That's just it; on salary you will get paid while at work no matter what. Mesa's problem is that you can be on duty for 16 hours but make 1 hour of pay. In fact I'd rather sit around than fly any day (heck it's what we do when we are getting paid anyway :D!).

I don't think the airlines would have us sitting that much, because they will only make money off of us if we are flying. The less they fly us, the more we cost them to do less work.

It would basically mirror the way the fractionals handle compensation. I think the entire pay system needs an overhaul though. Pay per duty time would work too.

The problem with salary is that it is often convenient from a scheduling point of view for airlines to leave you sitting...as long as they get 8 hous of flying (or close to it) out of you they don't give a crap if your duty day is 9 or 16 hours. You have to get paid for duty somehow, or it will get abused and you end up sitting, wasting your time for free. Pilots who get paid to sit actually sit a lot less because it costs money and provides no return.

I disagree. Clearly you have never seen an AWAC schedule :D. Even with trip and duty rigs they sit upwards of 40 hours at overnights!!

While I agree about sitting around, if you are on salary that is what you are paid to do. You are paid to be available on the days you are working. The Company can use you however they wish.

The fractional pilots seem to have it figured out.

Pay based on duty would work too, but like you said encourage the airline to fly you. But then you might end up with 2 20 minute turns and low FAR block per day, along with 20 hour overnights. To compensate you'd need a trip rig of something like 3:1.

Why not do away with all these rigs, and just go straight salary with contractual limits to what you can be scheduled (here we are at 14-hour maximum)?

Could work, but the hourly thing is better psychologically... somehow I like the sound of the cash register clicking over as my block time builds. If I have a long flying day, at least I can feel good about the bank. If I was on salary and I had an unusually long day, then I'd just be p*ssed off. :D

Not to start something here but who do you figure works harder here. The guy walking down the jet way or the one standing at the bottom of the steps in the snow guarding the prop.

The one turning the auto pilot on and reading the sports page or the one hand flying the airplane to minimums in 40 knot gusts at an uncontrolled un plowed field in the middle of East Bum****** KS, NY, PA pick a state.

I agree its all BS. Frankly a guy flying a Aerostar single pilot IFR should be making $300/hr and the 747 guy with the 2 other crew members ought to be making the $200.00 a day.

my $.02

Ok we all do more work than a 777 Captain do does that mean we should get paid more........its not about how much "work" we do its about how much revenue or plane creates, MESA doesnt undertsand that and neither does the other 70 seat places that pay crap

That's good; we'll all just start out flying 747s with hopes of one day getting the left seat of a 421. :) I understand your comments but it's about the math. 747 guys pushes 100K+ in cargo/350+ Pax and 421 guys pushes 10K in cargo/4-6 Pax. But you're right the Aerostar pilot does have to put in his time in the ******er to get the "Big Bucks". LOL :D

I know you know this, so no bone.

In the transportation industry, It's not usually the difficulty of the job that determines the pay, but the value of the goods transported. You get paid a percentage of value...this is traditional and goes back to beginnings of history.

A 747 on a NAT run generates in the neighborhood of $1 million in revenue...in light of that it is not unreasonable to pay the captain a couple grand to get the job done.

Lawyers get 30%, a guy who runs a big factory gets 7 figures, why should pilots work for a flat rate?

If you're concerned about spelling, run a damn spell checker. You're sitting at a computer aren't you? I mean, you can Google the word and it will give you the correct spelling. I for one don't care about the spelling (although there are some on this board who really get their panties in a bunch over it) as long as the point is conveyed but if you are going to take the time to type a little (sp?) you can run a spell checker. I would rather see the word misspelled than have that stupid little (sp?) sitting next to it.

Sorry to go off topic, we will now return you to your regularly scheduled programming *rant over*

Are you serious?????????? Who kares?????????? (SP)