TurboDog

Your buddy is clearly underpaid. The Memphis Fire Department hired my cousin and two of his buddies that each have an AAS in Fire Science with a paramedic certification(which most big cities won't hire without anymore) and they started each of them at $63,000.00/year. And at least their job is rewarding.

JJOSH122

It's all relative.

BigWammerJammer

I was with PSA for a year and had to leave because it was so hard on my family. The regionals are definitely for singles who don't mind crashpads and communting to reserve.

Consider this simple math for those of you thinking that you would like to have a family someday: If you get at least 15 days off per month (that's about half a month and is certainly no guarantee) and you work for 30 years, you will be spending 15 years away from home. That means you would have to wait until your child is 30 before you spend more time with him than away. How about your spouse; the one you chose to spend the rest of your life with...er, half of it at best.

This is a profession that forces a choice of priorities that few other professions do. This is not like being in Iraq or Afghanistan but, relative to other professions, it's close.

Very few other professions get away with requiring its employees to work 14 hours but only pay for five or six of those hours. Much of the work the flight crew, especially in regionals, does is in preparation for a flight and none of it is compensated by the company. Ask yourself if you like working for free, because you are. Sitting reserve and not flying but being "on call" is a poor substitute unless you fly a widebody and are living in base. Then reserve is good.

Guys like "Sully" help demonstrate to outsiders just how professional and well-trained we are, not just autopilot managers. He and his crew did a great job and its nice to have something to be proud of every now and then rather than having to explain why somebody tried to take off from the wrong runway or how two airplines got pushed into each other at Charlotte.

To answer the question, then: yes, you must love it more than anything else because you will have to sacrifice everything else to do it and much of the satisfaction you gain from it will be intrinsic. It won't come from anywhere else.

cargo hopeful

I already explained it but I’ll give it another go around. It’s really not that complicated. If you are a nurse and you’ve been practicing for let’s just say 7 years and you decide to move to another city or state to work for a different hospital, you can and should expect a salary that equals what you were previously making at your last place of employment before you left. The same should go for pilots. Once again, I agree that this idea is usually considered a fairy tale but this is one fairy tale that needs to come true! A national seniority list or a system like it is needed so a pilot who has been flying for 7 years can go to another company and expect to make what a 7 year FO at that company should be making; it’s the right thing to do!

Pontius Pilot

Very eloquently stated.


In my case, 11 to 12 days off a month is the norm. If I'm lucky I get to fly home the same day I work and not on my day off. I get 1.5 to 2 days at home, but my wife works most of those days. If I'm lucky I get to see her 10 to 16 hours while I'm home. Then off again I go. Its not easy on a marriage, and not healthy. Healthy relationships require good lines of communication and intimacy - something you can't have over a cell phone.

It is definitely not like going to Iraq or Afghanistan. With those options you are gone a year to 18 months and then come back home. Most people won't spend years and years there. I'm not saying it isn't hell on those people, but its usually (and hopefully) a one time deal. Ours is a way of life, whether you live in base or not. If I could get daily's and live in base, it might be a good thing, but I can't and don't and probably won't.

The other downside is not being able to be involved in many things. Sure you know your schedule for the entire month, but you usually don't know month to month what your schedule will be. Say you want to take part in a play, or join a group, or do anything that requires a semi-regular schedule - good luck, because you really can't do it. It is great for those who are single, don't mind being away, don't have children, don't want to be involved in certain things, etc. For those of us with spouses, families, etc. it is a poor career choice. Loving it won't make up for missing out on this stuff. Loving it won't make up for missing your child's first steps, not being there if your parent gets ill, missing Christmas for the 12th time, waking up next to your spouse every morning and having coffee together.

I think the airlines should take a more proactive approach to providing us with better schedules. If you look at Flybe in the UK, they attempt to have all their pilots back to base every night (weather and other delays notwithstanding). This would make the job much easier and it could be done. Whether or not they would be interested in doing it is another story. It would definitely be a perk.

BoilerUP

Of course this idea sounds great in theory, but its practical implementation is fraught with obstacles:

1. How do you get airline managements to buy into this idea, within the constraints of the RLA?

2. How do you ensure airline management doesn't discriminate during the review/hiring process against pilot applicants with more longevity, and therefore would be making higher pay?

3. Would seniority and longevity be transportable, or just longevity for pay purposes?

4. What would determine the date at which your longevity begins...DOH, date of ATP, etc?

5. Would a military pilot with a 10 year military flying career come in at the very bottom, or would they receive longevity credit for their non-airline experience? Same question for charter and corporate pilots.

NSL is sorta like communism - looks great on paper but a PITA in reality.

Jake Wheeler

Life is short. Do what makes you happy and have no regrets. I like flying. I will never be rich, but I'm happy enough to continue flying for a living.

JoeyMeatballs

heres the Deal as my Monkey Brothern states above life is short, its is meant to be lived not to be resented. I LOVE the job, I hate the BS that comes with it and the 1st year pay and the furloughs but I LOVE the Job and the people who have become family. As chessey as it sounds the guys/gals we all fly with become best friends for life as this is such a small industry.

The best advice I can give is don't commute. I live in EWR and I was able to show $51,000.00 in 2008 with a pay rate of just $34.46 and hour...

Remember though, we should all work to live, not live to work..........(I know I know I should take my own advice)

SkyHigh

It makes me happy to fly a 737 from the left seat up and down the west coast a couple time a month while making 250K, but so far I haven't got that job yet. Should I continue go through a lot that makes me unhappy in the hope that eventually I will got to do what makes me happy, or should I only do what makes me happy at the moment and forget about the future? I mean what if I never get the dream job?

What if I were happy as a young and single pilot however when I got older and I wanted a family, to buy a house or to build a retirement? How could I remain happy if I did not have the stability or income to support my future? Leaving the profession after so much of an investment couldn't be a very happy prospect.

Should we take steps today that might better insure the happiness of tomorrow or let the future take care of itself? What if we end up someplace that we are very much not happy about?

It seems difficult to be able to be happy all the time. This happy business is messy.

Skyhigh