In the past a pilot could expect to get a job with a stable major airline in their 20's and retire with a full retirement check to come in the mail from 60 on. Flight training was cheaper and the military wanted only 4 years of your life if you were to join and be trained as a pilot. Once gainfully employed as an airline pilot your wages steadily climbed into the upper class.

Consider the situation today: College and flight training costs are pushing 200K, the military wants 10 to 20 years, wages have been cut in half and retirements are gone. Add to that that the 1500 hour rule and steep competition at the majors and one would be lucky to even be able to fill out an application for a major while still in their 30's.

The whole situation is a recipe for financial and personal life disaster. Start out deep in the hole burdened with loans facing a massively uphill battle and placing most of your faith into the hands of luck and circumstance. Not much room for personal relationships. Little hope of home ownership. Always wondering if your company is on the verge of, bankruptcy, merger, downsizing or liquidation.

Almost guaranteed to retire broke (or worse in debt) with no hope for rescue.

Skyhigh

 

Welcome to the modern United States?

Grow up. Realize not everyone has the same financial or life situation. Literally tens of thousands of people prove you wrong daily that it can be a viable and fulfilling career. Guess what? Every career path has people who succeed and love it and people who fail and hate it. That's the way things have always been, especially now with the economy. Even bankers aren't happy with their wages now a days. I'm sure many of us would refuse to work 18-20 hour work days punching numbers into spreadsheets for the first 2-3 years of a career even if there was a promise of making low to mid 6 figures (and certainly on up for others).

 

Damm,
That young F/O around 30 who flew with me last week in a A300 better rethink his career! Flying is just like life Sky some make some do not. Far more lost everything in your current business "building" than flying.

 

You guys are just wrong. Take a step back and measure all that has been lost over the last ten years and project that trend into the future. A 45 year old might make it to retirement but a 20 year old who is just starting today has little to no chance.

They might have a job but the debt, low wages and difficult career will insure that their personal and financial life will be in smoking ruins. The next generation of planes will be fully automated. Aviation is not like most other careers. It is on the downhill grade into oblivion. I am sure that blacksmiths had those who said that their trade would never go away either.

Skyhigh

 

Yeah, but no one really wants that job. It doesn't pay $400k/yr and you're probably gone from your wife and 2.5 kids for a few weeks. It's not The Dream.

 

Okay. You're always wrong, so lets see what you're regurgitating today.

Only if you're an idiot. Flight training doesn't come close to that.

What you spend on college is up to you, but that has nothing to do with aviation, or a flying career. College isn't necessary to fly for a living, nor is it necessary to fly for the airlines. It certainly enhances one's resume, but a popular choice today is flying for a living while completing a degree online, for much, much less than what you apparently think it costs.

What the military "wants" is irrelevant. What the military gets is known at the time of signing, and it's not 20 years. You have no idea what you're talking about. It's a good career for those who so choose. In fact, I know a lot of pilots who draw military retirement who have the option of walking away from their day job at any time, because they get a good monthly check, regardless of whether they show up for work.

No, they haven't. My wages continue to go up. Don't yours?

I used to work with a 29 year old captain on a B747.

You're flying what? A Cessna 150? Perhaps it's just you that couldn't hack it and had a failed career. A lot of us have done quite well in aviation, and continue to do so.

You're more like the little imp that sits on one's shoulder, bound and determined to discourage "you won't make it, you can't do it." You're the voice of negativity, based only on your own failings. By your own admissions, extensive ones, too.

How's that working out for you? Living like a king, yet?

Isn't it?

Wait a tic. You didn't make it, did you? You're right, then. It does work.

 

Yeah, owning a home, having no debt, and having my wife quit her job so she can be a stay at home mom is a real drag and costing me tons.

 

No, you are wrong. Say it with me Sky, some people will have debt and low paying jobs for most of their career and some people will have no debt, high salary positions with good retirements. That's what we call reality, where some people make it and some people don't. You live in fantasy land where it makes you feel better about your pathetic self for thinking and hoping that no one can or did make it in a career you failed so miserably in.

 

Wow, you need to calm down and stop putting words in my mouth! Please show me where I degraded regional FOs who are stuck in their career? I just pointed out that Sky is wrong when he repeatedly says no one can make it in this career. Yes, some people don't make it and that sucks, but some people do. What is wrong with that statement?

I agree that luck and timing can play a factor in the outcome of ones career, but so can a lot of hard work. When I went through flight school I ended up instructing many people who were in my class who I started with. It shouldn't take you a year or two to get your private and instrument rating. And before someone says it, it wasn't because a lack of funds. When you would rather go home to your parents on the weekends and summers instead of working towards your ratings, or you don't want to fly this night because of a party or you can't fly this morning because you are too hung over, these are all things that an individual can control. Everyone likes to point out how important networking is in this business but then they don't do anything to network.

There are a lot of variables in this business but you as an individual can make a big impact on just how successful your career becomes.

 

No one wants to be a widebody FO after 2 yrs on the property at FedEx? Not gone from home for weeks either. Good luck finding that 400k career you do from home sitting on the couch.