Meh...Sonicflyer's attitude is the same as most pilots'. That's why the regionals paid poverty wages to FOs for so long. The only reason pay ever went up, was because the regionals ran out of pilots who could live in their parents' basement or had a military retirement and afford to do that. Most of us love it, and only need it to pay because our kids need to eat. If the economy doesn't make a really rapid come back, you can expect a couple new regionals to start up paying $15/hr and promising upgrades in a year while everyone else is stagnant, and that's where all the new flying will go. Any airlines that want to compete for new flying will have to do the same, and back to the whipsaw.

 

i disagree. I think it used to be the attitude of most pilots. The reason the regionals ran out of pilots is because of the millennials.

They were the first generation to say “you want me to pay 50k+ for ratings, build 1500 hours, then make 20k a year as my reward? No thanks.” I’m no millennial, but credit is deserved where it’s due.

 

For my generation (barely had video games, no cell phones or internet growing up), an endeavor like aviation was one of the only ways to experience anything outside of mundane daily life, ie an adventure. It was worth something to have an opportunity to experience things that few people got to (same for military service, merchant marine, road trips, etc).

Young people today have all the adventure they need in their hip pocket with candy crush. So you have to pay them to get them to put up with the hassles of real jobs.

 

Very few millennials grew up with sons of pilots making Cadillac/mo wages. Every pro pilot should have a website devoted to discouraging aviation. A 10 second Google search should eliminate all future $16/hr pilots. I know it would work because when I did it for mechanics my only replies came from pilots!

 

Well as a millennial, on the front end of the generation, I quit flying because I found it ridiculous I could make more money driving a tractor baling hay than flying. Albeit it required me to on average log 23 days in a row during first cutting in June where I worked 17 hour days but I was making an astonishing greater amount of money.

So, please tell me more about how I wouldn't fly because I wouldn't "put-up with the hassels of a real job."

 

Geez, easy there.

Read it again... I said you have to PAY them to put up with the hassles. Nothing bad about that in my mind, as it should be.

In previous generations the adventure aspect was worth something, I think kids who grew up with phones and internet are more blase about that.

For you there's no more adventure flying than bailing hay, so do whichever pays best.

I don't regret any of my adventures, but it does distract one from making money.

 

I think it helps to have instant access to everyone else's opinions as well. In today's world of technology, it takes all of about 5 seconds to figure out what's going on in contract negotiations and exactly how that's going to float with the pilot group. The threat of (instant) bad PR due to an angry pilot group can't be understated as one if the sources for better contracts.

That's something that is relatively new, and airlines haven't had to deal with that until very recently.

 

I'm sorry but the tone of that comment dovetails so well with the ridiculous amount of bashing of certain generations that is ridiculous on here.

Of course flying offers adventures far greater than driving a tractor at 3 miles an hour. I just wasn't willing, and honestly I was mad at the world that all the time and effort I put into the ratings would net me $8000 the first year out of college while my buddies in other fields were getting company trucks and $55k the first year. I'm no martyr but everyone should stand up for this career, pay started to increase at the regionals because people started quitting the profession and stopped going into it all together.

The only reason we don't get paid more is so many people have well to do parents or are so enamoured with the love of flying or the adventure that they will work poverty wages to do it.

 

That's true for other professions as well, people attracted to either the allure, the perceived prestige, or the potential for long-term economic rewards (minor league baseball, firefighters, etc). In the case of airline aviation it's all three.

To get the best pay for your skill, time, and effort you have to something boring or uncomfortable. Less competition.

 

Let me also refine this point a bit...

For those who are not at the majors, staying in aviation even if at a lower pay scale makes sense.

Every hour I fly makes me more competitive to get to the majors. If I leave the career, even temporarily, simply because the pay is lower than what it used to be, I am no longer advancing my career.

If you are climbing the ladder then it is better to continue flying, even if at near minimum wage (assuming your budget can handle it) than to stop flying.

So if I was a regional CA and I was making $100k, and they dropped it back to $40k because of economic reasons, it would still benefit me to continue flying a greatly reduced pay because it means my options would gradually increase as my hours build.