help! Should I become a pilot?
 

Since I was a boy I dreamed of becoming a commercial airline pilot, but now that I am entering my last year of high school I am reconsidering. I do research and read how so many people are so much in debt and are not getting paid much. Should I still become a pilot? I know I would love to still work in the aviation field. Is there anuthing besides becoming a pilot that I should consider? Air traffic controller? Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] Thanks

go be a dentist and then buy your own airplane and fly it to the house in the beach and the one in the ski resort you will have. pilots can't have those anymore.

Have you read Barry Schiff's column from a recent issue of "AOPA Pilot" magazine?

Barry can no longer encourage young people to become airline pilots and I agree with him. I used to be involved in a committee that DID encourage young aviators and quit because I couldn't, in good conscience, encourage anyone to do this job.

This is no longer a career, it is a job. The sad fact is that your success in this industry is about 75-80% luck. Heck, I thought I had won the lottery when I was hired by United almost seven years ago. The good pay and benefits made being away from my family tolerable. It used to be that a pilot would make a good enough living so that the wife could stay home and raise the kids properly. Now, many wives are working too, just to meake ends meet. Now that pay, benefits and work rules are in the toilet I'm thinking of getting out altogether.

I cannot afford to rent a C-172 right now due to family obligations (mortgage, kids, repairs on the car, etc...). This is something that I had hoped to one day.

Do a google search and look for that article from Barry Schiff. He eloquently states what most airline pilots have been thinking and saying for the last few years.

greedyairlineexec is right. Go be a dentist...or a plumber, electrician, general contractor. Be home every night and watch your kids grow up.

Here ya go!


The glory days are over
BY BARRY SCHIFF (From AOPA Pilot, June 2006.)

Barry Schiff retired from TWA in 1998 after a 34-year
career with the airline.

I have been agonizing over the topic of this column
for a few years, not knowing if I should publicly air
my personal thoughts. Not to do so, I finally
concluded, would be intellectually dishonest. So at
the risk of attracting flak, here goes.

I was hired as a pilot by Trans World Airlines in
1964. This was during the glamour years that began
after World War II. Airline salaries were rising,
working conditions improved with every contract
renewal, and airline pilots earned approval and
respect from every quarter. On international flights,
airline pilots were treated like royalty.

No one working for Pan American World Airways or TWA
during this period could possibly have anticipated the
demise of their airlines. These were cultural icons of
the twentieth century. At one time, TWA's logo was the
second most recognizable in the world (Coca-Cola's was
the first).

The death knell for this era sounded on October 24,
1978, when President Jimmy Carter signed the Airline
Deregulation Act. The merits and demerits of
deregulation aside, the long-term result for pilots
was etched in stone. There would be an erosion of
wages, working conditions, pensions, and job security.

Things got worse after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
Because of the need for additional security, airline
pilots are locked in their cockpits behind bulletproof
doors and suffer the indignity of coordinating trips
to the lavatory with flight attendants.

The glory years are gone.

I could not have been prouder when my son Brian was
hired by TWA in 1989. Although conditions had declined
since the airlines were deregulated, being an airline
pilot was still a great job. He upgraded to captain on
the Boeing 727 11 years later. Although thrilled to be
in the left seat of a jetliner for a major carrier, he
worked harder and earned a smaller salary than I did
many years previously.

TWA was assimilated by American Airlines in 2001.
During the next two years Brian went from left seat to
right seat to the street. He had been furloughed and
eventually found a job flying Learjets for a Part 135
operator. He now flies as captain of a Canadair
Regional Jet for a commuter carrier.

Like thousands of others who have been furloughed from
the majors, he has no idea when he will be recalled.
Considering that American is reducing its need for
pilots by contractual increases in pilot productivity
and outsourcing many of its shorter, thinner routes to
commuter carriers, it could be many years before Brian
again sees an American Airlines' flight deck. Another
of my sons, Paul, began to satisfy his desire to
become an airline pilot in 2000 when he was hired by
Trans States Airline, a company that operated
TWExpress, US Airways Express, and AmericanConnection.
Paul bounced between all three and discovered after
9/11 that he was not making headway in accruing
seniority.

