this is what the boomer generation doesn't get- they honestly think that our generation has had the same opportunities as they had and we're just whining....
I don't get your perception.
In the 1960's and 1970's, to get on with an airline you had to be hired BEFORE you were 32, had to be male and if you weren't caucasion, you weren't eliminated but you did have a strike against you.
At the time, airlines would go years without hiring. You could be highly qualified and pass age 32 and you had NO chance at being an airline pilot, period.
A really good General Aviation job prior to getting on with an airline would typically be right seat in a Twin Otter or Be-99. Upgrades even at that level could take years. Once hired almost everyone did go through a furlough and it usually lasted for years. New hires were treated like second class citizens. Probation meant you could EASILY get fired for any reason. First year pay was terrible.
Once you finally did get seniority at a major airline, the job was better than it is now, but the descrepency between the junior and senior positions is far less now than it was. In the 1940's and 1950's the co-pilot (even if he was a former B-17 Captain or p-51 ace) was considered and treated as a lowly apprentice. The boomer generation changed all that.
There are way more opportunities for younger pilots now than there ever was. There is way less descrimination now and junior pilots are accorded way more respect and equality than at any other time in aviation history thanks to the "boomer" generation.
Furloughed pilots never were considered worthy untill the "boomer" generation came along and started paying for medical coverage to help furloughed pilots and fought to protect them as strongly as anyone else on the seniority list.
I could gone on and on.
Every Generation has made it's contributions. None of them are perfect.
Oh, and you can thank the "Boomer" Generation for getting us out of the 1950's.
