Originally Posted by
kingairfun
Damn, I guess times and expectations have changed in the last 15 years....
Back just before 9/11 the average turbo prop regional wanted 900/100 just to apply...places with jets typically wanted 1500/100...
I went to school, worked full time, and flight trained at a local FBO.. No help from parents, all student loans for school, and CC's for flight training... Bartended whenever possible.. Basically did anything to get by. Now these new guys are complaining because they aren't at Delta or AA 5 yrs after their first flight... 10 yrs ago the only guys with a shot at SWA,JB or AirTran ( only companies hiring) were 10 yr regional Captains that had atleast 1000 TPIC.
I did as much online course work as possible and night classes so I could fly/credit 6-8 hrs of Flt/Grnd training a day when I CFI'd to make ends meet....found descent deals on multi time when I could and would travel to get it. At that time Florida had a few places that you could do the "safety pilot" deal to reduce costs.
Hired at a small turbo prop regional at just over 900 hrs. Took a few classes so the student loan payments weren't due. After that deferred my student loan payments for around a year ( maximum time).
Found my way to a jet regional at their minimums. Crashed where I could, did the airport sleepover, commuted to my hometown when possible...did whatever possible to get by..
11 years later finally got hired by a Legacy, 3 years after that finally debt free..
Moral of the story....15 years ago you still needed between 900-1500 hrs to get hired....pay was a bit less, and there were no Legacy expectations because everyone was furloughing
It's a different generation nowadays... Most younger pilots I see that get into aviation have a lot of help and support from their parents. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just different than many who started out 10 or 15 years ago.
I didn't experience the industry the way many of you did back then. But this is a second career for me. My first career path started when I was young. I had no support from my parents and I apprenticed for a full year with ZERO pay (industry norm) and putting in 14 hour work days. I lived on friends couches and ate off the dollar menu at McDonalds. But you know what? I wanted it bad enough that I made it work. And then when that industry started changing (for better and worse) I saw young kids come in and essentially have it handed to them compared to what I experienced. And it will make you a little bitter.
Times have changed and so has the industry. Change is a part of life. And every generation complains about the one that comes behind it in just about every facet of life. One day the young kids around now will be the old guys, and they'll tell the new guys stories of flying with the old regional CAs who were screwed by the industry and bad timing. And so on and so forth.