by
Published on January 12th, 2010 15:25
A pilot's life: exhausting hours for meagre wages
via Travel news, travel guides and reviews | guardian.co.uk by Chris McGreal on 1/10/10
$20,000 pay and lengthy commutes to work renew fears for passengers' safety
The old hands say there was never much glamour in piloting several tonnes of metal thousands of feet in the air.
But there's no denying that to the earthbound back in the jet-set era half a century ago – when Pan Am's "Clippers" ruled the air lanes and service was modelled on transatlantic ocean liners – pilots were regarded with an awe just short of that accorded to astronauts.
The exotic blend of international travel, the authority of commanding the ever larger and faster airliners, and those dashing uniforms turned heads, drew autograph hunters and attracted groupies. Pilots also made a lot of money.
Today it is different. Captain Dave Ryter earned so little when he was a co-pilot for a major airline that he lived in a gang area of Los Angeles, commuted for hours to work and made less money than a bus driver.
...