What is a "real" airline pilot? Is he/she defined by the airplane they fly or the company they work for? Do you know why pilots are staying at regionals instead of moving up to mainline? Maybe it's because mainline is not setting the world on fire by hiring pilots. If I chose to quit the regional that I fly for and wait for that coveted job as a "real" airline pilot I would probably be rejected because I am not current. So what do you propose we do?

Starry eyed kids and mid-life crisis career changers, huh? I see you like to label positions and people. But I guess you know it all since you have been endowed with this ability to judge everyone else of whom you know nothing about.

I have to go play "airline pilot" as I am flying later today. Maybe someday, if I'm lucky I can be a real "airline" pilot like you. Maybe even a check airman. Probably not as I am one of those mid-life crisis career changers. On second thought if you are the model of an airline pilot, I think maybe I need to find another line of work.

OP don't limit yourself to just regionals... Look at JetBlue or a Spirit type gig.

Hey OP. see how happy we are??? Arguing amongst ourselves. LoL

You SURE you want to be part of this??? JK

And for the rest of y'all, stop hating on each other. We're not the ones that eliminated 4 year degree/ 1500 hours/ATP min/ hiring 250/15 wet ink young guns.
Perhaps we need a little more regulation. I so hope the 1500 hour rule goes in effect unamended. And only allow slight exceptions for guys that went to aviation school programs that majored in aviation degrees!

Like I said before, things will get better.

And the doctor comparison... Not exactly the greatest analogy but why not see ourselves as equals? We still got pilots that makes 300k, great QOL, worked their butt off to get there with the help of good timing. Last I heard, doctors or lawyers didn't have jeopardy checks every six months, one felony/DUI potentially ending all their hard work, nor do they subject themselves to life or death scenarios. I studied for MCATs when I was furloughed for 2 plus years. It's more demanding intellectually no doubt, but being a great aviator requires skill set that most people lack. Percentage wise, the wash out rate for pilots are a lot higher as well. Does our pay reflect our work especially at the cfi/ 135/ regional level?? Heck no!!! So be mad at who we should be mad at. Not each other.

I'd recommend trying to get into corporate flying.

Back in the mid 60's AA was hiring pilots off the street with a fresh commercial certificate. The big thing then was the Vietnam war and the draft. Having served your military time was very important back then. Have a good friend that was hired with a temp comm. certificate. At that time there was no ME certificate as of yet. He flew the DC-10 and has since retired. No degree and fresh out of the Corp. as a grunt. VA got him his time and certificates.

LoL touché
Capt I flew with last month utilized every inch of the runway!!! I was cracking up after reading your post because I was wondering the same thing!

For what it's worth, it's a good practice for that one in ten thousand chance that something goes wrong and you wish you had an extra 100 feet in hindsight.

Lose a majority of your cases and you'll more than likely be done in a private firm, go out of business if you hung your own shingle, and be fire from your DA or US attorney job. It may not be a checkride, but there is no doubt that they are under scrutiny. If you get a felony you will most likely be debarred from your governing forum. It just happened to two lawyers here in OK. One was only charged even - not even yet found guilty. Risking life? Many of the DAs I know are concealed carry qualified due to the high amount of threats they get from not only defendants, but from friends and families of those people whom they put in prison.

Do you know the statistics for the percentages of pilots who wash out of flight training (not including the ones who eventually quite due to boredom, flying not being fun for them, or running out of money) - just ones who wash out of training due to SKILL compared with law students who fail out of law school?

USMCFLYR

To the OP: I can't make it through five pages of this, so if it has been said, forgive my redundancy.


You have good 135 or corporate times. I suggest you find yourself a nice little "retirement job" rather than going to a regional.

What is a "retirement job"? It is a job that lets you fly a couple hundred hours per year without busting your nether regions. A couple examples:

I flew a Caravan for a family in Houston. Once a month, they wanted to fly down to their ranch near Victoria, and maybe once every couple months they took a long trip (Montana to fly fish, Bahamas for a sailfish tournament, etc.). The pay was $3000 per month on a 1099.

Air ambulance in a 421. 20 days on, 10 off, flew about half of my duty days. No overnights (except for training twice per yer). $42k plus benefits.


There are lots of these types of jobs especially if you live in/near a decent sized city. Many of the folks who have these types of jobs would LOVE to have a guy like you (a "seasoned" age, not looking to "get your hours and run", you plan on staying in the area, and on and on). Go to every airport within 1-2 hours drive (whatever you are comfortable with), and pass out resumes at every FBO, charter company, and management company. There are some other methods, but those are my trade secrets; I'd pm you, but you are too new.

Trust me: it's a better life, better pay, and fewer hassles.

to reiterate, I say go for it. Enjoy the pension. With your background I would send some apps to the majors also just to get your name in their system.

You can't win the lotto unless you buy a ticket. Good luck and by all means go for it.

Good points. I'll shut up shouldn't have added lawyers into the equation. lol
I'm sure there are many horror stories associated with not being able to pass the bar or getting fired due to poor performance. But aren't DA's and trial attorneys just a small fraction of the lawyers out there? Maybe that like comparing ratio of airline pilots to fighter pilots? Lawyers I deal with are in real estate, financing fields that IMO makes a lot for the work they do and live more than comfortably. Not many jeopardy in their line of work. Lack of clients is probably their only worry.

My buddies that are doctors all worked their tails off during med school and residency. Rarely did anyone wash out due to incompetence. Their words, not mine. And these are experiences from numerous different med schools. They will get through if they want to and work hard. I've asked around a lot since I was going to apply to med school. My point is, airlines are nothing like that. 2 or more failed checkrides, DUI, loss of medical, wife complaining you're gone too much, missing your kids, etc... So many factors to bypass to get to where you are and remains with you for the rest of your career. My conolences to the low time guys that got hired and got washed out. Chances are, they have to settle for a worse regional(as hard as it is to believe since most regionals are bad!) or go find cfi/ 135 gig and try again years later. If I'm fired from one carrier, it's not like I can say screw that let me start my own practice. Nor do you get unlimited attempts at the bar exam.

Anyways I've digressed too much. Thanks for correcting me on some of my previous statements.