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Now that was easy...I knew when I put that up there, some guy would jump in and tell me all about the ancillary time it takes to get them 80 (oh, please, 75 is real common) hours a month.

Hey, sport, just a little jibe. I'm an Aeronautical Engineer who worked his way through engineering school as a boring ol' fright instructor. Mostly prop time, some jet, and a LOT of friends still flying the line (all the guys I used to fly with!). Like, at America West (where my wife worked for 10 years). And a few at Delta (including the first guy I ever hired as a pilot); and at United (ex-mil, ex-civ, across the board); and American, ad nauseum. Me? Bad eyes, sweetie. 20/400, even. Maybe nowadays they hire that, but they didn't 20 years ago.

I've had to listen to every one of those guys bore me with their crying about how hard their lives are, and every one of them tell me how underpaid they are.

Hey, know what? If you're holding a 737 line out of SLC that only does lovely little day routes that take you out of the house, oh, a coupla nights a week, so what? Like I said, it's a good life. Anytime you'd like, I'll trade places with ya! You can come fly the satellites that I fly (3 weeks vaca a year, when we can fit it in), or design the jet engines that I used to design (note the ugly yellow buildings on the north side of Sky Harbor, and imagine yourself there for 30 years or so, maxing out at $70,000 / yr even if you had a PhD...well, a few do better).

Please. I've flown with guys who never saw the inside of university and get nauseous thinking about algebra, much less real aerodynamics. Are they capable, and worth a decent salary? You bet. It's a skill, and experience counts. But worth what? Well, whatever their union can get for them. Those of us who put in the time to learn how to design and build airplanes and their propulsion systems just never did have much of a union.

By the way, whaddya say we let foreign carriers have interstate rights? Us guys in the manufacturing companies have to compete with foreign aircraft manufacturers. Why not y'all? I mean, there's a real chance to compete openly. After all, it's hard work, right?

I knew when I put that up there, some guy would jump in and tell me all about the ancillary time it takes to get them 80 (oh, please, 75 is real common) hours a month.

Your rant sounds more like a wanna-be's. I fly the line, I instruct, and I also write software for the airline I work for. I know what I am talking about, and I am not whinning about your job, nor was I comparing it to yours. I was simply responding to your FALSE statement. If you indeed know anything at all about the industry, then you know full well that "75 hours a month" was a lie. An airline pilot's job is a good job. It pays well. It also has downsides. The "75 hour a month" line is tired and a flat out lie. The vast majority of airline pilots not only have 20/20 vision they also hold higher degrees as well. You have no clue how many people I fly with have engineering degrees. As a single group of people we are the most prodded, poked, tested and regulated there are.

BTW, when was the last time you spent 14 hours on duty (and only paid for 6 hours of it), after 8 legs and ended with an approach to minimums - to look forward to a 9:15 layover at a dumpy motel and a 5:30 AM wakeup to do it all again... clearly NEVER.