I'm in Toledo with a broken airplane and while it was cold in The Ville the last couple days (especially yesterday) its cold ain't got nothin' on TOL...

Next time you're in town lemme know!

Good enough, i think I just misread your quote or maybe i hit it spot on, who cares though, and I am glad that you have never gone to **Jets (its disrespectful to the industry to actually spell out their names). I absolutely agree that the airline unions are weak, and i think the root of the problem is that we only have one (alpa) or two unions working the entire system, hence turning the industry into somewhat of a communist state, instead of having a free market where we could have a choice of unions. But I digress, go ALPA i guess.

My parent's garbage man makes $65k a year, and can have all the over time he wants. He clocks in at 4am, clocks out at 3pm, and gets paid for 11 hours. When I told him about how we, as airline pilots get paid he almost spewed Guinness from his nostrils. Show to work at 6:15am after reduced rest, do a walk around in freezing weather, fly two 2:30 legs with a 5:45 sit in between, get released at 4:00pm with 10:45 duty day and only 5:00 hrs of pay. Effectively, I just wh0red myself out to XJT for $15.00/duty hr.

Sorry.... make that $10.00.... since the crooks in DC took their cut, and ALPA snagged it's 2%

But at least you arent a garbage man:D, I hear sewer inspectors make quite a bit too, and to tell you the truth I cant remember the last time that flying was hard

Must be in the right seat....move to the left, and when things start not going as smoothly, the stress kicks up just a tad bit more....and you still don't get to make 65,000 a year....

Things only get as hard as you make them, and unless you are in the business of getting yourself killed the stress is shared by both seats. The industry is what it is, but i dont fly a jet so I am obviously an inferior pilot that never has to deal with cruising at FL400, or shooting an ILS into class B airspace or getting vectored onto the final course at every airport that I go to. I am just glad that they only make me do full procedure approaches and land at uncontrolled fields 4 out of 9 legs in one day.

Spoken like someone who has never flown a jet. Contrary to popular belief every approach is not a vector to a fully functioning ILS on a well lit runway. We do plenty of visuals where there is no help from ATC, no published instrument approach, not even so much as a PAPI. We often fly to the same Po Dunk airports that you do, and sometimes we even land after the tower has closed (gasp) with the autopilot off (horror). I'll admit I've never had to fly a full procedure, does flying a procedure turn make you more of a man or something?

It's not a matter of physical labor. It's a matter of principle.

It's pretty pathetic that a lot of us flying 50 million dollar aircraft, with up to 90 people on board, qualify for food stamps. If you're happy making peanuts, why then be my guest! But I, for one, am disgusted how we are treated in this profession. Peoples lives are in our hands for crying out loud! If a sewer inspector misses a detail at work, nothing major happens. If we miss a detail, and end up sliding off an icy runway, there are major repercussions.

Wow... talk about ignorance. Try flying into RNO when it's windy and icy, ONT with the Santa Ana winds, OMA in the snow with MUs hovering right above 18, or just the general mayhem of EWR when the proverbial poop hits the fan.

And then there's Mexico.... where you DO have to fly full procedures! ::gasp:: And still keep your SA in focus while flying, because ATC WILL descend you into a mountain if you're not careful! Check out the Mateo transition into Mexico City... that's a fun one.

It's not all peachy just because you're in a jet.

KLCH should definitely qualify... :D