How DARE they strike!

"Pilot's training does not surpass the money or prestige of a Doctor or a Lawyer. But at least they have to fend for themselves without some ridiculous union that even endorses such a ridiculous strike. At least you can sue a Doctor if he screws up. A Pilot's training certainly does not surpass the knowledge of an inventor or College Professor who've probably had to study even longer than a Pilot. There's absolutely no justification whatsoever for these Pilots to be striking for anything and worst of all, if they'd come down to the real plain of existence which most of us reside on, then they'd see first hand that their job and income level is already enviable to most people who can only dream of such incomes and benefits that come with them. Sometimes people can behave truly repulsive and greedy"

ILS down to mins, windshear, hail, gear trouble, aerodynamics, meteorology, engine failures, physics, $100K in education, electrical failures, fires, birdstrikes, hydraulic system failures, pressurization, control surface failures, density altitude, ice, vac system failure, coffin corner, stalls, spins, Vmc, continuous study and testing, crazy pax, possible in-flight threats (hijackings), fog, 0/0 landings, avioding traffic...

Should I go on? $200k isnt high enough!!
 
Once you teach a surgeon how to shoot an ILS down to mins in his own plane, you tend to ignore these kind of articles. ;)

BTW, the same surgeon mentioned a study that found the brain activity occurring in a pilot's brain during an IAP was more than double compared to that of a surgeon's during surgery.

As a CFI, you meet folks from all walks of life, and no matter what the profession, each are impressed and respectful of the challenge that flying a plane brings.

-ColM
 
Aeronautik said:
He curiously forgot to mention pro athlete salaries. But no, pilot salaries are way more ridiculous....

Any Joe can become a pilot. Not so for professional athlete. And as long as people are willing to pay that much for professional athletes, they'll continue to get paid that high.

Funny how many people hate free market capitalism on this site.
 
Chris_Ford said:
Any Joe can become a pilot. Not so for professional athlete. And as long as people are willing to pay that much for professional athletes, they'll continue to get paid that high.

Funny how many people hate free market capitalism on this site.

BAM!!! And to think I liked you just because you are an •.:)
 
Chris_Ford said:
Any Joe can become a pilot. Not so for professional athlete. And as long as people are willing to pay that much for professional athletes, they'll continue to get paid that high.

Funny how many people hate free market capitalism on this site.

Gonna call BS on that one. Most people can't hack being a professional pilot. Either you've got a lot of amazing students at your school or you're delusional about what it takes to be a professional pilot.
 
John Herreshoff said:
Gonna call BS on that one. Most people can't hack being a professional pilot. Either you've got a lot of amazing students at your school or you're delusional about what it takes to be a professional pilot.

Okay.

MLB: 30 teams, 25 players to a roster: 750
NBA: ~30 teams, ~12 players to a roster: 360
NFL: 32 teams, 60 players to a roster: 1920
NHL: ~28 teams, ~25 players to a roster: 700

3730 professional athletes. And the number that make more than $5M is probably around 6-8% of that number.

ALPA alone represents 62,000 pilots.

alpa said:
The Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) is the largest airline pilot union in the world and represents 62,000 pilots who fly for 39 U.S. and Canadian airlines.


"Most people" might not be able to hack as a pilot, but even less can make it to professional athlete.
 
I've already been accused of running a communist website by another user a few years ago, you're going to have to swing a little harder to surprise me.
 
Doug Taylor said:
I've already been accused of running a communist website by another user a few years ago, you're going to have to swing a little harder to surprise me.

Not calling you a communist, but I just think it's funny when individuals cry out "it's not fair they get paid X" when in fact, it's just how the market works. Life != fair. Pretty girls get all the free drinks and the dates with the QB of the football team, that's life, you have to play the cards you're dealt.
 
I don't remember a collective on the website determining anything like that.

We're professional pilots, Chris. We discuss things AS professional pilots. Yes, I too had a lot of pie-in-the-sky/"book learnin'" ideas about stuff but they went out the window when I saw the realities of the profession from the inside.

I crap you not, if you go off on the captain about how a 18 hour duty day is a product of a free market economy, he's probably going to knock one of your teeth out.

Or she.

If people are questioning viewpoints like the author, I applaud that, especially as a professional.
 
Doug Taylor said:
I don't remember a collective on the website determining anything like that.

We're professional pilots, Chris. We discuss things AS professional pilots. Yes, I too had a lot of pie-in-the-sky/"book learnin'" ideas about stuff but they went out the window when I saw the realities of the profession from the inside.

I crap you not, if you go off on the captain about how a 18 hour duty day is a product of a free market economy, he's probably going to knock one of your teeth out.

Or she.

If people are questioning viewpoints like the author, I applaud that, especially as a professional.

Doug, I don't think Chris or anybody else disagrees with you, we are not saying that it is RIGHT, we are simply saying it is REALITY. Hot chicks get free drinks, rich guys get the girls, and nobody buys $5000.00 season tickets to watch us fly airplanes.

Sure it sucks, I wish I could have been better at Baseball. :)
 
Doug Taylor said:
I don't remember a collective on the website determining anything like that.

We're professional pilots, Chris. We discuss things AS professional pilots. Yes, I too had a lot of pie-in-the-sky/"book learnin'" ideas about stuff but they went out the window when I saw the realities of the profession from the inside.
I'm referring to how people are complaining that professional athletes are overpaid, when fact is, they're not.

I crap you not, if you go off on the captain about how a 18 hour duty day is a product of a free market economy, he's probably going to knock one of your teeth out.

