I think you are very right. I think a year from now, many us will no longer be employed in the airlines. It's going to get very, very ugly, and we are just now at the tip of a huge iceberg of furloughs. Have a back up plan!! But of course we all know to have on by now anyway, so I guess I'm just preaching to the choir.

For those instructing, just hunker down for the next long while. You are getting your first taste of what your chosen career has in store for you: A series of waves that you must ride out if you want to be a professional pilot.

I call it lucky and you can't compare his career to someone starting today since half of it was prior to deregulation.

Yet another thread changes from helping an upcoming pilot into a b!tchfest. Pity.

You can EASILY make $40k a year instructing........

::sigh:: yep...and we're all to blame :(

You guys made me laugh. Back in the day (they were called commuter airlines and you thought that you died and went to heaven just to fly a plane with a bathroom and a flight attendant), we didn't have "shiny jet syndrome". Nope, the guys I were training at Ameriflight had "Westcomm fever". That's the slight bit of drool that came from the corner of the month when the Westair Bandit or a shiny new Jetstream pulled along side on the taxiway in Visalia.

Yes, I was a product of the 1500 hrs. of instruction given just to have the opportunity to fly a Piper Lance around for 4 months until Ameriflight thought I was good enough for them. I did 20 months at "Am pipe" before moving on to air ambulance and then the commuters. I went through two of those (Bar Harbor and Northeast Express) before hitting my first jet. Buffalo Airways hired me into the DC-8 after I went thru the Vito LaForgia school in Miami. 18 months later, I was hired on at World.

Why do I bring this up. It's not that I wish this on anyone. This simply the way it was done. Is paying a bunch of money up front and saving (in my case almost 4 years) time worth it? It's for you to decide.

The airlines have been, are currently, and will be in the future a very cyclical industry. The difference between most of the pilots on this board is when they got on and how long did they stick it out. I don't have any hard feelings for those who came and left for brighter things. It's a hard business.

I remind myself that the only two companies that are still in business today are Ameriflight and my current employer.

Good luck to those who stay and for those who leave.

Good point........

Thanks to all who chimed in. Some helped more than others. the 16K is not a salary its just a projected total from the past couple of months.

Don't knock the Dash lets see you get your Shiny RJ into Hilton Head.

I assume you're talking about KHXD... let's see you get it off by the taxiway?:D CFI HERE!