"Good afternoon, folks. My name is Captain Dunderhead, and I'll be your pilot today. W(h)eather is fine today, it should be a good ride, and God willing, we'll get you to your destination a little ahead of schedule, and alive. I just wanted you to know, as your captain, that I sought out the fastest, and might I say the absolute cheapest training I could find, and it's landed me here today, with your lives square in the palm of my hand. I'll give you all five minutes to stow your personal electronic gear and saw a small prayer for yourselves before we begin. Remember, hang on, and have a good flight."
You want the cheapest training possible, and the fastest route to being a professional aviator, do you?
Parker pen. It's a little more expensive than the basic Bic, but heck, it's shiny, and you can buy all the refill cartridges you want to falsify that logbook. I've known more than a few folks over the years who are now flying heavy iron and believe me, it cost them very little to lie and cheat their ways to a well paying career. They may die stupid and clueless one day, bereft of morals and any redeeming value, because they skipped the all too important walk-before-you-run phases of flying in which they might have laid a good foundation to dealing with the emergency that will one day kill them...or building up the judgement that one needs to avoid such situations in the first place...but what the heck! They got there fast, and cheap!!
Just like you!!
Here's the skinny...your career will be rough, you're going to go hungry, and you're going to see many years of struggle before you get where you want to be. If you're not prepared to deal with that, you don't belong in this business. You'll be like many of those we see here who get a year or two down the road and then whine about how tough it is, and wail about needing to get out.
You may have an instant, prosperous career, but don't bank on it. Bank on several moves, companies going bankrupt, airplanes breaking, low wages, demanding employers, and things you can't yet imagine, but that you will certainly at some point experience. Like the decision to give in to panic, or suck it in and deal with it...and suddenly find that experience can't be bought, but is instead earned and learned, and is found no other way...and that there is NO shortcut.
Anybody who tells you different has never learned that all-important lesson, and is someone to fear not for their strength, but for their stupidity and ignorance.
Don't be that person.
