Originally Posted by
Excargodog
Well, the fact of the matter is that anyone who leaves prior to having 1000 TPIC has failed to allow the company to “recoup their investment” in you.
What really IS their investment? It’s not just the ATP cost.
Nor is it just the type rating. Every single hour of SIC time you get depends on the company putting a CA in the left seat next to you and right now most regionals are CA limited. THAT’s what the company REALLY wants (and in fact NEEDS) since that is currently the most limiting factor in their operation and why they are paying high prices for DECs, mandating upgrades for eligible FOs, and going into the 135 business.
So if you are really talking ethical payback, THAT’S how far you need to go.
But you aren’t going to do that, nor am I blaming you or anyone else for that. Before the majors were hiring like they are today (and before the FAA mandated rest times) regional managements worked their crews like a rented mule and paid them as little as they could get away with - which was very little indeed.
Like the others, Skywest accumulated a huge karma debt at that time. Cr@p on them all you want with a totally clear conscience.
They have it coming.
But there is a big elephant in the room!!! Imagine your child comes to you and says, I'm going spend four years in college, spend, at best, two years of additional training for a cost of about $90K and then get a job that pays, if I'm lucky, $40K a year for 10 years, until, again if I am lucky, I get called up to the Majors. During those 10 years, I'll work crappy hours, not be home on holidays and spend tons of time away from my family and my friends. What would you say? But 5 or 10 years ago, there were plenty of people willing to do this. Why? I have never understood this. For that amount of time and money invested, you could be a lawyer, an engineer, a PhD, a computer software developer, a CPA, who knows. So there is something about this job that from an economic standpoint doesn't make sense. To some extent, the pilots did it to themselves, when plenty of clearly intelligent, skilled folks are willing to work for peanuts, do you think the airline would say, no, I'll pay you more? The good thing is, now, there is much more demand so that there aren't enough people willing to work under those conditions to fill the demand. I have no sympathy for the regional airlines, but you can't say they were entirely at fault. There were plenty of folks standing in line to put up with that crap.