I love New Jersey, its actually very beautiful, once you get outside of EWR. Its crazy when you guys are doing an approach into 11, or on the Shaff Five arrival and landing 4's take a look outside beautiful multi-million dollar homes........

 

I went to high school in Bergen County (Northern NJ). Its crazy beautiful up there with some serious multi million dollar mansions and really nice land. Of course I was the blue collar kid going to school with all the rich kids.

 

Thats funny. There are over 500 pilots at my airline and I don't think I have met a single one who would describe themselves as "very happy" with their job.

 

I think the question here is enjoyment of the task itself, leaving aside for the moment how well you are compensated and treated in return for this work.The answer probably depends on the time period one defines as "the job".
If you consider only takeoff through landing, almost every pilot would say yes.
Block-out to block-in, a few change their answer to no, due to taxi congestion.
Report to release, a few more "no" answers, due to sit-arounds and deadheads.
Sign-in for a trip until end of trip, add some more "no"s due to bad hotels.
Leave home until get back home, a lot more "no"s (if you commute).
IMHO, flying is still great -- it's all that other stuff that's a pain.

 

Granted, I am new, but...

Even though I commute to reserve, I still enjoy my job immensely. Not that I enjoy commuting, or 4 hour Newark sits, or 12+ hour days, but as soon as the wheels leave the ground I couldn't imagine doing any other job. I've had my fair share of crappy jobs in the past: construction, waiting tables, used car salesman (no joke there), and having those behind me makes me realize just how good we have it. Next time you're up there, flying a jet around for a living, imagine what it would be like to do something for a living that you absolutely hate. Something you loathe getting out of bed for in the morning. I've done that, and while I definitely think QOL/pay could be better for us, I still don't think we have any room to whine about how crappy we think our job is. I could think of much much worse.

 

I agree, but imagine how amazing this job would be if the QOL and pay is what it used to be 10 years ago............Thats the point, the job is great but used to be that much better.......so I encourage all of you to get involved as much as you can and try to make some changes.............(like those of you thinking about going to GOJETS, simply don't, as well as MESA, by going there you are killing, and I mean killing our industry.

 

Why do people always compare airline jobs to to blue collar work? Sure flying a jet for 20K a year is great comparing to waiting tables or being a cleaning lady...But flying a jet requires education that is time consuming and expensive. Maybe we should be comparing jobs that require education, like doctors,lawyers or just about any career that requires a 4 year degree will give you more money than flying a jet and you'll get to sleep in your own bed every night!!! Not to mention 50k or more that people pay off in loans.

 

This is the problem. Until we start changing our mindset about the fact that we SHOULD be paid loads more than we are (i.e. approaching the level of a doctor or lawyer) instead of subconsciously comparing what we do to lower paying blue collar type jobs, nothing will change. Is it easy to fly a jet in todays environment? Yes. Do we need to constantly hear pilot after pilot complain about the braindead newhires who have it made because a jet IS so easy to fly? No. It undermines what we are all trying to accomplish. Better pay and better QOL.

 

Except Doctors and Lawyers have more than a 4 year degree, which you don't even need to do this job. They have far more than 50k in debt usually when they become certified (my friend is in his last year of med school, he is pushing 160k in loans) and they don't make huge salaries right from the start.

I find it funny that pilots like to compare themselves to doctors...we aren't even in the same ballpark. Lawyers, suck...but they have far more education then the average line pilot.

I had a captain tell me once "Well a doctor can only kill oner person at a time, we can take more if we screw up" Whatever...a doctors job is far more complicated and the chances of a doctor's mess up being fatal is far more likely than our screw ups being fatal.

 

It didn't used to be this way. There was a time not too long ago where most airline pilots had 4 year degrees. I would wager that at the legacies, most still do. This widespread zero to hero regional pilot binge is relatively new. I know they have hired low timers before when needed, but I think this is a whole new level of hiring.

I don't think we are on the same level as doctors either, but not all doctors live on the verge of slipping and killing their patients. Most doctors are not surgeons or specialists. They are also paid accordingly for the rarity of their specific skillsets.