Exwaterski's response above was excellent.

I am single: No de facto or de jure wife or significant other to help pay for bills and fun. Why are you "married" guys even contributing to this thread?

I have over 5 years at a "major" regional .

I've been fortunate to work in the military and civilian world in both flying and non-flying jobs.

Now that I've qualified myself to respond, in my experience, the single person working for most regional airlines has a very undesirable lifestyle for the following reasons:

-Pay/promotion/job prospects are poor (significantly below average U.S. college grad pay with similar years experience) and likely to stay that way.
-Between ALPA and "legacy" airline management, regional airline pilot groups are used against each other as bargaining chips with no regard to ALPA's duty to represent. The Comair/ASA RJDC federal lawsuit and "ALPA settlement" indicate this will continue.
-Prospects are dim that pay/promotion will be significantly better than the U.S. college graduate average in the future. Cost of living is almost certainly guaranteed to continue to increase however.

Regional pilot groups/contracts are whipsawed with others and upgrade to better pay and schedules, and job security is impossible. Work rules at most regionals have suffered progressively over the past few years due to the same whipsawing. The "legacy/network/major/traditional" carriers do this with the tacit permission of ALPA to keep cost per seat mile feed as cheap as possible. This situation is not likely to change in the next 5-10 years.

Varsity team pilot groups have had opportunities to integrate with wholly owned regional pilot groups from the same union. The opportunity wasn't even discussed. When another varsity team is purchased, the integration of the pilot groups is taken for granted even when it turns into an abortion and ALPA is kicked off property.

Many will tell you that regional flying is "dues" paying. In fact, if you fly as a first officer for over 5 years by choosing the "wrong" regional carrier, you will never accumulate the magic turbine PIC at that carrier. The only dues you'll be paying are the ALPA dues that help your union brethren at the top keep their jobs at all costs. This is illustrated by the outcome of the Comair/ASA RJDC federal lawsuit against ALPA. Nothing changed. The stepping stone path to a better pilot job through regional airlines is more myth than reality. Especially now that non-regional pilot groups are shrinking like ball sacks at a polar bear swim.

Finally, as with any job, if you find a great company you'll be happier. Also, if you are not "single" but have the advantage of a strong partner, to share financial burden and risk, the lifestyle SEEMS better. Any situation is better with more disposable income and another wage earner in case of disaster. That being said, one of the fastest ways to "become" single is to start out married as a regional airline pilot. Ask single guys/girls at specific regionals if they are are loving it.

There's not really any reason to paint a rosy picture. If you know any grandparents who can remember the 1930s railroad days, regional pilots are analagous to the African Amercian employees who did a lot of hard work for little pay with no hope of advancement, while the engineers and executives were always paid better and held apart and above. Except today we regional pilots are actually doing the same job, to the same places, in the same airspace, just with fewer seats.

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