After four domicile changes, he opted to leave Trans
States and obtain a more promising position with
United Express. He worked there for three years,
during which he had as many changes in domicile, and
discovered that the most he had earned after six years
as a commuter pilot was less than $30,000 per year. He
again foresaw little potential for a career like I had
and with great mental anguish opted to change
professions.

Paul recently started a pet-supply company, gets to
spend every night in his own bed, and has an
opportunity to develop a social life. As an airline
pilot gone from home 21 days a month, he had little
opportunity to meet someone with whom he might like to
share a future. When he did meet someone, he had
neither the time nor the money for dating.

Paul says, "It is relatively easy to get a job with a
commuter carrier, but not because these carriers are
losing pilots to the majors; they are not. The
attrition rate at the regional level is high because
so many pilots reach their limits of endurance and
quit. They find it too difficult to live on starvation
wages [especially those with families]. There usually
was nothing left in my wallet after shelling out for
commuting and crash-pad expenses."

Although these are anecdotal experiences, my frank and
personal discussions with numerous other airline
pilots corroborate my feelings about the state of the
airline industry. I can no longer encourage aspiring
airline pilots without first ensuring that they
understand the treacherous and daunting journeys
typically required to reach for such lofty goals.

Do not misunderstand. Coping with the challenges of
weather, communing with nature in a way that only
pilots can appreciate, and maneuvering a sophisticated
aircraft from one place on Earth to another remains a
stimulating and gratifying endeavor (although I think
it was more fun with less automation). It is the price
one must pay to get there that is so discouraging.

I frequently am asked for advice about becoming an
airline pilot. The best advice I can offer those
determined to endure the rigorous hardships often
required is to simultaneously develop a sideline
vocation that can be used in case of emergency. A
pilot should never get into a position that is totally
dependent on income from an airline.

Does the end justify the means? Does becoming a
captain for a major airline justify all that must be
endured to get there? Perhaps, but surviving long
enough to get there is the problem.

I wouldn't give up on flying. There have never been, and aren't, any guarantees. In todays environment, you'll top out a 150K, most likely. If you get stuck at a regional, maybe closer to 100K.

If you can live with that then I'd say you should press on. If not, or if you're looking at flying for the money, you should probably look elsewhere.

Follow Your Heart !!
 

You should follow your heart and just do it man !! Flying is great !! Leave all that desk job stuff to the working class idiots. You are to smart to fall in the the 9 to 5 real job trap. Get out there and FLY !!!

SkyHigh

Just kidding. :D I just wanted to see what it felt like to be an aviation cheerleader.

GOOD LORD!!!!!!!!! I nearly fell out of my chair until I read your disclaimer, that's a riot.

My opinion, if you want to fly airplanes for the money your in it for the wrong reasons. Truthfully if you want to do anything for the money its the wrong reason. That's why all of the fun stuff we could do for money is illigal.

Test the waters have a little fun with flying before you decide its the path of the future. Its got to be right for you don't listen to me or anybody else.

And just because Barry Schiff said it doesn't make aviaiton law. His opinion is no different then yours.

Fly in the Military.

Forget the money. There were plenty of other unappealing characteristics of the career mentioned in that article. "Don't listen to me or anybody else" is fantastic nonsense! What is the purpose of this forum? What is the purpose of the wisdom and experience of others?

Living Your Dream
 

If there is ANYTHING you have dreamed of doing since you were a boy, and you don’t do it because others convince you it’s not the thing to do (for ANY reason), then you will NEVER live your dream, no matter WHAT you do!

Even if you have the money all the naysayers want you to have, the only time you will ever “LIVE” is when you drink more expensive wine and talk about what might have been.