Originally Posted by
RJtrashPilot
I must also say that I,too, was one a poor, struggling CFI eating tuna fish and crackers to survive once and would've done anything short of selling my soul to the devil to get out of being a CFI.
Is it an ideal situation? No, of course not. But this is a problem that the pilot generation of yesterday started and it is up to today's generation of pilots to either fix it or exacerbate it.
This will never change. I was in the same boat. I worked damn near 30 days a month as a CFI in Vegas and took home about 1300 dollars (all cash) per month. By the end of 1 year (ie, 15,600 K later) I was willing to take ANY turbine part 121 job that got me out of that. As it happened, that job was Great Lakes, which actually would have paid me LESS than I was making as a CFI (considering I'd have to pay taxes with them). Flew for them for 6 months before stepping-stone my way to FedEx (took 4 x 121 airlines to get here.)
Anyway, people preaching this "pilots should demand a respectable salary" blah blah are only half-right. I agree, once employed by an airline, we SHOULD exert whatever leverage/force we have through our negotiating committee (union or non union airline) to get better CBAs as time goes on.
BUT, you'll never stop the fed up CFIs and piston freight pilots who will take ANY turbine 121 airline job to "start" their "airline" career. Thats never going to change, ever. The solution is improving your airline's CBA through your NC and ultimately through your vote.