Look Kyle, that's great you love to fly, and it's great that you want to do it professionally, but you pretty much answered your own question.
Flying for a living is NOTHING like you think it is going to be, and I can say that with almost 100% certainty, even though I really have no clue what you actually think it is going to be like. Sure, most people who fly for a living enjoy it. Just like a doctor likes what they do or a roofer likes climbing up a ladder every day. Really. Nothing more, nothing less.
The problem is, for what ever reason, the job has been over glamorized since the Wright Brothers started cruising the neighborhood. And because of that a lot of people get into it because they think flying is something special. And the flying part IS in fact pretty special. Humans sure as hell weren't designed to fly, so being able to get around that is amazing. And if the job was JUST flying, I think you would be justified in thinking what you do.
But unfortunately VERY little of this job is flying. Check out my schedule today. All I do is a 2 leg turn from Dayton to Charlotte and back up. That's it. It's blocked for about 2 hours and 30 minutes of "time", however, I am going to be "at work" for 4 hours. On top of that, it takes me about 45 minutes to get to the airport so add in 1:30 for the round trip. Oh, and of that 2:05 of flight time (that I'm actually getting paid for) MAYBE 1:45 of it will actually be "in the air" with the rest spent taxiing out or back in.
So:
7:00 of my day taken up by work
5:30 of duty time
2:45 sitting in the airplane
1:45 off the ground
0:15 actually flying the plane (maybe)
And that's actually a pretty good day. Last trip the last day was 14:45 of duty and about 4:05 of "flight time" of which I hand flew maybe 20 minutes.
Again, I'm not saying it's a bad job. I'd rather be doing this right now then anything else, but the actual FLYING part is relatively small compared to the other stuff.
From working at Dulles, I've picked up on a lot of the regional life from blathering on and on with the pilots there, so I've picked up a lot of what you've just said. Having not experienced it for myself, though, I'm still not going to claim I know for sure what the regionals truly are all about. I'm not saying it's not crappy, and the situation couldn't be vastly improved. I'm just saying it would be nice to see someone who can let things go and enjoy what they're doing. I know news is seldom good, as are comments in general. When things are good, we're content and silent, but when things go wrong, we're irritated and vocal. I know for a fact each and every pilot likes/loves flying somewhere at the core of it all. It's just really irritating to me as an aspiring pilot to see people have something I've always wanted (as far as I can remember) and gripe about it so much.
Again, I'm not saying I know anything of what you're going through, but sometimes I think it would be nice to meet someone who doesn't appear to hate their job because of what everyone else gets (etc, etc).
I think that most of us fly because we love it. However, when you don't make enough money to pay your bills, it does tend to take a lot of the enjoyment out of flying. What are you going to do when you have to tell your significant other that you have to choose between buying food or paying the power bill because you don't have enough money to do both? If you don't mind living or ramen noodles, taking a vow of celibacy, and maybe living with mom and dad to save money, then its great.
What is really sad is that there are a lot of people who would line up to work for even less money than what was posted above, just so they can fly a nice new jet and wear a snazzy uniform. That is what hurts all of us in the long run.
With that said, flying is something that I love, and I always will. It is a whole different ball game when you try to make a living at it though.
I agree with you, wholeheartedly. My point is more that griping about what such-and-such gets for whatever isn't going to help anything. The situation sucks. Hopefully it gets better. Being miserable all the time surely isn't going to help much. In the mean time, trudge through it and look for something to be happy about.
To be honest, again, I don't know what you're going through, but this pay thing is beaten to death every time. To me, it's just a buzzkill to see everyone so downtrodden. Sure, it might not be your fault at all. I don't know. Again, I can't know and I'm not trying to let on that I do. I'm not the best person to
always look on the bright side of things and I have my off days, but so much is made of this money issue. I just see things in a different way, I guess. To me, crap pay in the regionals is just a stepping stone to a better job with a better carrier making a lot more money down the line, but I don't know exactly how all of this works, so I thank those of you who corrected/informed me. I understand where you're coming from.
Honestly, this thread was intended to get people off of their high horses and realize that attacking each over a dollar or two of pay is not helping. We're all getting paid crap. We all have taken crappy pay to fly these airplanes and just because you did it to a slightly lesser degree than another guy doesn't make you that important. We're all individuals with our own individual needs and that will always come first even if it's not what's best for the group we belong to. That's how people work. However, maybe if we all realize that attacking each other over 2 dollars an hour difference at airline A vs airline B is pretty retarded, then we'll be a better group....maybe not, I dunno. Honestly I'd be very interested in a national strike to show how united we are but because we are not a cohesive group, it will never happen.
Sorry. I didn't mean to make it into something it wasn't. I guess I had just heard enough of it at work, and saw this and pounced. Like I've said, I agree the situation is crap, but it's all what you make of it. If you let it bother you too much, it will. I'm not saying it
shouldn't bother you, I'm just saying it won't be nearly as bothersome if it wasn't concentrated on so much. I'm not perfect, either, and I'm not trying to put off that I love working on the ramp for $9.74/hour every day from 1400-2230 (and beyond). To me, though, you all are why I'm there. I work there so I can play with the airplanes and hang out with you all and talk about flying. Yes, I think my job sucks on certain days and it bothers me a good bit, especially when everything on the ramp is broken, but I still get excited whenever I get to go hang out with a crew I haven't seen in a while.
I just think the whole pay arguments are counter-productive and silly. It creates divides in pilot groups and it won't fix anything.
Scandanavian,
I've done this along-ish time.
I love to fly. It does get boring on occasion sitting there watching the automation do it's thing. However, fly a river vis into DCA...deviating around storms without getting rocked, busting thru a solid overcast to see the millions of stars out on a smooth night, flying the Visual into 9 at EYW, the Expressway vis into LGA, figuring out some approach in a far away land is good stuff.
Alot of the outside the cockpit stuff sucks. If you can separate those things, it makes the job more enjoyable.
Another enjoyable part is when I walk away from the airport, my job doesn't follow me. I don't have to check a crackberry, I don't have calls from work at the house.
I'd discuss the monetary downfalls, but those have been gone over ad nauseum.
There are some serious downsides to the career, especially if all you want to do is fly for airlines. There is other money to be made and other types of flying that are alot more fun. It took me along time to open my eyes to it, but they exist. Now, in spite of the down turn in the airlines, I still see lots of opportunities to fly professionally and make money.
The regionals aren't the end-all, be all career advancement tool. One paid my bills for 9 years, and did so quite well. I got lucky though.
No matter what you choose, it's your journey and adventure. Make it YOUR own.
Thank you for that. I'm glad to hear someone who can separate the crap from the more enjoyable parts.
[That's not to say he's the only one and everyone else is just a regional grouch.]
Thanks, again, to the rest of you who gave me some insight as to why the pay discussions exist. I stand moderately corrected/informed.
