Second year at SKYW I grossed 46K - sidenote; I commute which doesnt allow me to play the system - Dually noted to clear over 50K second year at any regional you have to live in domicile and WORK your tail off

 

You must not be doing it right You might want to check how you calculated that. Are you talking gross or net pay? I know now is not the best time but you're senior enough to know how to get yourself FBOd left and right. That was a big money maker/time off maker for me when we were still training new hires.

 

Exwaterski's response above was excellent.

I am single: No de facto or de jure wife or significant other to help pay for bills and fun. Why are you "married" guys even contributing to this thread?

I have over 5 years at a "major" regional .

I've been fortunate to work in the military and civilian world in both flying and non-flying jobs.

Now that I've qualified myself to respond, in my experience, the single person working for most regional airlines has a very undesirable lifestyle for the following reasons:

-Pay/promotion/job prospects are poor (significantly below average U.S. college grad pay with similar years experience) and likely to stay that way.
-Between ALPA and "legacy" airline management, regional airline pilot groups are used against each other as bargaining chips with no regard to ALPA's duty to represent. The Comair/ASA RJDC federal lawsuit and "ALPA settlement" indicate this will continue.
-Prospects are dim that pay/promotion will be significantly better than the U.S. college graduate average in the future. Cost of living is almost certainly guaranteed to continue to increase however.

Regional pilot groups/contracts are whipsawed with others and upgrade to better pay and schedules, and job security is impossible. Work rules at most regionals have suffered progressively over the past few years due to the same whipsawing. The "legacy/network/major/traditional" carriers do this with the tacit permission of ALPA to keep cost per seat mile feed as cheap as possible. This situation is not likely to change in the next 5-10 years.

Varsity team pilot groups have had opportunities to integrate with wholly owned regional pilot groups from the same union. The opportunity wasn't even discussed. When another varsity team is purchased, the integration of the pilot groups is taken for granted even when it turns into an abortion and ALPA is kicked off property.

Many will tell you that regional flying is "dues" paying. In fact, if you fly as a first officer for over 5 years by choosing the "wrong" regional carrier, you will never accumulate the magic turbine PIC at that carrier. The only dues you'll be paying are the ALPA dues that help your union brethren at the top keep their jobs at all costs. This is illustrated by the outcome of the Comair/ASA RJDC federal lawsuit against ALPA. Nothing changed. The stepping stone path to a better pilot job through regional airlines is more myth than reality. Especially now that non-regional pilot groups are shrinking like ball sacks at a polar bear swim.

Finally, as with any job, if you find a great company you'll be happier. Also, if you are not "single" but have the advantage of a strong partner, to share financial burden and risk, the lifestyle SEEMS better. Any situation is better with more disposable income and another wage earner in case of disaster. That being said, one of the fastest ways to "become" single is to start out married as a regional airline pilot. Ask single guys/girls at specific regionals if they are are loving it.

There's not really any reason to paint a rosy picture. If you know any grandparents who can remember the 1930s railroad days, regional pilots are analagous to the African Amercian employees who did a lot of hard work for little pay with no hope of advancement, while the engineers and executives were always paid better and held apart and above. Except today we regional pilots are actually doing the same job, to the same places, in the same airspace, just with fewer seats.

***

 

I left the regional world about 4 months ago and it was the best descision I ever made. I fly outta my hometown airport, on avg fly about 8 days a month, and make over twice as much as a first year FO at my previous regional. My job may not be for everyone but love it. As far as the single life im 22 and single, and having more fun than i ever have . I can see how the whole commuting thing can put a huge damper on a relationship as I was in one while I was commuting.
PS its not a corporate gig either

 

It's only 3.75 min if you picked the trip up on a day off and if you're a line holder you only get the 150% or the day restored, not both. At least that is what the contract says.

That being said I don't doubt you, if you're flexible and live in base it's not hard to maximize your pay. If you commute and want to be home it's hard to do what SAAB mentions, execpt for when we were hiring. I was getting paid for 80-90 hours a month and flying ZERO!

If I wanted to work I could have credited as much as 190 hours of pay some months.

 

I worked over my vacation, so that helped, and If I will post my Pay register on here with some stuff removed. I am not ssure why I would lie.............

 

He did only say that he was "on track" to make 56K. Maybe the month that he worked over his vacation plus per diem and overtime projected out over a year equals 56K?. Add in the quarter that he found in the parking lot and the free hotel rooms and you could get there.

I had a job as a smokejumper pilot for the Forest Service and one month I only flew one hour. I was paid $5500 a month as an FO. I suppose I could claim an hourly wage of $5500 since I did nothing else that month.

SkyHigh

 

I'm also gonna chime in and say that I'm not sure how this could be possible. I too am on second year pay here, and I'm "on schedule" to make $15,000-$20,000 less than that. I work about 85 hours a month, and I rarely ever see pairings with scheduled deadheads and other "soft time". Everybody always speaks of wx cancellations and the corresponding extra pay, but in the entire time I've been here I've only ever had THREE cancellations, and even then I've never had a day off rolled. I suppose its great when it happens, but unofrtunately it almost never happens.

 

I think the fact that I can hold day trips is whats making me really max my pay. I have line #606 fo August in EWR, take a look at it, you will see where I am able to make a lot of extra cash. its 95hrs of flying with 15 hrs of DeadHead.........

Also if you bid a line with a lot of flying in the beginning of the month, but you flew a ton at the end of the month, you will have those days turned into RA days, then pick up flying after the RA days so they can't put anything on those RA days, so you get paid 3.75 or whatever it is for th RA days.......I had 3 RA days last month I was not used.

 

Yeah, it seems as though day trips are the only way to make extra money. Unfortunately, its much harder to do when you only do 3+4 day trips, as I do. Thats a good idea about the RA days however. I just so happen to be in that very situation for August. Perhaps I'll do that.