Originally Posted by
Rascal
It is a very long road from PPL to 777 CA. The time it takes to get there can be 20 years if you are lucky or never if you are just an average airline pilot. Medicals, furloughs, career jeopardy do multiple factors does not make this job easy. Day to day line flying can be mind numbing but throw in a couple geese on departure and this job becomes really hard and that is what they should be paying you for. Pilots earn their pay when sh@t hits the fan not for straight in visual approach backed up with an ILS. Besides being a bus driver is easier than being a pilot and yet their pay is better...
Pilots in the USA should stop justifying their low pay and should start demanding a little more just their counterparts overseas do. Was flying any harder 10 years ago when some CA's got 300k a year. What did you say about pay and difficulty level of this job back then?
You make valid points about the
career. I'm talking about the job. The tasks, duties, knowledge, and physical skills required.
You can agree that the job of a "major" pilot flying a larger jet is very similar, if not identical, to that of a pilot flying a smaller "regional" jet. And the distinction of regional/major is beginning to blur as well with the new Midwest events.
But look at the basics. Pilots do not need a degree, at all, to be a pilot. The difference between a major airline applicant and a regional applicant is experience. 3,000 Hours TPIC versus 0 hours TPIC.
The pay issue lies in the fact that many
pilots will take low-paying jobs (doing very similar work) for the sake of that experience. Now, I'm not stupid. You could insert any career field and place of the underlined word, and it would be true.
However,
pilots are one of the few professionals I've seen that will take jobs below a living wage, long term, half the continent away from their homes, just to gain experience.
Pretend if I made a job posting on the internet saying that was hiring for a King Air job that payed minimum wage for hours worked. And you had to relocate at your expense. Let's be honest, I'd be flooded with applications from people, many with college degrees, and most with the the proper certifications. That doesn't happen in every industry. My big question is this: How low does a pilot job have to pay before no one would apply?
My bet: As low as is legal.