you basically called everyone that does contract on the side while being employed full time a prick if I remember correctly.
That pretty much sums it up, yeah. Of course there are exceptions, but that is my overall opinion.
To be serious though, contract is a tricky situation of being in the right place at the right time and knowing the right people. its mostly word of mouth. In my experience, its not like you can just all of a sudden get "hired" as a contract pilot somewhere unless, more often than not, you have a friend who also flies for the operator to get you in the door when they need someone. Its not as simple as you make it out to be, saying everyone sucks for taking contract gigs on their free time while other pilots are on the street... I guess thats the best way I can put it.
Really? I had no idea. I was clueless as to how the whole thing works. Thanks for enlightening me.
Or
maybe, I've been hosed by greedy pricks who are already making six figures at their regular job and are picking up contract work in my type to pay for their vacation home, 5th ex-wife's alimony, sex change operation, etc.
Like I said, do whatever you want. Just because some people think you're a greedy prick for it certainly shouldn't stop you. The original poster asked a question about contracting on his 7 off for something to do. I merely suggested he enjoy his time off.
I had several opportunities to pick up contract work when I was working a 7/7-ish schedule. I didn't for a few reasons:
1.) I was conscious of the fact that there were people out there who actually needed the work
2.) I value my time off, and (here comes my final rant...)
3.) If people keep prostituting themselves out for contract work, "real" jobs are going to disappear. It's usually cheaper for a company to pay a lowballing contract pilot than it is to employ someone full-time and pay them benefits, vacation, sick time, etc. Most serious contractors charge the same rate as each other, and their rates are high enough to allow them to put some aside for things like health insurance and training and still put some in the bank. On top of that, they also charge per diem and/or all reasonable expenses paid. If everyone charged like this, it would be more cost-prohibitive for companies to use contractors and they would become a
temporary staffing solution like they are meant to be. Empty seats then get filled with a regular, salaried pilots.
Instead, we have these clowns who already have full-time jobs, but pick up contract work because they have no life or for whatever other reason. It's even more aggravating when half the time it's these idiots who undercut the rate. Hey, they already have health insurance, their main employer pays for their recurrent, and this is just fun money, so why not charge half of what the rest of the contractors do?
By the way, I made a couple calls and did some research. $400/day for a typed Ce-500 pilot in SoCal is about $200/day too low. I suppose you are going to tell me that is because you are an F/O. Standard practice in contract work is one rate for domestic, one rate for international. Period. No separate rates for PIC and SIC.
But hey, keep on keepin' on and claw your way up on the backs of others. It's the aviation way. What do I know anyways? I'm just some loser on the internet with a difference of opinion.