Airline Pilots Are Glorified Bus Drivers

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Why do you worry about the social stance of your job title? That's what it seems to me anyway.

What's wrong with being a bus driver? Don't you think its a little pretentious of you that even the mere thought or jest comment of someone thinking you're a "glorified bus driver" is a slap in the face to you?

Always remember that right now there are 20 year old students from other countries that go from never driving a car to sitting right seat in A320's and 737's in one year. Does that humble you?
 
Seems like a really fun way to drive a bus IMHO. Something most people don't know about is "zen". Meaning, when you are completely focused on a task, say piloting an airplane, all the cares of the world disappear and you reach a state of concentration on the here and now. Most people sit in a cube and worry about their life. You guys got it great.
 
darthpanda said:
Meaning, when you are completely focused on a task, say piloting an airplane, all the cares of the world disappear and you reach a state of concentration on the here and now. Most people sit in a cube and worry about their life. You guys got it great.
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Carl.jpg

Kind of like assistant greens keeper?
 
navymmw said:
better pay pay as well.:p
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You would be surprised. There are a lot of people driving trucks making beans.

For the record I would love to be a bus driver. Maybe not a metro mas transit driver but a charter tour type bus would be a lot of fun to work on. Hell I even thought for a while about trying to figure out how one gets on with greyhound.
 
ZapBrannigan said:
...I got to chatting with an RJ pilot ...His view was that a Learjet was a stepping stone to the regional jet.

I didn't tell him I made about four times his salary, or that I had flown the RJ years before, or even that I probably had more total time taxiing than he did flying.
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You should have given it to him in no uncertain details. Many of us have a QOL far exceeding that of the airlines. It might do them some good to hear that the airlines aren't the be all/end all of the business.
 
ryanmickG said:
Why do you worry about the social stance of your job title? That's what it seems to me anyway.

What's wrong with being a bus driver? Don't you think its a little pretentious of you that even the mere thought or jest comment of someone thinking you're a "glorified bus driver" is a slap in the face to you?

Always remember that right now there are 20 year old students from other countries that go from never driving a car to sitting right seat in A320's and 737's in one year. Does that humble you?
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I am far from pretentious. I came from a lower class household and my entire family is blue collar. I had to work for everything I have. Its a slap in the face because I worked very hard to get where I am. To have some little twit from an ivy league school, whose been handed everything, tell me that my job is nothing more than unskilled labor would make even the most stoic a little red in the face. You can't tell me that a comment like that wouldn't irk you, especially if you're cut from the same ball of cloth that I am.

A privileged 20 year-old flying A320s doesn't humble me at all! Hearing the story of someone overcoming greater adversity than I and having the fortitude to overcome great odds humbles me. Great leaders for peace and justice humble me. I can think of countless examples....
 
g4downin said:
I am far from pretentious. I came from a lower class household and my entire family is blue collar. I had to work for everything I have. Its a slap in the face because I worked very hard to get where I am. To have some little twit from an ivy league school, whose been handed everything, tell me that my job is nothing more than unskilled labor would make even the most stoic a little red in the face. You can't tell me that a comment like that wouldn't irk you, especially if you're cut from the same ball of cloth that I am.

A privileged 20 year-old flying A320s doesn't humble me at all! Hearing the story of someone overcoming greater adversity than I and having the fortitude to overcome great odds humbles me. Great leaders for peace and justice humble me. I can think of countless examples....
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You have to have thick skin in this industry. It's just my opinion, but getting worked up because some tool said something you didn't like (and isn't a big deal) is a waist of energy.
 
g4downin said:
I am far from pretentious. I came from a lower class household and my entire family is blue collar. I had to work for everything I have. Its a slap in the face because I worked very hard to get where I am. To have some little twit from an ivy league school, whose been handed everything, tell me that my job is nothing more than unskilled labor would make even the most stoic a little red in the face. You can't tell me that a comment like that wouldn't irk you, especially if you're cut from the same ball of cloth that I am.
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Just out of curiousity how old are you and this Ivy League twit? I only ask that because the older I get and the older the Ivy League twit I'm talking to is, the more interested the person is in what I do. Talk to this person in 10 years and the conversation might go a bit differently....you know once they realize they are not as important as they think they are nor as happy as they could be. YMMV.
 
ppragman said:
What do you think we are? The days of "fate is the hunter" are over, your entire purpose is to transport people and things from point A to point B at a high rate of speed. If you cost too much, you'll be replaced, if they could, they'd replace you with a computer, or at least figure out some way to pay you less. Bus driver? More like videostore clerk, or pizza delivery boy...
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It is what you make of it. If you think you're a glorified bus driver, or in the same category as a Blockbuster clerk, than I guess you are. I'm a professional pilot, and I carry myself as one. As a result, I've never been told I was a glorified bus driver and have benefited from several decent jobs since starting my professional aviation career a few years ago.

