For anyone considering Aviation as a career.

I'm a private pilot with 165 hours time who is considering taking lessons to become a flight instructor. I have no intentions of ever going for ATP cert. after reading these post I'm wondering...is my thought of making a comfortable living as a CFI really possible, I'm 43 yrs young.
 
NJ-Prvt-Pilot said:
I'm a private pilot with 165 hours time who is considering taking lessons to become a flight instructor. I have no intentions of ever going for ATP cert. after reading these post I'm wondering...is my thought of making a comfortable living as a CFI really possible, I'm 43 yrs young.
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If you are a good salesman you can do very well.
 
This is from his documentary "Capitalism A Love Story", companies taking life insurance policies on employees is also there.

It's on Netflix instant play.
 
Doug Taylor said:
I've always done great in recessions! :)

For anything you want to do, once you lose hope, you've lost completely.
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I agree with this completely. I am a regional pilot and will be lucky to make 20k this year. I could stay at this airline for 10 years and never clear 50k, with per diem. If you want a look at the regionals the "Flying Cheap" documentary FrontLine put together showed what it is really like. It is that ugly in the regionals. The question is can you put up with it long enough to make it to a major.

That being said, US airlines are gonna be hot for pilots in the next ten years. 87% of US Airways pilots, thats captains and F/O's are over the age of 55. American is close behind them. Even though these may be "less desirable" majors to work for in some peoples minds you could conceivably get on and upgrade fast.


Best of luck to all of you interested in aviation!
 
Airlines seem to be shrinking and merging too...time will tell if growth will continue or decrease. Unfortunately it seems that terrorism is on the increase, so aviation could be directly impacted by anything similar to 9/11 happening on US soil again.
 
Just a short comment:

The gal being interviewed about her 100K loans. Did someone ever promise her that she would be making bucks the first 5-10 years? More than likely...NO. More than like she got 'big shiny jet syndrome' She believed in her fantasy and ignored reality while she signed her loan docs. This video should be a mandatory pre-I wanna be a pro pilot career and throw borrowed money away and complain later how awful the industry is. Do the homework folks! Geeez.

Unfortunately the video loses all credibility with Moore the ass-wipe down with capitalism commentary.
 
Strangely enough, we don't live in a communist society or a dictatorship. People have their own freewill to take or leave whatever job they please.

So long as this is true, I'll simply roll my eyes at assertions about "FSFOs" and sweatshop wages.

Nobody is forcing anyone at rifle-point to take any of these jobs. It's not like they're in indentured servitude and are unable to do something else or work somewhere else.

Those wages exist because someone is willing to take the job. That's how supply and demand works.
 
What's interesting to me about some of the posts in this thread is that some seem to think that the only reason pilots aren't paid more is because of those eeevvilll managers. As if airlines were rolling in profits, and management were lighting stogies with $100 bills.

I believe it was Warren Buffett who said that when you add up all the profits and lossess over the years, the airlines have experienced a net loss.

Supply and demand is part of the equation, but a non profitable airline is much more the cause of stagnant wages.
 
O&M said:
What's interesting to me about some of the posts in this thread is that some seem to think that the only reason pilots aren't paid more is because of those eeevvilll managers. As if airlines were rolling in profits, and management were lighting stogies with $100 bills.
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Give it a rest already...you've already shown that you're "Airline Management Material".

Guess what, the airline that I'm furloughed from...our last CEO got a nearly $1 million bonus because "We didn't loose as much money as forecast." This was exactly 1 week after I found out that I wouldn't have a job in a month.
 
Hacker15e said:
Strangely enough, we don't live in a communist society or a dictatorship. People have their own freewill to take or leave whatever job they please.

So long as this is true, I'll simply roll my eyes at assertions about "FSFOs" and sweatshop wages.

Nobody is forcing anyone at rifle-point to take any of these jobs. It's not like they're in indentured servitude and are unable to do something else or work somewhere else.

Those wages exist because someone is willing to take the job. That's how supply and demand works.
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Try moving to Eugene, Oregon. I couldn't find a job that paid more if my life depended on it. I probably couldn't even find a job that paid less than what I currently make right now. The glut of labor drives down the costs, and when your options of using your $50,000 education are starve, work at the only other jobs you are qualified for (read minimum wage), or accept low paying flying jobs, you take what you can get.

From your perspective hacker, I might think the same thing, in fact, I did think similarly when I was in Alaska and made twice what I make here. "Ehhh, you've always got a choice, I'd rather work at XXX than work for less." The honest truth is that that reality is an illusion. In order for you to "have the freewill to take or leave whatever job they please," there have to be jobs to begin with, and there aren't. What would you rather do, make subpar wages in the hope that it'll pay off in the long run, or take a job that definitely won't pay off in the long run? You've got a lot less choice in the matter than you'd think, especially for guys that have a family, etc.
 
ppragman said:
Try moving to Eugene, Oregon. I couldn't find a job that paid more if my life depended on it.
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....so MOVE!

Anyway, the point of my post had to do with the bellyaching on previous pages in this thread that literally made it sound like certain pilots were actually slaves who actually had no freewill to stay, quit, move to another part of the country, find another avocation, etc.
 
Hacker15e said:
....so MOVE!

Anyway, the point of my post had to do with the bellyaching on previous pages in this thread that literally made it sound like certain pilots were actually slaves who actually had no freewill to stay, quit, move to another part of the country, find another avocation, etc.
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Moving costs money. Something a lot of us don't have a lot of right now.
 
Wow...how did anyone ever move without currency?

In the US, we are used to such a high standard of living, that we put OURSELVES in bondage over things like this.

If you were really desperate, you'd figure out a way to go to where the jobs were. Until then, you're simply unwilling to compromise some standard that you're living at in order to go get something better.
 
Hacker15e said:
Wow...how did anyone ever move without currency?

In the US, we are used to such a high standard of living, that we put OURSELVES in bondage over things like this.

If you were really desperate, you'd figure out a way to go to where the jobs were. Until then, you're simply unwilling to compromise some standard that you're living at in order to go get something better.
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This isn't about me per se, but consider this:

Would you give up all of your possessions, and put your family in jeopardy, maybe making them be homeless just so you could potentially attain a high standard of living on the other side? Would you? I doubt it. No, most people aren't so desperate as to become boat people, or refugees here in America, thank god, but that doesn't mean that the wages are fair and that its necessarily possible to get yourself out of this sort of wage slavery. Yes, it is only you who accepts a job at low pay, however, let's be serious, sometimes you don't really have any alternative.
 
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