Don't start believing your own hype. Your "buddy" may think that he has it easier than you, but the toll his body takes is a whole other matter. One that you don't comprehend.

The language barriers he fights on a daily basis is one you don't comprehend.

The knowledge that he possesses outside of an "international class" is that which you don't comprehend.

The body count in his airplane, and the associated revenue it and the cargo creates buries a 50 seat RJ.

The 737 pilot flying into Tegucigalpa does indeed possess extra skill which you do not comprehend.

Knowing what to do, and subsequently actually doing it when you have smoke in the cabin 2.5 hours from anything that is not water in the middle of the night is something the rj pilot does not comprehend.

Knowing which alternate is better for medical emergencies and which merely meet the minimums are things RJ pilots do not comprehend, and are not taught in "international ground school.

Knowing what to do with an engine failure over critical mountainous terrain is something that the vast majority of RJ pilots do not face daily.

Experience in the ITCZ is something that books and RJ pilots have not the experience with.


While all of these things certainly can be learned, they are merely a few examples of how we indeed do NOT do the same job. There is more to comparison than the "ease" you so callously refer to. Grow up junior.

 

True, but now pull that same 63 year old international captain out and put him in a Saab in Memphis in July with a 7 leg day. You'll probably find yourself in a single pilot airplane because that captain just kicked over with heat stroke and a heart attack. Look we all do a job. Some things are very similar some are different. Personally you can keep your long haul international flying. I'll be very content to finish my career in nothing bigger than a 737 or A321 and never leave North America. But that's just me. I have no desire to spend 13 hours at a time running a whale between the US and Japan.

 

There is one way to improve the regionals....stop voting yes on crap contracts. PNCL should be next up. MUST have a 12% raise across the board just to keep up with inflation...2nd yr. FO pay has to jump to $34 MINIMUM...MUST HAVE some form of retro--retro is MOST important...it is money in the bank...contracts can be conceeded...show me the $$$. EX: This should bring 4th yr pay for CA to $67/hr (approx) on the 200 at 12% (didn't do the math, just est.)...We should try to raise the bar to at least $70...granted, pay rates aren't everything and soft money means a ton. But the rates grab the headlines.

 

Also, for all regionals who's mgmt takes over 2 yrs to negotiate a contract (hello pncl), a no vote is in order to send the message to mgmt: "STOP JERKING THE PILOTS AROUND". We MUST force management to respect us. A "NO" vote would definately get their attention.

 

You could probably say the same of you, oh CRJ900 captain. That's about the time you guys start to get arrogant--making captain on a CRJ. That brings up a whole other point: leaving the country--malaria and the various bugs which can get you out 'chonder. Yet another reason to demonstrate how the jobs are different, and thus higher compensation on the widebody.

The 63 year old will learn the saab much faster than the 22 year old will learn the mass management, worldwide ops, language tricks, weather phenomena, topography, metrics of the 777/767/A330.

We can play the bigger schwartz contest all day, and you'll lose. You've already missed the point, so why bother?

 

Different mission, different training. You really think the Legacy wide-body flight crews are the best pilots of the entire airline, give me a break. They had senority to hold the position and went through the training for it. Don't sit here and tell me one leg a day is harder than 7, I don't care if you have to find your position using cellestial navigation, one leg is easier than 6-7 a day. Your problem is that you think your crap doesn't stink and you deserve to be called the better pilot cause you sit in front of a bigger plane. If you want to justify higher pay, stop whining to us, you are preaching to the choir. If your life is so hard, why don't you bid back to a smaller plane, or if you can't, why don't you take a posh CRJ-900 job, I'm sure Go-Jets would love to have a guy like you.

 

The last couple pages are proof-positive that regional airline pilots don't have the industry cornered when it comes to arrogance and self-importance.

 

That's what I said. I would add different experience. Different job.

Never said it.

Never said it. However, I have done 10 leg days in the regionals. I have done 1 leg days over the ocean. I beg to differ with your position. You apparently do not have experience in both.

Nope. Never said it. I said the larger plane justifies it's higher compensation. It requires more knowledge and danger, while allowing less margin for error than your jet. it's also faster--which is also part of the basis for pay on ALPA pay scales.

Thus, the regional mentality. Go back and read again. Who said anything about being on a widebody currently. Who is griping about life being hard. Who is the ego-freak here? You guys are the ones who brought up the disparity issue, I explained it, and now you are the ones getting your panties in a wad. Yet another example of the inferior mentality of the message-board types of regional pilots. You guys have the mindset of fire-ready-aim instead of taking a deep breath an examining things for what they actually are, not what you think they are.

 

I will agree that regional pilots do not have the market cornered, but the last few pages actually provide evidence otherwise.

 

You've claimed your job is harder. More dangerous. More stressful. You've gone so far to say regional pilots lose the "bigger schwartz" contest all day - and they're the ones that are arrogant? YGBSM!

Having never flown widebodies internationally, I say you're job isn't any harder, any more dangerous, any more stressful, than somebody flying an RJ or a Saab domestically in the US. Here's why:

The dangers and the risks in the two radically different types of flying (as the job itself - airplane Point A to Point B unscratched, is the exact same) differ greatly, but there's no way to quantify one being any "harder" or "easier" than the other because they are so different. One leg 8-12 hours with an augmented crew provides different issues and different risks than 6-8 legs per day. An issue you have with widebody flying is landing currency & proficency; an issue regional pilots have is complacency due to doing the same thing (up and down) over and over and over again.

It'd be really great if people could drop the f'in airline vs. military vs. corprate and regional vs. mainline crap and just acknowledge each segment of the industry is DIFFERENT - not any better or worse or harder or easier than another...