It's not that simple. There is no way someone should accept any job under any conditions for the chance to view a nice sunrise over the mountains. There are too many people out there that would do this job for free(first and second year might as well be for free) just because it's what they love to do and do not consider themselves "working" when flying an airplane. Apparently that rubs off on management as well as support personnel they think we're on a vacation. Make no mistake about it, it's a job and pretty stressful one at that. You are NOT treated as a professional even tough the company expects you to be professional. A pilot will get less acknowledgment than the janitor. There is no management/pilot loyalty(not much better at the majors), and at some places even company/pilot loyalty. You can also lose your license at every moment. I personally would like to see fair compensation, I'm from a regional airline background so my ideas might be a little more harsh. But the reality is that the OP has a cause to be concerned about because the regional industry is on a race to the bottom.
While OP has cause to be concerned, he also has a very huge opportunity. He could still get the hell out, before turning into a bitter and upset person, whining and complaining about an industry that has been like this for the last 60 years unchanged by it's very own players. I have tremendous trouble seeing the point in getting into a 121 cockpit, heck, I can't even see myself in a regional cockpit. I refuse to bang heads with my peers on this level, but why exactly is it pilots are "treated worse than the janitor"? If it is in fact so, why not BECOME a janitor? The way I see it, there are two different sorts of pilots.
- Airplane People - they need to reach the biggest tincan they possibly can to feel accomplished and make the money they believe to deserve.
- People People - who can enjoy the ride, have realized that Aviation is not what it used to be (flying is not) and they do not care for the epauelets or the blue or black uniform.
Pilots are Pilots because they either love to fly, which can be unconditional and from the heart, or they are Pilots because they want to be "Pilots". The latter kind is the one that needs to wear uniform when going to the grocery store, in some helpless attempt to be perceived as a hero or someone special. Face it, flying a widebody LR is no longer what it used to be, many of my friends tell me they might as well be driving a bus.
The only difference, a coachdriver would (literally!) get kicked in the ass if he/ she accepted less than market average for a tour. The starting salary for a Coachcaptain is 45K plus full benefits. They get treated like gold... I know two commercial drivers making well in advance of $100K+.
1.5 weeks from now, I'll be spending $41 dollars + taxes and fees to drive to Boston MA on a Bus. 2 hour trip, movie, endless water and bretzels galore. I'll sit close to the driver (I always assume them to be keeling over soon) because I enjoy the fact that except for the fact that we remain on the ground - this bus will remind me of a airplane cockpit. Lot's of little knobs, dials and handles, noise and it's going to be tight around Boston. If he doesn't move them handles and wheels right,
we all die. He'll rip a few stupid comments, ask for cellphones to be used in absolute emergencies only and in the meantime set the cruise to 68... with his lemming passengers either sitting and staring, texting or picking their nose.
A few hours later, I will enter a airline jet and cross the COMPLETE country on a 4-5 hour flight (if we make it, and the pilots have seen the ice, weather, or are not half asleep by the time they taxi out) for a lousy 4 times as much as it cost me to drive a bus for 2 hours. This is :insane:...
The driver even gets to wear a uniform, our busdriver looks neat!
Don't spend your efforts trying to convince people who love flying that it is wrong to love flying. Convince those who bring the industry down by continuing to do what they hate so much from recruiting fresh meat. If anyone can attest to how bad it is to be a something because someone 'expected' him to be, ask my father why he retired as a MD, bought a chainsaw and cuts his own wood today. He did not love being a Doctor and I doubt his income is anywhere close to a quarter of what it used to be. Today, at age 60, he runs a landscaping company, outruns me after a minute, outlifts me at 'ugh', looks like 45, laughs and jokes around all the time and feels alive. We all like him a lot more,
for doing what he loves. He even wants to start flying again, now, that his brain is free of the whining and constant sickness of the people he had to deal with every day.
In order for him to go back to medicine, the industry would need to pull a Immelman. He could not change the fact that Government regulated them out of money. Pilots, in turn, CAN change what the industry does with them. Afterall we are not regulated at all, and nobody is overseeing what we do. Airplanes do not fly without pilots. It's the pilots making it a cheap profession by not looking out for each other and failing to uphold professional standards.
Off the soapbox...
and the next time I read someone blaming Age 65 for anything, I'll poop my pants laughing!
