Ben Mandell

Pilots on Food Stamps: an Inside Look at Why Your Flight Was Cancelled Ben Mandell 1st edition

"Incredible!" you might say, "Pilots qualifying for food stamps. Surely you must be joking!" We see airline Pilots in their pressed suits and crisp shirts as they walk through the airport terminals, hear their calm, friendly voices informing passengers of flight time and weather conditions on the plane and assume they are making six figure salaries, or something close to that. Wrong, wrong, wrong! This book is a true to life account of the current pilot crisis facing the nation; its origin, the current status and what needs to be done to fix this problem. If your Physician put in six to eight years of medical education, training and internship in order to provide you with the best, up to date medical care, would you expect him or her to be paid less than that of a fast food worker with much less training? Would it be fair if the Physician's salary was calculated only on the actual time he or she was in the office or in surgery with the patient, without taking into consideration the doctor's time spent on patient telephone calls, availability for the times on standby when the doctor was "on call", travel to and from the clinic, hospital or office as well as supervisory and administrative duties? Why should a pilot only get paid for his or her actual flight time? Is it fair for airline passengers to have their flights cancelled and planes grounded because there are not enough qualified pilots? As we read this book, we must ask ourselves if we will garner the political will to demand better wages for our pilots and if we will hold our elected officials accountable for ensuring adequate airline and passenger safety. And then we must act to make sure the job gets done. A Must Read.