Skiddriver,
While pilots in general tend to be mealy mouthed wife cheating whiners, it's certainly a legitimate profession that does indeed meet each of the four criteria you named. Certainly in comparison to other "professions," we do indeed have codes of ethics outside of union involvement, and we are publically recognized with a high degree of public responsibility. A great deal of self-regulation does indeed go on within the industry, at many levels. Associations, organizations, much like the American Medical Association in medicine, and numerous independent Bar associations for attorneys, serve to provide guidance in the flying community.
The National Business Aircraft Association is one such place. Additionally, further safegaurds of legitimacy exist that do not come into play among other physicians, such as mandatory reporting and background investigation for pilots with certain operators or carriers.
Some segments of the industry are highly self regulating. One area I work in involves single engine air tankers. The SEAT association, working closely with certain government figures, saw a need to elevate safety and the image of the community, and now has five different schools and qualifications that are due yearly. Unless one is employed by a member of the association, one can attend some of the schools, but will receive no credit and still can't get the government certification that follows. A true cooperation between private business, industry, and the government, with some very positive tangible results. And so on, and so on.
Having said that, the nature of the pilot is more like a highly paid ski instructor than an attorney or doctor. The monkey skills of flying are physical skills of manipulation that can be taught to a chimpanzee (I think I've been crewed with a few). What cannot be taught, what cannot be bought, and what cannot be simulated is judgement, and that's what we are paid for in the cockpit. The actions we take based on our judgement are only ancillary and supportive of our true roles; we are paid for experience, wisdom, and judgement in the cockpit, and upon that rests both public lives and trust.
For many years, I fought the stigma among family and others that I should quit flying and get a real job. I worked all sorts of employment during that time, flying all kinds of aircraft in all types of service, big to small, private to service work, and beyond. The common question during much of those years...what do you want to be when you grow up?
I couldn't give a rats pitutie about public perception. If I fly the public from A to B, they still get the same professional standard of ride from me weather they think I'm unskilled labor or weather they think I'm His Royal Airmanship. I don't care. If I put out a fire next to someone's house, they're still alive and they still have a place to stay weather or not they decide I'm a nice guy or weather or not they think I'm doing a legitimate job. And I still get paid, either way. If I put chemical on a crop and stop pests from destroying it, I've helped increase the world's food yield, and had a part in the economy and food chain of which I can be proud, weather anybody recognizes it or not.
If someone needs recognition, if someone needs validation to do this job, then they're soon to be sorely disappointed, and one could venture that they're in the wrong profession. We are a profession of doers, not backslappers. My suggestion? Fly. Shut up and fly, and don't worry about what the Jones' are doing or what they're thinking. Just fly.
Am I a professional? Yes. But more importantly, I'm an aviator. Quite possibly a mediocre one, I can't say. I don't think so, but then I'm not interested in weather the public labels me a professional or not. I've been called far worse. Flying heavy tankers I was more commonly labled "tanker trash," and it's a label that never offended me much. I've been known to wear it with pride. Perhaps that's because I still am tanker trash.
In that particular industry, public perception is very skewed. It's a very misunderstood job. Do I care? No, not really. It doesn't change the way I do my job, and shouldn't change the way you do yours. Some pilots need the world to know who they are. Stickers all over the car, cutsie license plates. All but a tatoo of their airplane on their forehead. They check into hotels and put the aircraft number or type in place of the car on the checkin slip, just to be cute. Brag at bars and pepper their dialogue with "pilot lingo." Gotta have that recognition.
A few years ago we checked into a hotel one night. We asked about discounts. Turned out the government discounts weren't as good as those for truck drivers. We checked in, not as pilots, but as truck drivers. When asked what kind of truck we drove (we were flying tankers), the easy answer was "belly dump." They were satisfied, we got our discount, and who cares what kind of recognition we got? We got something better. Ten percent off, and a free bagel in the morning. That beats recognition any day.
I still think we managed to be just as "professional."
