Originally Posted by
Spongebob
was offered a job (with a regional) contingent on my getting current and sim time prior to starting. Uhh, not going to shell out $7k to take a 70% pay cut to work weekends. Thx, bye.
Huh?
What regional wanted you to blow $7K on sim???
Plenty of them will take a guy like you with bare minimum currency (ie BFR/IPC in a 152 at the local patch). They'll put you through ATP training too if needed.
Assuming 4K mostly mil FW and a clean record and you'd be off to a big-6 airline within a couple years.
I've worked in the real world and have plenty of friends who still do, seen guys killing themselves for years, climbing over their buddies dead bodies, to get that next promotion which will take them from $120K to $150K. Aviation is much mo betta right now, and will probably stay that way for a good while... long enough to get pretty senior before you have to ride out another downturn anyway.
I know guys who bailed back in the day, and they all have second thoughts, have discussed the possibility of coming back with me. Of those who gutted it out, don't know anyone who regrets it, although I'm sure they're out there too. The guys who got stuck at regionals and needed more money, just got into some other side gig (or main gig), leveraging their seniority for schedule flexibility.