HARBOR PILOT?!?! You've gotta be kidding me...

Jacksonville Business Journal: Harbour pilots' $300k salary threatened

In some locations (ex Columbia river) they are required, for good reason, to hold a master's license, any ocean, any tonnage. Takes a lot of training, hard work, experience and YEARS or DECADES at sea to get there...I'd say they've earned it. That's just the going rate for guys like that...if they don't pay, nobody will play.

Other locations, it is common for ex-tugboat drivers (civilian and navy) to do the job...those guys could not really sustain $300K+ salaries on the open competitive market.

Ah, didn't know that. Sounds well deserved then. I figured they were just experts at that particular harbor or something...

Most of them are just local experts, and their experience is probably worth $100K, but not $350K+.

I have a friend on the columbia, they are all ex VLCC (super-tanker) captains, all near retirement age, and they seriously risk their life every day they work. Getting on and off those ships in the waves, wind, and Wx is dangerous, they lost a guy last year...over the side, between the pilot boat and the hull.

Imagine you're just a cruise Captain. There are only 36 pilots that can land at LAX. And they get on at Top of D.

Yup. There's another aspiring pilot in my family- a harbor pilot. That figure looks about right. Nice money eh?

It's a shame we can't do that in aviation. These guys have put in the time, now they're reaping the rewards. What about us "traditional" pilots?

Here's a 2001 article from the New Orleans paper about Mississippi River pilots:

Masters of the River

Each state limits the number of Harbor Pilots. I doubt there are over 100 in any state. If we could just get the FAA to only issue 1000 ATPs a year we might be on track.

What do you suppose the salary would be without a strong union?

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstrac...679C946395D6CF