when and if Cal begins hiring, what are they pay expectations of a first year guy? usually its about the per hour * 1000, so i'm guessing around $31,000? hypothetically, just seeing how much the wife and i will need to save now to swing the cut in pay if i got hired. i live in the cleveland area and am tired of commuting, just the possabilty of getting cle based is enough hope for me. thanks.

Start saving now...it really sucks and was a pretty big adjustment for us. I think as of sept. before my furlough, my ytd pay was less than 20k, and I flew my tail off in the summer. Good luck and start saving now...I wish I had saved more.

Don't forget about the no health care first 6 months either.

Everybody cries about SWA requiring a type.

CAL (and everybody else) does the same thing, just a different approach to it.

That is a pretty expensive type.

health care is not a factor for me due to the wife's job, although it is b.s. that there is a 6 month wait to get it through Cal.

LOL...if you mean the fact that CAL has a CLE base gives you the "possibility of one day sometime in the future that you might hold a slot that may open up" then by all means, sure.

Cobra bennies can be expensive. I would say the first 6 months would be the hardest. I think with a family of 4 I was paying 820 a month for Cobra bennies. We did our best to limit the cost. Unfortunately our son had a surgical need that would not have been covered if we went to an online deal like E-surance, (previously existing condition) so we had to buck up and pay the cobra.

Good luck, I'm a furloughed guy and I'd love to see some hiring!

The pay sucked and I can't emphasize that enough. You'll work 18 days a month, commuting to EWR to sit reserve on the 737 (not very commutable so it'll add a few days per month away from home). After taxes I cleared a little less than $2000 per month. Don't forget to add in your crash pad and commuting expenses.

CLE seemed to be a very small, very senior base, so I'd plan on it taking a while to get there.

Of course its all relative to your timing.

We had a bid occur while our class was in new hire training and a few pilots who wanted CLE got it and went right after training.

Those pilots who bid EWR never sat a day of reserve out of training, IAH pilots sat either 3 or 4 months before holding a line.

The pay sucks no matter how you cut it.