Mach1 wrote:I had a conversation a while back about life as a pilot. At the end of that talk, I asked what a commercial, mulit-ifr is going for these days. The gentleman told me $120K. I've asked around since then and heard everything from $105K to $120K. I know all you guys in Ontario get it for as close to free as can be... but lets put that aside for a moment.
Let's not! It's germane to the point you are trying to make. I can't speak to how it is now, but 25 years ago, the colleges in Ontario took in about 45 applicants every year, except Seneca, which accepted 120. The academic requirements included your high-school transcripts, as well as a battery of IQ and standardized aptitude tests. Having taken "advanced" classes in high school and graduated with "grade 13" advanced your standing in the scoring system, so we can basically forget anyone from a vocational school having a prayer of being accepted, unless he was a genius. At graduation time, the 45 to 50 entrants (or 120 as above) would have been whittled down to approximately 15, mostly due to inability to achieve the requisite grades. SO, each year you were talking about maybe 45 new pilots who benefitted from a "free" education.
My point... my point is that, assuming you are correct and being a pilot just isn't worth the agony anymore, I submit that it's WORSE for the "freeloaders" from Ontario. See, some dope-smoker with no high-school diploma can, assuming he is able to read at a basic level, and he can find someone to look after his iguana and water his plants during the day, work at landscaping or construction and buy flying lessons. He can then, again assuming he can read, take and re-take all the multiple-choice exams until he gets one or two of them right and his license comes in the mail just like everyone else's. Then he is free to go off and compete for the same flying jobs as the "freeloaders".
The difference here is, that for a guy with no diploma who can barely read, even a mediocre flying job pays just about as much as he has any right to expect to make with no education. The fact that landscaping or construction probably pays
better supports your basic premise right there. But hey, stupid is as stupid does, I suppose.
But look at the poor "freeloaders". THEY probably COULD have become doctors or Pharmacists or something. They DO have the academic ability to have achievements on that level. Someone rooked them into thinking that flying was a worthwhile avenue for their efforts. The colleges made them work so hard to pass the academic shit that they graduated thinking that flying was going to be challenging or something, and they have to submit to all this lowest-common-denominator aviation shit along with all the dope-smokers, misfits and ex-cons who make up the majority of the aviation community, and take orders from intellectually inferior con-men like that little guy in the suit from Hawk Air that you guys were talking about on that other thread. THEY are the ones who were let down. Don't even get me started on the guys who actually paid for flying lessons AND University! Geezus jumping on a pogo-stick. Now you've got me all worked up. Basically, I agree with you, except I submit it's no better for the 45-or-so-per-year "freeloaders" who went to school in Ontario. If anything, it's worse!
