I keep hearing this everywhere and anywhere, especially on here. Pilots are often referred to as "glorified bus drivers" and I have even seen comparisons in pay scale on here This comparison has to go, it's absolutely ridiculous.

First off, the amount of technical knowledge and training required to be a pilot should be enough seperation to keep the two from ever being compared. If something goes wrong on a bus they pull over and wait for a tow truck.

Second, guiding an aircraft through the skies is no easy task, I don't care what sort of autopilot you have. Airspace is so dynamic and changes so much that it requires a great amount of expertise to be able to navigate your vessel through it safely and efficiently. You use more judgement in one flight into bad weather than a bus driver will use in their whole career.

Instead of comparing pilots to bus drivers we should be making a comparison with ship captains.

Im a Bus Driver...

I fly a private jet, so that makes me more of a limo driver.

I have actually thought a lot about this, too, and agree that it is much more like captaining a ship than it is driving a bus. The level of knowledge a professional pilot must have of aerodynamics, his/her airplane, airspace, regulations, etc. outdoes that of any other professional in transportation (with the possible exception of the space shuttle).

The day we start to think of ourselves as "better" than the working man is the day that we begin the wholescale destruction of the profession. It is that attitude that makes pilots feel as though hanging on to that job is the most important thing in life -- nomatter what cuts in pay and benefit may occur.

You are a blue-collar button pusher manufacturing a widget for Spacely Sprockets. Your widget is called a passenger-seat-mile. Punch your time-clock and be happy.