Fokker28,

You claim to have been 28 when you got hired. That puts you at 38 before you will be able to even apply to a good company. Even if you get an interview it will be difficult to explain why it took you until you were 40 to get to where others are at 30. Most who are not from UND are not hired until they are much older than 22. Back when I got hired there I was the youngest at 30 and had the lowest time with 3800 hours.

As for pay my friends who still work there don't sugar coat it as well as you do. I am sure that you are throwing per diem, overtime and every dry cleaning reimbursement check into that number in order to get there. Even at your suggested 65K it is still an embarrassment when you step back and compare the decade or more of efforts and sacrifice it takes to get to the same pay that a third year plumber makes. Let's not forget the 150K or so in college and training expenses either.

Like I mentioned in another post if you see the same facts as I but have a different understanding of it then what can I say other than best of luck? Someone has to do it.

SkyHigh