Pilot career
Hello all,
I was writing on the regional board about pay when I posted my "plan" for flying as a career. I had some pretty incredibly negative feedback about how I was dreaming. I know the industry is volitile (Have parents, friends, and family in the industry), but I feel that if I do as much as possible to prepare for it, I will have a better experience. I would like to hear everyone's "IF I COULD DO IT OVER AGAIN, I WOULD..."
I would also like to hear any strong recommendations (have a back up career, etc...)
Furthermore, this is kind of a reasonable expectation I have for my future career. Does it seem reasonable? How would you change it?
I am 22, a CFII, and I have over 700TT and I intend on hiring on at a regional in the next several months.
I pick a decent, solid regional with decent pay and upgrade times (Skywest, Republic, AWAC, ExpressJet, etc..)
Spend 2-3 years as an FO. Suck it up and deal with the pay. I am young enough that 30,000 is plently for 2nd,3rd year.
Upgrade to captain. Spend another 3 years flying. Given all the upgrade times I saw, this is a reasonable expectation.
So now I am 27, making at least 65K, I would potentially have 5000TT, over 3000 PIC. I think these are reasonable expectations. Now I could stay at this regional job for a few more years if I desired to (make reasonable pay for being young and rack up experience), or I could go to a major.
Even in the poor hiring conditions of today, I have to believe that 5000TT, 3000PIC is plently for Southwest, FedEx, UPS, JetBlue, AirTran, Frontier, anyother "Major" that is hiring. Spend a few years as starting FO pay, and then sometime around age 30-35, I would cross the 100K threshold. My goal, and I get to do something I love.
Anything comes up, I have a degree in Aerospace Engineering and I will just get a job in that field.
So again, I would like to hear everyone's "IF I COULD DO IT OVER AGAIN, I WOULD..."
I would also like to hear any strong recommendations (have a back up career, etc...)
Furthermore, this is kind of a reasonable expectation I have for my future career. Does it seem reasonable? How would you change it?
I have never met a pilot who did not like to share their experiences...
Thanks a lot.