Saab2000, thank you for a truly great post. I'm entering this under my husband's username but believe I speak for both of us. HotMamaPilot, my husband is a "lowly" regional FO flying Dash 8s. Fortunately for him, I'm one of those wives where the guys say they "married the right wife". I make a very good living as a marketing manager for a Fortune 20 company so I am happy to have the ability to carry the load financially for our family as of this time.

Your comments and viewpoints about my husband's chosen career path and approach is highly offensive to me. I am currently "paying the price" of supporting my husband in doing what he is passionate about and enjoys doing more than anything in the world; flying. The company he works for is obviously (as we all know) abusive and takes advantage of their employees' passion every chance they get. I clearly have witnessed this first hand.

It kills my husband to have to accept the pay he has and to listen to the bs that you are spewing (especially considering you echo many others in your position). I agree with former posts on other threads that given the choice between being terminated by UPS or accepting a position with a regional, you would chose the latter. Before you throw stones at a glass house you should seriously consider your position given the same situation. I am not sure that I understand this industry's (pilots) stance to slam their own for situations that are beyond their control or scope. While it is true that a GROUP may accept a situation that is disadvantageous to the whole, it is rare that one individual is at fault. Pack mentality dictates that what the pack does and what enables one to make a living given dire circumstances, the group will do. If you are a Nelson Mandela or Indira Ghandi, behaving in a selfless and noble manner, I applaud you - but I highly doubt that that is the case.

Until then, please cut these guys some slack and chill out. These guys are merely trying to make a living and provide for their families without having to dread every day in a monotonous boring job that they hate. I live with my husband being gone from home 80% of the time, away from our kids and having to work upkeeping a household on my own and he in turn struggles with just that fact in order to do what he is good at. If you think this is some walk in the park that we all do because it's "fun", think again. It's an eat or be eaten world and until you can walk your talk, I would appreciate it if you kept your misplaced judgements to a minimum and remembered where you came from (flying SAABs and ATRs in a regional). Humble beginnings, dear. Keep the ego in check.

I have a lot of respect for what you said.

Is it just me, or does the phrase "snowball's chance in hell" come to mind? I cringe every time I read one of HMP's posts. I understand she works in a male dominated profession and can't appear weak, but I'm sure she's not anybody's favorite fellow crew member. And, if the men don't like flying with her, can you imagine how she treats the other FEMALE crew members, who couldn't possibly be as perfect as she is?

I appreciate your post. I am in the same situation. My wife is a Director of HR and I am a "Lowly" regional FO. She makes nearly 4 times my income and she supported me, in many ways, during my training. We have 1 child, she’s 9 months old, but fortunately I have seniority. I am only gone 50% of the time, I never sat reserve, haven't worked a weekend since July and I get every holiday off. I have it easy compared to others but it's still hard on my wife, I’m fortunate that she realizes it won't always be like this. She knows that things will get worse and then better after every move I make (Regional CA to Major FO to Major CA). My father (retired Braniff CA / American CA) and uncle (SWA hiring CA) both encourage us to keep at it. In this industry, as with all others, you have to start somewhere to get anywhere.

Best of luck to you and yours!

It's a pleasure to read such a well written and reasoned response.

Unfortunately, a lot of people don't get this.

In response to the pilot's spouse. Your hubbie flies DASH 8's.....i.e. he is exempt from my contempt. Nicely written post, but your hubbie doesn't fit into the RJ category. He flies for a regional that is actually just that. Thanks for your time, and happy New Year!

Yeah, Mrs Shmoe, didn't you know that Luke-WarmMamaPilot hates RJs because they're taking routes away from 767s?

I am still waiting for you to tell me how it's my fault the legacy carriers unions gave up their scope to protect their widebody rates. Please tell me, I'm dying to know what I could've done about this while I was sitting in English 101 as a freshman. I don't recall being a voting member of any seniority list that had the opportunity to vote down the ****ty legacy contracts with the expanded scope. In fact I would bet that very few RJ pilots were on any of those seniority lists. The bottom line is, ALPA and their counterparts at other airlines, decided it was more important to protect the pay of the top of the seniority list, than the jobs of the junior guys. They also years ago failed to recognize the benefit of RJ's, and for all practical purposes refused to accept them in the industry, and refused to fly them. This is their own poor judgement, and now they want to ***** about it. I refuse to conceed that the state of the industry has anything to do with RJ pilots, and everything to do with the priorities set forth by the legacy management and unions.

If you keep telling yourself that long enough, you may just start to believe it! Have fun flying a RJ forever