Originally Posted by
IceDirector
I am giving a speech in my Speech class. Originally my main focus was on Sully and researching about training pilots go through. I will admit that I have no experience as a pilot and am more naïve about pilots than I wish I were. Because of this I spoke to a friend who works for Northwest whom enlightened me a bit.
I found that what I should talk about is a pilots schedule and how some airlines are really "flying the **** out of their pilots." So I was curious as to whether anyone can enlighten me a little more about your schedules. I also wanted to talk how pilots should really be paid more for what they do, therefore I was curious as to what the average pay for pilots are.
Thanks for your help!
As far as pay, there is a pay scale on Airline Pilot Central for all the airlines. You need to remember that the actual hourly pay might seem high or decent, but we don't get paid like normal hourly workers (getting paid for every hour you are at work.. which generally is like 8 hrs a day, 5 days a week.) These days especially, most of us are getting paid at monthly guarantee (75 hrs) or a little above.
I am a regional FO. I'd say pay for someone in my position ranges from as low as 17k to as high as 45k, depending on year of service and the airline they fly for. I am betting that there are much more FOs earning on the lower range than the higher. I am starting my third year and I will probably be grossing 25k for 2008. I work for one of the crappier regionals (low pay, poor work rules), so another FO with the same hire date as me at ASA for example, would probably make 10k more, easy. (which is obviously still too low for a third year airline pilot.)
I don't really care about the company flying the crap out of me. (which isn't even a concern nowadays with the reduced flying.) Because you could fly 95 hrs in a month and still spend a lot less time at work than someone who flew 60 hrs. It has to do with how efficient your duty day is. Flying a lot doesn't tire me out, having a long duty day DOES. The problem is that it's legal for us to work 16 hr days. I don't know about other airlines but mine uses this rule to their advantage for sure. I would much, much rather fly 7 hrs in a 10 hr workday than fly 4 hours in a 15 hr work day. Obviously because you get paid more, but more important, it just shouldn't be legal for pilots to be at work for 16 hrs straight! Often by the 13, 14th hour I'm pooped. You would think actually flying would tire you out more, but no... all that sitting around time totally drags down your energy and makes you even more tired than if you were actually at the controls. I mean how can someone be allowed (even encouraged) to operate machinery (with lots of people on board said machinery) after having been at work for 15 hrs............ I could never understand how the law could allow for that. It just never ceases to bewilder me.
Reduced rest is another rule I despise but that's another story.
This probably varies from airline to airline. But at my regional, most of the lines are not productive at all (meaning long work days with not many flying hours) and I think that's what needs to change, not the amount of hours we fly.