how can you possibly live on a pilot's starting salary??????

Wow.... this became a monster of a thread. Having not read the middle 8 pages...

Matt, if you are in fact migrating left, good luck/congrats. I bet you'll miss the auto taxi feature that the right seat has.

Sure there are a bunch of routes other then then RJ. While the RJ (or tprop, lets not exlude the Colgan guys. they have their own gang here and I don't want to start a gang war) is a logical choice for many people because of the relativly low time you can get picked up at, there are other options out there that may pay better and provide a better QOL. It's all about what works best.

Now, as for surviving first year pay? It's very doable depending on where you are. The really sad thing is that every body talks about second year pay being such a life saver. If you make it off first year pay you are set for life. Uh, $7 or so more an hour doesn't do a whole lot really. Sure, it's nice. It means you can actually go shop at Target instead of Walmart. Yeah, you can afford to get the type of sliced turkey you want and not just the butterball that happens to be on sale, but it still requires tight budgeting.

One other thing. Everybody talks about how the upgrade comes and then everything is just peachy. Little bit of bad news folks. *IF* the age 65 thing goes through it is going to put a bit of a freeze on movement. Be damn sure you go some place where you would be happy in the right seat making right seat pay for 5 years if the music stops.
 
BobDDuck said:
The really sad thing is that every body talks about second year pay being such a life saver. If you make it off first year pay you are set for life. Uh, $7 or so more an hour doesn't do a whole lot really.
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I too agree it's sad. Second year pay is essentially where you start getting to the low-end of a modest income :( (why did I turn down ACC again???).
 
I'm very glad Duck brought up the age 60 / 65 debate. It's very crucial to those of us planning to enter the game within the next 3-5 years.
 
Second year pay isn't suddenly the magic year you become "rich", but it is a vast improvement from first year. I know people, and I'm sure for many of you, this applies, who went from making $20-$25K first year, to $40K, or nearly so, their second year. $40K isn't a huge salary, and I certainly wouldn't expect someone to raise a family, comfortably on that, but for someone who is single, they can live a very comfortable life. I personally really try to view second year pay, as starting pay. First year is more like an internship/apprectiship. It is your first year as a professional airline pilot, you are on probation, and also reserve much of the year, etc. It is also part of the airlines way of making back some of your training cost. Even at majors, first year FO pay is low.

As for captain, we will have to see what happens with the age 60/65 rule. Captain pay is not bad at all, from a strictly salary standpoint. From a responsibility standpoint, I agree captains should make more. But, what a captain makes, and can make at a regional is no different, salary wise, than what someone elsewhere, out of aviation, will typically make. Of 168 common jobs/career fields someone will go into, outside of aviation, only 15 have an average salary above $80k, with those 15 including jobs like doctor, dentists, some engineers, etc. Thats means less than 10%, which I think is pretty accurate, make much more than $80K in their career.

BobDDuck said:
Now, as for surviving first year pay? It's very doable depending on where you are. The really sad thing is that every body talks about second year pay being such a life saver. If you make it off first year pay you are set for life. Uh, $7 or so more an hour doesn't do a whole lot really. Sure, it's nice. It means you can actually go shop at Target instead of Walmart. Yeah, you can afford to get the type of sliced turkey you want and not just the butterball that happens to be on sale, but it still requires tight budgeting.

One other thing. Everybody talks about how the upgrade comes and then everything is just peachy. Little bit of bad news folks. *IF* the age 65 thing goes through it is going to put a bit of a freeze on movement. Be damn sure you go some place where you would be happy in the right seat making right seat pay for 5 years if the music stops.
Click to expand...
 
One of the advantages to second year pay is the seniority that goes with it. Now you can actually hold the line with higher credit instead of settling for reserve at min guarantee or low credit lines. That helps more than the raise sometimes. If I could get 10 more hours a month, I'd be looking at another $200 a month. That goes a long way sometimes.
 
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