It really is amazing to me how quickly some of you denigrate yourselves, while at the same time wondering why you're stuck in some crappy part of aviation (or unable to find meaningful employment). That isn't directed to you ppragman, just more of a general comment.
 
mojo6911 said:
I think truck drivers have better work rules than most regional pilots.
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As long as we crawl over one another to provide the labor, that's not going to change much.

If you cut a truck driver's pay by 50% and then sublet more than half of his routes to an even lower paid subsidiary, that trucker would probably grab his crotch like L'il Wayne, tell you to suck it and go to plumbing school.

In the aviation business, we'd fall over ourselves to justify why it was all necessary and how long until that sweet, sweet upgrade so they can pay off their student loans a little faster.
 
Cheyenne said:
You have to have thick skin in this industry. It's just my opinion, but getting worked up because some tool said something you didn't like (and isn't a big deal) is a waist of energy.
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Getting worked up and venting wasn't the intended purpose of this thread. I just wanted to see what other people thought to get some discourse on the subject of their jobs and what their career means to them. Its not like I'm still embittered by it. It was merely a subject get people talking. BTW, I'm friends with mostly the ivy league type, because that's who my fiance mingles with mostly (she is one). Most of them are salt of the earth people, but every now and again you do hear some pretty ignorant rhetoric coming from the ivory tower type. I also would like to make it clear that I wasn't insinuating that the preponderance of the upper echelons of society are trash.
 
Cav said:
Just out of curiousity how old are you and this Ivy League twit? I only ask that because the older I get and the older the Ivy League twit I'm talking to is, the more interested the person is in what I do. Talk to this person in 10 years and the conversation might go a bit differently....you know once they realize they are not as important as they think they are nor as happy as they could be. YMMV.
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LOL! At the time I was a new instructor with a fresh bachelors degree and she was a student in college...
 
Doug Taylor said:
As long as we crawl over one another to provide the labor, that's not going to change much.

If you cut a truck driver's pay by 50% and then sublet more than half of his routes to an even lower paid subsidiary, that trucker would probably grab his crotch like L'il Wayne, tell you to suck it and go to plumbing school.

In the aviation business, we'd fall over ourselves to justify why it was all necessary and how long until that sweet, sweet upgrade so they can pay off their student loans a little faster.
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The ultimate hypocrisy of pilots in the airline business.

"Those bad regionals are ruining the airline industry, wages and QOL. They're bottom feeders and killing the profession!......

Oh look.......Commutair/Colgan/etc are hiring! I've got to get my app in NOW!!!"
 
g4downin said:
I am far from pretentious. I came from a lower class household and my entire family is blue collar. I had to work for everything I have. Its a slap in the face because I worked very hard to get where I am. To have some little twit from an ivy league school, whose been handed everything, tell me that my job is nothing more than unskilled labor would make even the most stoic a little red in the face. You can't tell me that a comment like that wouldn't irk you, especially if you're cut from the same ball of cloth that I am.

A privileged 20 year-old flying A320s doesn't humble me at all! Hearing the story of someone overcoming greater adversity than I and having the fortitude to overcome great odds humbles me. Great leaders for peace and justice humble me. I can think of countless examples....
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Every job takes skill to do right.

I'm sure anyone could learn to drive a bus just like anyone can learn to fly an airplane.

As long as you have the time and money.
 
Are there good flying jobs out there? Sure. But many of us, both airline and corporate are fools and accept the pay of unskilled labor for a skilled position. We are our own worst enemy, and it will never get better. It is definitely possible to get a great paying job with a good QOL, but for the most part this career is quickly going down the tubes, and I don't ever see it improving in my lifetime.
 
MikeD said:
The ultimate hypocrisy of pilots in the airline business.

"Those bad regionals are ruining the airline industry, wages and QOL. They're bottom feeders and killing the profession!......

Oh look.......Commutair/Colgan/etc are hiring! I've got to get my app in NOW!!!"
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But they want to change the industry within!!! :rolleyes:
 
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