RI830

Pot...meet kettle!
NoSid, I kinda like you in the beginning. But you have become to condescending, antagonistic (as you say) and pompous.
I don't think anyone here has claimed that their job is the "best". They just refute your accusations that their job sucks because you said so.

NoSidNoStar

Show me where I said that anyone specific job suck.
Beside the provoked answers to the personal attacks of people like Ewfflyer. Which I don't personally know, so can't really say either way.
How many times I got to say the same thing, we should only post quantitative inputs. Pay, retirement, days off, days home, duty hours, etc etc.
No personal comments or attacks to others. Let the readers decide.
But every time some post the difference between majors and corporate, some corporate guys get defensive and start offending.
I had it.

The smarter subjective comment is usually "to each his own", which is so obvious that becomes ridiculous. Doesn't help.

You broke my heart Vito...

galaxy flyer

But, by using skewed numbers, like I work only 3-5 days a month on reserve, you are making incorrect comparisons. We were "out of pocket" one airplane for 4 months, I didn't fly a day in that time. Can I say that's typical? Of course not. Was it nice? If course it was.

The guys that didn't take the recall adjusted once to corporates, were will immersed in airline flying and would have gone back w/o a hitch, so it wasn't a forced decision, entirely a decision based on personal factors. The dry numbers of pay, days worked and so on do not adequately capture the trade-offs.

I mentioned ex-mil for the simple reason ex-mil guys are walking into legacy jobs in large numbers without delay. The friend of mine did it in 3 months. How many RJ pilots are waiting years at low F/O pay working 16-19 days a month commuting?

Here's my example of regrets missed. In '97-ish, I could have left the Reserves as an ART, retired and joined UA. Lots of friends there, some in good places to help. Lots of ex-EA guys, too. I looked at pay, days worked, future, the outrageously good contracts and decided the risks of furlough, lousy UA mgt and labor relations (I'd been on the EA MEC during the ESOP wars at UA and knew the business background) and first year pay wasn't worth it. Sometimes good decisions are about not making bad ones. The UA pilots of those years had a terrible 15 years, despite what looked like great working conditions. Furloughs, sometimes twice, loss of retirement, huge pay cuts, stagnation. I've made 50% more dollars, earned another pension and had a great time doing it.

So, I'm sticking with my experience--make personal decisions on more than numbers, understand there's NO silver bullet, sunk costs are just that-sunk, and no one can predict the future. You play the cards you're dealt.

New guys: you can make any oath in aviation a success; being a T7 captain at 40 is great, but don't count on it. You could wind up a RJ captain at 65; it's all about the fun and the stories. I didn't have the career I wanted, but I've loved the one I had. Including one major airline BK, one mid-air, three corporate jobs and several line and mgt jobs.

Lastly, Don't let superior people judge your life. Some of my best friends are airline captains. I envy them, they envy me.

GF

cubguy

I am quite happy with my legacy position. If I could do it all over again I would make the same choice. I have been lucky to have enjoyed a comfortable age/seniority combination for my entire career. That however is rare and no feather in my cap. Pure luck.
With a charter and corporate background however, I do miss that type of flying. It offers so much more in job satisfaction. The variety of destinations, lifestyle on the road with often time to enjoy and the comradery of a small flight department among friends is hard to put a value on. Once it's in your blood it's there to stay.
It's very easey to fit in with an airline. Fly your trip, comply with policy and procedure, set the brakes and go home. Forget about it. In corporate flying there are a LOT more people skills involved. In my opinion, a large percentage of airline pilots would fail miserably in corporate aviation due to attitude alone. Hence the term "airline stink" when referring to corporate applicants with a legacy background.
When you compare a top tier legacy position (with which I'm familiar) to a true blue chip corporate career (which I never attained) I'm not so sure that I wouldn't be happier with the corporate route.
Galaxy Flyer has experienced both, and I am quite aware that legacy flying was never better than Eastern in its day.
I think he is a realist and posts from experience.
Personal happiness is not a competitive event.
CG

NoSidNoStar

That is probably the most interesting statement in the entire thread.
And I am not saying it sarcastically. Makes you wonder if a pilot can ever be happy, rather then content.

As far as the skewed numbers, not really. That is what reserves fly.
Why not all pilots bid reserve? Most want more money, some hate being on call.

NoSidNoStar

I am not sure I said it before in the public forum, or just PM to someone, but I agree 100% with what you say about the type of flying! the time to enjoy, the friendship, the lifestyle. I already miss that part, looking at the pictures and remembering the good times.
But most of the times I was surrounded by great guys.
When I was not, I walked away, and I was always lucky enough to find eventually a better job.
However, overall, I am happier in an airline.

But again, personal happiness is not tangible. All we can do here is talking numbers, let the young ones decide for themselves.

galaxy flyer

You're missing something here--if all pilots bid reserve and flew 3-5 days a month, how does the line stay in business? Surely, they cannot afford a business model of paying 200K (your number), working 3-5 days a month.

There is a reason most pilots are flying the line and working somewhere between 13 and 19 days a month-- the company won't survive if they don't.

GF

BoilerUP

Yet another opportunity to say "Thread's over, folks."

BoilerUP

Reserve can be a really really good deal, IF:

Your airline/fleet/seat is properly staffed,
You live in domicile,
You don't mind having between little and no control of your schedule other than days on/off, *and*
There isn't a major IROP event.

The two months I was on reserve, I averaged 11 days of work per month as a bottomfeeder. Truth be told, it was pretty decent and a lot better than those two months would have been with a bottomfeeder hard line.

NoSidNoStar

That might be the reason why most pilots fly the line, but is not the reason why most pilots bid the line vs reserve.
Most want more money and can't stand being on call, which coming from charters and corporate, it is not as bad.