now someone is doing your job at Gemini for less than half.

SkyHigh

PS. You are right. My friend does have a previous four year degree before he became a PA.

tomgoodman

Medicine is the most noble career to which any mere groundling can aspire, and therefore merits high compensation. A pilot, to paraphrase Mark Twain, "cares for nothing but the sky, and his pride in his profession exceeds that of kings." He is not "paid", but offered monetary tribute by the pitifully earthbound, that he may grant them the miracle of his magic.

RedeyeAV8r

SKY HIGH

You love to fire off BS examples.................

In the 1960's there were a few (very few ) flight cadets that were hired with little time. You forget that back then (actually you were in diapers) If you were lucky enough to get hired at UAL, PAN-AM or TWA you sat as an Engineer (non Pilot) for 5-10 years and that is assuming you passed the training and checkrides. Then if you were lucky enough to upgrade you flew as a FO for another 10 years with a very seasoned CAPT. You got lots of on the Job traing under Adult supervision. Deregualtion changed that and since 1978 you haven't seen the Major Airlines hiring 300 hour wonders......( well UAL hired a few because of EEOC lawsuits but it bit them) But as a whole, to be competitive at a Major you need 3,000 hours or more of Quality Flight time (Jet time not c-180's) as well as CAPT time. While, I'll admit, you really don't need a "College" degree to fly, there is a reason for it. It shows you have the smarts, the initiative and maturity to someday be a CAPT. Most the Airlines don't hire you as an FO, they hire you as a future CAPT.

Your right, you haved never served or flown in the Military.
Saying the Military on invests only a few hundred hours to an aircraft commander only highlights your Naivity and you do that often BTW. Miltary flight school is approximately a 2 year syllabus. That is the basic syllabus to simply to get one's wings with approx 200-300 actual flight hours and probably just as much time in a simulator ( which is a lot more time than the 40 hours required to be a private pilot). Once a fledgling Military Pilot gets his wings , he/she spends between 8-16 more months and a few hundred more hours in specific Aircraft school and a lot more simulator time.....be it in Transports, Bombers or Fighters. It is very competitive just to get in let alone finish. Once the Pilot hits the Fleet or Active squadron, he/she will be under supervsion for the first year. There are different syllabuses for each airplane. No one gets put right into an Aircraft Commander seat, or in the Fighters, no one put into a flight leader position. You have to earn those positions. The completion rate is extremely low. Can't speak first hand for the Airforce flight school but the Navy's wash out rate is in excess of 55% (from those who apply to hose that simply quit or Fail to hack it or die while in training. I suppose you think it is easy to land on an Aircraft Carrier........let me guess you have a "friend " that told you so.....

I am not comparing myself to a Doctor, never have.........................

I merely pointed out the fact that Professional Pilots are highly educated and trained.

You made the comparison between a Professional Pilot and a Garbageman.

BTW I am worth more than a Gemini Pilot simply because my Union was able to negotiate a higher rate..............They should make more but don't, but someday they will. It doesn't change the fact that Pilots are highly skilled technitions weather they are fairly compensated for it or not.

Busboy

What about cosmetic surgeons? They may not be saving lives every day. But, they have made a very "BIG" impact on mankind. And, made many men and strippers very very happy.

Just goes to show, you don't need to save lives as a doctor, to be worth every penny you're paid.

JollyF15

CE750 Dude,

I have no problem taking spears, but let's get real here dude. Why don't you get off your high horse and get real. I understand there are different kinds of Docs. What the hell does that have to do with what a pilot should be paid?

We have people here at FedEx who have done min time out of college and in a wide body right seat at 25, do they deserve that? Timing is everything, and I'd always rather be lucky than good. We have other guys here who are in their mid 40's on airline number 3 making the same money. Is that fair? Hell, life ain't fair, but it is what it is. The reason they are making good money is becaue they were fortunate enough to get on with a very good company. Should we get more? Hell yes, more is always better. Will it happen? How the hell should I know, but I hope so.

I'll say it again since you have not been reading my damn posts. I think the entire airline industry deserve to get paid more, some more than others. Those pilots at very profitible companies desrve more since they are in large part responsible for all those dollars.

Now why don't we get back on track here--the original thread was "will we ever get back to pre-911 pay rates?" My guess is probably not, and I hope I'm wrong. FedEx and UPS probably have the best shot of getting close, and I hope that all those pilots who had to give it all back after 911 can at least get close to where they were.

Jolly

Linebacker35

Sorry, duplicate post

Linebacker35

For one thing we are talking about medical Doctors not dentists(they are overpaid).
As I said in my last post, Family practice is just as important. Yah they dont save lives at all.... they could only miss a diagnosis and have a patient die of something

A family practice doctor has the difficult job of diagnosing a patient with an illness. Do you have any idea of the amount of knowledge and skill that would be required to be able to do that.... i kno I couldnt.
The high paid surgeons cant fix someone if they arnt diagnosed at the lower levels(family practice)

ps. All doctors end up spending sometime in a real hospital/ER during their training/residence/internship/first job

RedeyeAV8r

Can't argue with that..............and I have personally spent a lot of money,
$1 at a time to enjoy those doctor's skills.....PP anybody??

shiftwork

You know the difference between doctors, lawyers, and pilots? Pilots don't pretend to be doctors an lawyers