What is it the product of, then?
Do they still let the FA sit in the captain's lap? :p

If people are questioning viewpoints like the author, I applaud that, especially as a professional.

I agree with what people are saying, but this article was written in the late 90s when pay and work rules were considerably better.... Unfortunately though, it's the stigma we'll all have to live with, unless someone goes about informing the public what the lifestyle is really like.
 
My bad.

I misread your statement and thought you were refering to people defending the compensation of professional pilots. I owe you a beer for that one.

On the professional athlete thing, I both agree and disagree. They live in a strange world of $800 million taxpayer financed stadiums, full-ride collegiate scholarships at public schools (taxpayer!) and an entire system in states like Texas where "winning state" is more important than if the star running back can read.

If you took the taxpayer-financed elements of sports and reflected the actual cost in ticket fees and concession prices without the crutch of "public-private joint enterprises", sweetheart tax deals and whatnot, then professional sports would be that free-market.

I'm glad (insert athlete's name here) can earn $15 million for doing a triple-double, but the entire system set up around him is anything but free market. Especially when most folks renting a car, booking a hotel room or paying a 'penny tax' for the new stadium could give less of a crap about professional sports.
 
Doug Taylor said:
My bad.

I misread your statement and thought you were refering to people defending the compensation of professional pilots. I owe you a beer for that one.

On the professional athlete thing, I both agree and disagree. They live in a strange world of $800 million taxpayer financed stadiums, full-ride collegiate scholarships at public schools (taxpayer!) and an entire system in states like Texas where "winning state" is more important than if the star running back can read.

If you took the taxpayer-financed elements of sports and reflected the actual cost in ticket fees and concession prices without the crutch of "public-private joint enterprises", sweetheart tax deals and whatnot, then professional sports would be that free-market.

I'm glad (insert athlete's name here) can earn $15 million for doing a triple-double, but the entire system set up around him is anything but free market. Especially when most folks renting a car, booking a hotel room or paying a 'penny tax' for the new stadium could give less of a crap about professional sports.

:yeahthat: :yeahthat: :yeahthat: :yeahthat: :yeahthat: :yeahthat: :yeahthat: :yeahthat: :yeahthat: :yeahthat: :yeahthat:
 
Doug Taylor said:
My bad.

I misread your statement and thought you were refering to people defending the compensation of professional pilots. I owe you a beer for that one.
Hmph, how about a mojito?

On the professional athlete thing, I both agree and disagree. They live in a strange world of $800 million taxpayer financed stadiums, full-ride collegiate scholarships at public schools (taxpayer!) and an entire system in states like Texas where "winning state" is more important than if the star running back can read.

If you took the taxpayer-financed elements of sports and reflected the actual cost in ticket fees and concession prices without the crutch of "public-private joint enterprises", sweetheart tax deals and whatnot, then professional sports would be that free-market.

I'm glad (insert athlete's name here) can earn $15 million for doing a triple-double, but the entire system set up around him is anything but free market. Especially when most folks renting a car, booking a hotel room or paying a 'penny tax' for the new stadium could give less of a crap about professional sports.

Ehhhhhhhhhh the relationship is highly symbiotic. Look at how much money the Fiesta Bowl brings in a year (60,000 fans from out of state = $$$$$!!!), not to mention the Super Bowl which will be in Glendale in '08, IIRC. World Series at BOB (errr CF, a name I prefer much better :)), Suns playoff games, etc etc etc are great for the local economy.

As for the scholarship stuff, the football team at Penn State makes enough in one year to finance every other sports team (men and women's) and pay out every sports scholarship.
 
Chris_Ford said:
Not calling you a communist, but I just think it's funny when individuals cry out "it's not fair they get paid X" when in fact, it's just how the market works. Life != fair. Pretty girls get all the free drinks and the dates with the QB of the football team, that's life, you have to play the cards you're dealt.


I can't wait for the day someone walks upto you and punches you in the face, and when you ask them why they did that...........it's cuz its how the market works! Life= fair.

You've got a lot of maturing to do kid. May I ask you what your age is?
 
I'm just going to nitpick one point because I'm lazy this morning and have some stuff to do.

While it's fine and dandy that Penn State has a team that makes enough to finance the entire sports program at the college, as a public institution of higher learning, that's still not constructive.

On one hand, we need to focus our universities on attracting and creating new engineers, scientists, etc -- people that are going to build a modern, technological nation in order for the United States to remain relevant and cutting edge in the future. It should have been a wakeup call when large parts of major univerisities engineering departments are run by professors on work visas teaching pupils that a large percentage (majority?) of are on student visas. If we think we're going to remain a world power when the average 20 year old knows more about who won American Idol than a basic understanding of the pythagorean theory, we're kidding ourselves.

On the other, I'm a 'doubting thomas' about the benefit of professional sports on the local economy because it happens in short spurts. The Fiesta Bowl may have a three or four day visitor footprint, the superbowl is always this holy grail that everyone attains to have but on the Monday after, the 'cost' side of the cost/benefit curve is negligible (much like the Olympics -- been to SLC or Torino recently?). Los Angeles wasn't crushed when the Rams and the Raiders left. St. Louis didn't economically float down the poop chute when the Cardinals left. I feel professional sports should self-finance without taxpayer dollars because as a citizen, the residual isn't worth the price.

Besides, the Superbowl is the single most overhyped event on earth. The world isn't chomping at the bits wondering if the Vikings are going to beat the Seahawks, no matter what Thom Brennamen says.
 
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