Misleading is exactly the term 60/hr to an avg joe = 130K salary. 60/hr to a pilot = 60K salary.(unless you are a guy who counts the parking pass hotels /diem as salary) This is why the noob's sign up in droves.

good posts by both Byris and Sky....

Corporate 150 pilot.... now that is funny.

As for putting anyone down who wants to leave the industry... hardly.

Sky, I do agree money should play a factor but in my opinion ( albeit you think only yours is valid ) should not play an over riding factor.

Life doesnt always turn out the way we want. And in life everyone makes decisions based on their personal situation. We have all been there. You made a decision to get out of aviation. You believe it was the right one, thats all that matters. Same for the rest of us, and in my case, to get back in... and I believe it was the right one... and the only opinion that matters is mine and my better half's.

Good luck to everyone...those staying... those going. I for one, will take the private advice of several on this board and avoid the "Sky trap" in the future. Good Luck to you.

If you do that this thread (and possibly forum) will die. Well maybe someone else will step up with the counterpoint perspective.

Something else to consider....

People sign up in droves to do this job and then cite that they don't do it for the money. (Though, those who actually DO it, do in fact do it for the money, only the dreamers looking to get in think otherwise). That is fine.

However, it is a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts that this attitude will continue to drive down the quality of the profession. If a mass number of pilots stood up and said, "You now, I love flying! I've always wanted to do it. However, I have spent a multitude of thousands of dollars on flight training and have no desire to see others make a killing off of my work without proper compensation on my part. Management is in the business of making money in aviation. They don't care that it is aviation. Its just the business they are in because they saw an opportunity to make money doing it. Just because I happen to know how to fly airplanes, and I am different in that I enjoy flying them, why should management be able to get away with paying me poverty level wages to operate their multi million dollar assets while they make a killing off my work?", perhaps the job would demand appropriate pay.

The above applies mostly to the regionals. If you are in a major airline already, your pay is likely within acceptable limits.

But regional pilots have the same things on the line when they do the job. When I jumpseat on SWA, those guys do the same damn things I do in the RJ. Exactly the same. We all carry lives in our hands. We all have our licenses on the line everyday. We all deal with the same market forces. Why the huge wage gap? I believe it is supply and demand coupled with the irresponsible attitudes of those dreamers who do not get real and demand that they are WORKING for PAY.

If every pilot out there, decided that considering the crappy lifestyle, time away from home, etc, that they WOULD NOT accept wages below a certain level, or a quality of life below a certain level, then this would be a different profession today. But there is always someone who is willing to undercut the next guy to fly an airplane. And so it goes.....

On many levels... well said.

I agree with all the rest of the post but...

If SWA parked all of their airplanes for the last YEAR they would have made more profit by simply hedging fuel and paying for their capitol that sat unused on the ground. As an airline they are profitable (at least until recently), as a fuel hedging company they would be much more so.

Lifestyle
 

Aviation is about the lifestyle? :confused: Well, no one told me about that. Back when I started in the mid 1980's it was about a well paying profession that was worthy of enduring the crummy lifestyle that came with it.

Skyhigh

1990's
 

No, not aviation supporters. They are great.

Don't you remember the arrogant things that legendary legacy pilots use to say in the 1990's? Well they don't seem to do that anymore. Bedsides I do not drink.

SkyHigh

"Don't you remember the arrogant things that legendary legacy pilots use to say in the 1990's?"

Guess not.

Maybe that's why I'm here and your not. I didn't hold any sort of grudge against...who was it again? All those arrogant legacy pilots?

Sky, you made the bed you sleep in. Just be happy with it and move on.

Summary
 

In summary of this thread:

You can have most anything in life but not everything.

I guess it really is about what you want out of life. I wanted to be a family man that could afford a better life for my wife, children and self. I did not want to have to live for the weekends and slave away at a corporate sweat shop in order to place food on the table. In my efforts of escaping that destiny I ended up running straight into it. Not only did I not have any weekends off as an airline pilot but it failed to provide a reasonible income as well.

I choose aviation since I am good at it, was passionate about it and believe that at the time it was a great profession that could meet my future needs. Since the time I started and now I believe that there as been fundamental changes in the profession that has removed it from the status of attainable supporter of a fully funded and family friendly life.

However if a person is totally committed to his/her aviation dreams they can make the climb to the top however the sacrifices most likely will be huge. It is true, you can have everything in an aviation dream but there might not be room for anything else. My dream is to live a life of abundance and satisfaction. I want to be the owner of my days and to be able to share my daily life with my family. At one time I thought that those things could be commonly achieved through aviation.

Skyhigh