Tarkand said:
The errata makes Pilot (Personal) extremely easy to acquire and since Jump Pack don't require any Reknown requirement and only cost 15 Req... they are quite easy to get. Especially early in the game, where you can get plenty of renown and have no idea what to do with it (Buying every single flavor of ammo gets kinda boring).
I have a bit of a problem with that... for one, it doesn't really sit well with the fluff. Not everybody has a jump pack in the books or the TT.
But really... why not? Most Space Marines totally suck at stealth as it is, so it's not like telling them that moving around with a jump pack isn't stealthy is a problem.
There's also the fact that Jump Pack are all around awesome... you pretty much pass any climb/jump situation... you can move a lot faster than your normal movement rate... you can fly for 1 straight minutes; that's like 10 round of combat. Many enemies have no (or very little) in the way of range damage and having your entire kill team fly circle around them as they shoot them up isn't exactly the image I have in mind when I'm thinking of an epic fight between Space Marines and Genestealers (as an example).
Granted, there's places where you won't be able to fly... but the increased movement rate is pretty much always good.
I personally find it annoying that the skill and items are so cheap and good that they basically become no brainers.
I think that there are some points your missing. Someone else mentioned that all space marines should have training, as they should have had to go through the fast attack company of the hcpater. So should be easy.
I think that the rule is useful if the entire mission everyone needs a jump pack, then everyone can atleast use the skill, so that you can make it more supsensful. Pluses to the skill aren't as cheap.
Now, yes. Jump packs are cool, but they do have some flaws, I think. My jump pack players put a self imposed penality on themselfs for the things they could carry with a jump pack, so even if you always have one, you coudln't have all the normal weapon slots you want. You dont' have mounts on your back except under the pack, so you can have one gun, and then two hip mounteds, so only two of bolters, chainswords, powerswords, etc.