Forbes article on pilots...

[pilotyip]

Yip, sounds like you picked that up in the Humanity and Western Civilization class at your college or that your kids just bankrupted your retirement account just getting through college and you couldn't convince them otherwise...No joke man!!

college who needs college?

 

[Pogue Mahone]

And yes... Coding in C++/Perl/Java/C Sharp is more complicated than putting a hold into an FMS. I'd be surprised if anyone would argue with that

I certainly would not argue with that.

More importantly, however, everyone knows chicks dig programmers. If you know C++/Perl/Java/C Sharp you are sure to bag some stone cold foxy babes.

 

[Ty Webb]

Some day some of us are going to have to rely on extensive knowledge and good habit formations to evade catastrophe. Fate picks who has to show their skills, or Lack thereof. Just ask Sully.

Some of the truest words ever written on F.I., and I have been on here since about 1996.

Cynic, you need to get yourself a copy of the book "Fate is the Hunter" by Ernest Gann. Much of what you will read in that book is still very true today, and if you haven't ever flown a 16 hour duty-day through some of the most volatile weather imaginable, then you're commenting about something that you have no concept of.

Yeah, I know, you had to put in 16 hours one night on the eve of a really big "build", and your ISP went t.u. . . . . and your CIO was going "WTF?" but it just really ain't the same.:laugh:

 

[pilotyip]

a copy of the book "Fate is the Hunter" by Ernest Gann. Much of what you will read in that book is still very true today, a:laugh:

What!!!! you mean there are pilots on this site who had not read the BOOK? This has to be fixed by the mods right now

 

[cynic]

You guys have me all wrong.

I agree that we SHOULD have only highly qualified and highly intelligent and highly capable pilots.

My point is that unintelligent and incompetent people can and do get type ratings and through airline pilot training. It is not hard to complete the training. That is why it is possible to pay very low wages to people that are intellectually limited.

In my profession however, the bar for a minimally functioning employee is quite a bit higher and as a result; starting salaries are much higher.

It is what it is. I'd rather be a pilot, it is more fun, sitting at a desk sucks. I was a full time pilot for a year or two before we had kids But trying to support a family on peanuts sucks and I'd like to actually retire one day.

 

[Draginass]

Remember WWII, the sky was filled with mostly high school grads and they did a great job.

And what was the accident rate?

 

[cynic]

holy cow man....

Quite bad actually - http://www.taphilo.com/history/WWII/Loss-Figures-Aircraft-USA-Training.shtml

 

[DTW320]

You guys have me all wrong.

I agree that we SHOULD have only highly qualified and highly intelligent and highly capable pilots.

My point is that unintelligent and incompetent people can and do get type ratings and through airline pilot training. It is not hard to complete the training. That is why it is possible to pay very low wages to people that are intellectually limited.

In my profession however, the bar for a minimally functioning employee is quite a bit higher and as a result; starting salaries are much higher.

It is what it is. I'd rather be a pilot, it is more fun, sitting at a desk sucks. I was a full time pilot for a year or two before we had kids But trying to support a family on peanuts sucks and I'd like to actually retire one day.

You need to update your profile on FI. Because I don't see the type ratings in transport category aircraft that you obviously must have in order for you to make such a "it's so easy, a caveman could do it" statement. I think most of the type rated pros here would have to disagree, even though you state that they are "intellectually limited". Somehow I don't think that your job as a "full time pilot" for "a year or two" with your CFII even remotely approached the level of "competence" and "intelligence" generally required to obtain a type rating in a large transport category aircraft. Actually, I KNOW you do not speak from any experience because, A. You basically admit it and B. I have done the whole CFI, CFII, CFIME thing also (as you profile indicates) PLUS the charter,night freight, commuter FO/CAPT, Major airline FE/FO/CAPT thing and can tell you that there is no comparison between the 2 sets in terms of "competence" and "intelligence" required. Seriously, update your profile here to include all of the transport category aircraft you have flown as FO and/or have type ratings in so we don't think that it's just some snot-nosed CFI telling us that we are intellectually limited. Then please tell your buds in IT to do something about all the sh#tty commercial software out there that I have to endure.

I mean, its almost as if the nerds who designed it were unintelligent and incompetent!

BTW, if you REALLY think that the reason entry level pilots are paid so low is because they are "intellectually limited", then I think it must be YOU who fits that description. I take it you didn't get any finance or economics at Devry or U of Phoenix while working on your nerd degree. You see, there's this thing called supply and demand. No one wants to do your job, LOTS want to do mine. Therefore many pilots will take the low wages in hopes of moving up the compensation ladder while doing something they enjoy. Admittedly, that model has been strained a lot in recent years. But don't kid yourself that a big difference in starting salaries between careers is indicative of some intellectual difference. The reasons for that couldn't be more basic....yet, somehow they have escaped you.

 

[cynic]

But don't kid yourself that a big difference in starting salaries between careers is indicative of some intellectual difference. The reasons for that couldn't be more basic....yet, somehow they have escaped you.

Hmmm... I think you are mistaken. I didn't say it was an "intellectual difference." I'll readily agree that lots of pilots are smarter than I. You might be one of them. What I did say was that the intellectual requirements for entry are quite low. That is, someone not terribly bright CAN get a commercial, CFI, ATP, fly freight, get on with airline X and fly a transport category aircraft.

If it were the case that there were onerous requirements for the job then indeed the pilot supply would be limited. Let's say for example, you must have scored in the 95th percentile on a standardized test to be a pilot. That would limit the number of people that could do the job. Or if for example, the written test for an ATP were so hard that it produced a failure rate of 95 percent. That too would limit the supply of pilots.

 

[waveflyer]

Starting salaries?

Ever see the starting salaries of internists? Low salaries while putting your basic time in is common.

Starting over at those low salaries when changing companies is a failure of unions to adjust to times after deregulation

it's what happens when the senior call the shots