Not to quibble, but the industry looks far, far different that in did even in 2000, let alone in 1990.
The aircraft are better, the working conditions are better, the compensation is better. Contrary to common groupthink, there were plenty of “careerists” in the regional ranks, and they faced much lower prospects for total career compensation than they do today.
Could rest rules be better? Sure, but in the US at least, the FARs were always the baseline, and the underlying assumption is that labor agreements would build on those. That said, let me remind everyone of “reduced rest” and “legal to start, legal to finish” which were hallmarks of the pre-117 paradigm, not to mention “scheduled 135” rules, which were good up to 29 seats. 34/7, 120/mo were some of the non-awesome features of the old system.
There are also fundamental, structural difference between the US market and everywhere else.
To be clear, I started flying with the intention of flying professionally in 1996. I've flown under 135 scheduled rules. And while the pay is better, $180k as a regional captain is ~$96k in 2000. And the difference between those two figures is not insignificant—$180k isn't enough to buy a house in base, whereas $95k was closer.
Still, things have improved slightly, and there's no doubt that the aircraft are better.
That said:
This guy's experiences are almost identical to what I see from my point of view, except our min rest is 10 hours and maximum duty is 16 hours, extendible to 18 for reserves, not including any deadheads at the end of the day.
The point isn't that things haven't gotten better, it's that the career—in jobs where you don't somehow get 34 consecutive days off spanning two months*—is inherently harmful in its current state for pilot health. I came on here a while back stating that the job was damaging my mental and physical health, and the responses were basically "suck it up, buttercup," and talking about how the schedules I posted didn't look any worse than the normal mainline narrowbody schedules.
Well, I did "suck it up" and keep working, and my memory capacity, long- and short-term memory, hacking ability, and ability to solve cognitive puzzles is notably reduced. I've gained 30lbs since then, had to go on blood pressure medication, and look like I'm about ten years older. It turns out that running on a few hours of sleep a night, then working 14 hour days on average for long periods of time is harmful. Who coulda figured? I was told to "call out if you need to get more rest," and while I have never taken a sick day when I was fit to fly, I was getting ominous calls from the CPO talking about how many days I'd missed after legit getting sick twice.
We may not have "reduced rest," or "legal to start, legal to finish," but we have "Don't worry, we'll make it legal," and "We've removed two hours of non-movement block time from your day, so you're legal!" or "We've adjusted your report time due to this long delay," or "Nine and a half hours from the hotel lobby," or "You've been at rest for ten hours, so you're legal," or "We're converting this split-duty overnight into a local" or "Your event does not qualify for pay reimbursement and your report has been closed."
I sometimes feel like this is schrödinger's industry—depending on who you ask, and who's asking, and the time of day, and whether the pilot is in bragging mode, humble bragging mode, or complaining mode, pilots either work all the time or never work. We either get 30 hour overnights on the beach or are signing contracts with our employer where we acknowledge that the job will lead to lower life expectancy.
I don't feel like people take this stuff seriously, and I legitimately can't figure out if other pilots (outside my airline, 'cause I know the story here) are working "just as much," as some claim, or "way, way less," or if it just varies based on the travel season.
This is the first thing I've come across outside of raw anecdote that really just paints a picture that looks like what I'm seeing.
That's why I'd really like to know what others think. It sounds like you're all dismissing it because it doesn't sound like your job, and that's what I've been curious about.
Thank you for responding.
* (The longest I've had is 6 or 7 this year, and those I paid for by having a 5-on 2-off schedule the rest of the month)
pilotbible.com
