No matter how bad the industry gets and how low the compensation there will always be a next wave of pilots who are convinced otherwise and are primed to expect less. Each wave will bring with it lower wages and more difficult working conditions.

I have seen people on this forum who two years ago argued for an aviation career and now after walking the path are arguing against it.

I believe that the future of aviation is a revolving door of hopeful new hires who quickly descend into disgruntled individuals who leave the industry after only a few years. Unions will continue to dissipate due to the transitory nature of the pilot group who only have a few years invested into the profession and are quick to jump to other companies or quit if things get ruff. A few will stick around to become the upper tier of the seniority list of pro-company supporters who have laid their entire lives down for the job further insuring a future that is in the hands of management.

It is cheaper to train new pilots than to pay a livable wage to experienced ones. Automated planes are removing experience needs from the flight deck making it so that companies can hire 300 hour pilots into the right seat of a regional jet. The current wave is subsiding and the next is starting to build.

SKyHigh

 

Loving to fly when you go to the airport as a student, go up for a two hour flight, and then go home to your own house with your own wife is a world of difference from the airline lifestyle. One can almost say its one of the biggest bait and switches ever pulled on a person.

Flying in college was one of the most fun times I've ever had, but then regional FO flying became a drag. The difference? Even though I had many 10 hour days as a CFI, I got to go home and recharge at the end of the day. You really have no clue what the flying lifestyle holds until you've invested it all, only to "make it" and feel that you're wasting your life away every night in a hotel.

If you want to simulate this life to test it, go fly 8 legs (make sure you give about 45 min between them too) on MS Flight Sim, then when you finish, go lock yourself in a large closet. You can only call people from the closet, seeing them is cheating. Now repeat the process for the next 3 days. Only then can you come out of the closet and back "home" to all your spoiled food that spoiled earlier in the week. Then maybe you'll realize just how much time a long trip really eats up of your life.

 

Don't forget I was salary... I would put in 60 hour weeks and still get the same pay... 9 dollars an hour by the time the free overtime was factored in...

 

And why wouldn't you go out and see the town, or have drinks at the bar again? Why wouldn't you go for a jog somewhere or hiking? What if the crew offered to hang out that night?

 

In the real world, most crews will slam click. Its just the way it is.

You can always go jog on your own though. Nothing stopping that.

Also, you don't have to be a Dr. or a lawyer to own and operate an airplane. You can get into a 150 (if you can get into a 150 ) for 18,000 bucks. I figured one time that to operate a 150, with both fixed and variable costs, for 6-8 hours a week (a lot of flying!!!), it would cost about 7,000 a year. That may seem like a lot, but it is far from attainable only by the Dr.s and Lawyers. Even us lowly accountants can reach that.

Also, you mentioned "glorified" paper pusher and something else. Does "glorified" bus driver ring a bell? And it is losing its glory quickly. Hell, I think in the time I've been doing this, I've had 2, maybe 3 kids come up and look in the cockpit. Parents probably try to steer their kids away from this. Who knows? But, when I was kid, it was like standing at the pearly gates to go up there and look at all that awesomeness.

 

Hey dan64456,

Go for it. You have never been there and done the airline lifestyle. I bet flying Cessna was fun when you first started, but now you want to fly a jet... I am sure that once fly an RJ, it will never get as boring as flying GA aircraft.
Here something to think about it: 20 years ago such conversation would never take place. Low pay and Airline Pilot never existed in the same sentence. You think that making 30 K year is good? By the time you get hired (because of eager people like you)the pay will be somewhere south of that.

 

For some, the magic has not, and never will die... For most, the parents are products of our age of paranoia society... They don't want to be accused of being terrorists for looking at the cockpit... I don't have a wife, or kids either... I do have a not-so-serious g/f, but she is all for me going for it... she knows how I despise corporate america...

Every time I get on a commercial flight, I always step aside to stare at the cockpit, and I always say goodbye and thankyou to the pilots when getting off. I just wish I could get up there at night time in flight and see all of those lights...

 

Please don't accuse me of being the reason that FO's get 30K a year... I'm not the fat prick CEO responsible for that. I just see something that I'd like to try out. And I'm not bored of Cessna's, I just can't afford to fly them. The way I see it, the ONLY way I'd get to fly is to do so for hire... And sue me for wanting to fly jets because they offer more opportunity down the road than being a lifetime CFI? I'm not even close to an airline job yet, and I get accused of being the reason the 1 yr FO's make 30 grand? Come on man...

 

From most of the "old timers" at my airline, the pay has come up. They normally reminisce on being a Metro / Brasilla CA making 18k/yr. Granted, they didn't go to many places, the overnights were almost non existent, and they were loving life. Take into that inflation though, and i'm sure they were making only slightly less than the CA's out there today.

Dan, don't ever lose your love of flying. Keep at it, go for your dreams, and check in with us in the morning....Honestly, what have you got to lose? No wife, no kids, no house, will make what you were currently making, and will be flying airplanes for a living. You haven't done it yet, might as well try it out. In a worst case scenario, you'll find yourself hating professional aviation as much as you hate the corporate world. I do however, reiterate, DO NOT LOSE YOUR LOVE OF FLYING!

 

"Low pay and Airline Pilot never existed in the same sentence."

Yeah they did. 20 years ago UPS Capts made 80K a year on a DC8. Entry level regional/commuter jobs paid from 10K to 15K, and you needed 2000 total and 500 multi to get looked at. Lorenzo had broke the union at Continental with ads in the paper for pilots. 75K for Capts. 50K for F/O's.

It's never been an easy career. Not 20 years ago, not 30 years ago. It's never been a high paying career to start out. You have to pay your dues and put in your time. For some, it just turns out not to be worth it. For others, it is. To each his own...