minority_pilot said:
I am currently doing a little research about a person's life-time income/quality of life as a civilian pilot versus a military pilot/officer. If one has a college degree, commissioned at the age of 25, retired after 20 years as an O-4 or O-5 VS. a zero time 25 y/o civilian going thru flight school/CFI/Regional/Major, another word "flying career till retirement". Which route is better??
As an O-3 with 10 yrs of service: $75,000 to $85,000 a year
As a FO with 4 yrs at a major:Roughly the same as above
You are looking at two very different things. So examine each one separately.
One is money! Earnings! Stuff you need to pay for the lifestyle you want to have.
The second is quality of life. How you want to spend your time, both working and free.
There is a third thing...I'll get to that later.
Regarding money. You will not, repeat not make enough to afford the lifestyle of the rich and famous on what you make in the military. Yes, it is good money, yes it will buy a lot of things. But...if you want the big mansion, fancy foo-foo cars, exotic vacations, and the stuff that gets you on the front page of Forbes, forget the military. Just isn't going to happen.
Now if you just want the "big three" i.e. roof over your head, food on the table, and reliable transportation...the money is there. Plus enough left over for what I call (being automotively addicted) "garage candy".
With the airlines...well two years ago I would have said,
"No comparison...this is big BUCKS!"
In today's world, can you say,
"Delta Air Lines bankruptcy"? I'll defer to Doug and some of the current airline pilots. I honestly don't know how much they're making right now. Being retired I'm only interested in taking care of myself, by my own means, without any future income from Delta Air Lines.
Now to issue # 2...quality of life.
This is a real personal thing and no two people will fell the same about it. For me, I felt honored to have served for 28 years. There were many instances where the time away from home, the environment I woke up to in some really nasty place, the daily grind, and some really lousy food made me ask why I chose such a profession. But in the end, the personal gratification of what I was doing made up for it. I liked the military. I chose it freely and voluntarily and like I said, I was honored to having chose that profession. What I had was great quality of life.
That being said, when I moved over to the airline side, it too had a quality of life. And like the military, some was good, and some was bad. Can you say,
"Billings on New Year's eve with a oh-dark-thirty getgo the next morning"? But then that was more or less offset by 30 hours in San Diego with a lot of it spent at Hooters and Dick's Last Resort!
So in the end you have to look a little past the money as IMHO that's not the whole story.
But that's just my take based on what I did for the majority of my adult life.
That "third thing" deals with commitment. And regardless of which way you go, it's something you have to possess. Otherwise you're doing yourself and your employer a disservice. For my feelings on the military commitment, see my post in the Texas Air National Guard thread.
