Pilot shortage (desperate?)

DE727UPS said:
My first thought reading this thread is I'm glad I'm just a dumb pilot and I'm lucky I got so far being not very smart. Then, I thought most engineers would think you shouldn't raise the flaps in the flare, and that's when I knew there was book smart and plane smart....
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One of my initial instructors made a point of throwing AOM-1 across the room during our first week of ground school. His point was that books cannot fly.
 
Want to make good money? Learn to program, period. Personally, I never had the mind to learn it but it's where the money is. Python,Rubie, Learn it, absorb it and live well..If you have the mind for it, do it, buy your own plane and fly when you want :)
 
Stomp16 said:
Omgz, what a reblezzz!!!1!!!!1
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I don't know, I liked the demonstration. The intro pages contained a gentle reminder that not all situations would be covered by the book, and that Captains were to use their intelligence, tempered by their experience, when the defecation hit the oscillation.
 
zmiller4 said:
If you were to decide to leave the airlines, how difficult do you think it would be to find an engineering job?
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That's a good question. I have about five years of engineering experience (not including my intern work), and have maintained my contacts in the field. My previous employer has told me I have a job if I ever decide to come back as well. But I do feel that the longer I'm out of engineering (going on seven years now), it may become increasingly difficult to get back in. But I don't think it would ever be THAT difficult, unless I was 20+ years out of the field or something. Then again, I guess I could always try to go to grad school and get "current" again.

But I REALLY hope I don't ever have to go down that road. I love flying for a living, it suits my personality and lifestyle better than anything I've ever done. Fingers crossed! ;)
 
My best friends little brother is a project manager for a large placement agency. He handles large contracts for engineering firms and large manufacturing companies. Basically straight out of college with an engineering degree could pay 20-30 dollars an hour easily for many of the temp job he places at. No experience. No advanced degrees. Just the bare minimum the client requires. No its not a great long term job with benefits or retirement but if you're not a complete ass you can be placed with a job making a wage to pay rent AND those student loans at the same while working on a better avenue.

How much do you think a furloughed pilot with a BS degree from "who cares" aviation university, thousands of hours and years of experience is worth outside the airplane?

The same 8 bucks an hour they will pay the crack head next to you at home depot. I know this from hard learned lessons over this last decade.

Aviation degrees in my opinion are a joke. Pick up a book and spend some time on sites like this and you'll have the same level of knowledge in the industry as some kid shelling out tens if not a good hundred thousand dollars for "Aviation Flight Science". Put that money towards a real degree.
 
All you people who say don't go to a regional are pretty much crazy. Look at all the guys on here who fly for majors. Are there any of them who didn't fly for a regional? Probably not, unless they were military.

If your goal isn't a major that's fine, don't go to a regional. But not going to a regional because first year pay sucks is short-sighted in the grand scheme of things.

Rant over.
 
learhawkerbe400 said:
All you people who say don't go to a regional are pretty much crazy. Look at all the guys on here who fly for majors. Are there any of them who didn't fly for a regional? Probably not, unless they were military.

If your goal isn't a major that's fine, don't go to a regional. But not going to a regional because first year pay sucks is short-sighted in the grand scheme of things.

Rant over.
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I don't know much about getting job in the majors but from what I've heard it's nearly impossible without regionals. You can compare it to baseball. Almost everybody wants to play for the majors and to play for the majors you must first play minor league baseball to learn and perfect your skill, minor league baseball pays terrible and some never make it to the majors. I might be wrong but this is how I have it heard it to be.

It would be interesting to see a stat of all the major pilots who flew for regionals.
 
learhawkerbe400 said:
All you people who say don't go to a regional are pretty much crazy. Look at all the guys on here who fly for majors. Are there any of them who didn't fly for a regional? Probably not, unless they were military.

If your goal isn't a major that's fine, don't go to a regional. But not going to a regional because first year pay sucks is short-sighted in the grand scheme of things.

Rant over.
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Do you suggest I take out a loan so that I can afford to fly a jet for the first year? :rolleyes: For some people, yes, it's only a year, but the first year pay is a deal breaker since it's just a step above poverty. When you can make more at a fast food place that requires no education and no special skills, something is wrong. I'm not asking for a million dollars, but if they started in the 30's instead of the low 20's, that would make a huge difference. I'm glad to hear that people make it work and can get through the bad starting pay, but for me, it just isn't feasible.
 
Stomp16 said:
Do you suggest I take out a loan so that I can afford to fly a jet for the first year? :rolleyes: For some people, yes, it's only a year, but the first year pay is a deal breaker since it's just a step above poverty. When you can make more at a fast food place that requires no education and no special skills, something is wrong. I'm not asking for a million dollars, but if they started in the 30's instead of the low 20's, that would make a huge difference. I'm glad to hear that people make it work and can get through the bad starting pay, but for me, it just isn't feasible.
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I guess you really have to want it if you are going to suffer through poverty for several years:.
 
It's true. I definitely made more than a fast food worker my first year at a regional, but it was still a very difficult position. Heck, I left a position as a CA in a jet, part 91. Granted that job had issues, but it was easy and paid better than a regional. But I knew that if I wanted a good shot at a Legacy, it was necessary.

I was fortunate to discover my life at a regional was a lot better than I planned, but that was luck/timing more than anything.
 
Stomp16 said:
Do you suggest I take out a loan so that I can afford to fly a jet for the first year? :rolleyes: For some people, yes, it's only a year, but the first year pay is a deal breaker since it's just a step above poverty. When you can make more at a fast food place that requires no education and no special skills, something is wrong. I'm not asking for a million dollars, but if they started in the 30's instead of the low 20's, that would make a huge difference. I'm glad to hear that people make it work and can get through the bad starting pay, but for me, it just isn't feasible.
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There are choices to be made: right size your budget for a year and make the investment in the future, or watch from the sidelines as others do what it takes to succeed.

Fortune favors the bold, and cares not for whether somebody can afford to move ahead.
 
Well... I don't think regionals are the only way to the big leagues. 135 Pax ops and 91 Corporate can get you there too. I think it's just 75% networking and who you know. Its just as challenging to land those great 135 and 91 jobs as it is to reach a major US carrier.
 
jtrain609 said:
There are choices to be made: right size your budget for a year and make the investment in the future, or watch from the sidelines as others do what it takes to succeed.

Fortune favors the bold, and cares not for whether somebody can afford to move ahead.
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I wasn't measuring the success of my career by whether or not I made it to the regionals. Thanks for pointing it out that I'm on the sidelines and watching others succeed. I'll have to make some changes. :rolleyes:
 
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