Originally Posted by
coolruning
sorry about the grammatical and spelling errors, I should of done a better job at prove reading. in 5-10 years I see myself as a captain at a regional airline and looking to move up to a major airline.
Fine. That's a best case scenario. Here are some things to consider. Your regional airline could furlough. You'll have to wait it out or start all over again at another regional. Your regional could disappear completely a la Comair. You'll have to start all over again somewhere else. Your regional could ask for concessions, again, and again, and you'll find yourself hating management and the entire industry. You could get in trouble, or fail a training event, for any number of reasons, and your chances of a major job will fall tremendously. You'd better think of becoming a line check airman, so you better also get good at playing the political game as it is at many regionals. Any large economic downturn will stifle your plans. Mergers and acquisitions are inevitable and will also stifle the best laid out plans.
What you see today is not what will be in 5-10 years.
And FWIW, I had the same plan. Now working at Target down the street is looking more attractive every day.
Originally Posted by
coolruning
if you don't mind me asking, at what age did you start flying and were you aware of the hardship you face?
I started flying at 21. Graduated with a BS in Aeronautics at 24. I grew up in an AF/airline family, and was blissfully unaware of what was to come. I knew I'd be away from home a lot, I knew I'd "pay my dues", but had no idea how bad the regionals would become. I went to work for a regional airline that had pay scales topping at $140/hr. Second year FOs could be at $39. That all vanished within a year of working there. Since, I've made over $40k once in eight years of flying professionally.
Throughout college we were reinforced with idea of how lucky we were to be graduating at a time when entry-level aircraft were the new "regional jets".