"...plenty of pilots willing to fly—if the pay’s right."

"Ernie Smith is the social media journalist for Associations Now and a former newspaper guy."

Wonder what that means?...
 
Screw 40k. Minimum $50k, 15 days off per mo, 100% 401k match, 3 weeks vacation per year to start!

You are giving up years of your life you don't get back. Years in a hotel alone, eating alone, working out in hotel gyms, eating airport food, screwing up with sleep rhythm and the list keeps going. You can find a desk for that's 9-5 for $50k anywhere.

For the sacrifice you make, you should get a lot in return!
 
mrivc211 said:
Screw 40k. Minimum $50k, 15 days off per mo, 100% 401k match, 3 weeks vacation per year to start!

You are giving up years of your life you don't get back. Years in a hotel alone, eating alone, working out in hotel gyms, eating airport food, screwing up with sleep rhythm and the list keeps going. You can find a desk for that's 9-5 for $50k anywhere.

For the sacrifice you make, you should get a lot in return!
Click to expand...

But...but...you get to fly a slick looking jet...and all the girls flock to a guy in uniform!!! That's worth $20k...right, y'all?!
 
mrivc211 said:
Screw 40k. Minimum $50k, 15 days off per mo, 100% 401k match, 3 weeks vacation per year to start!

You are giving up years of your life you don't get back. Years in a hotel alone, eating alone, working out in hotel gyms, eating airport food, screwing up with sleep rhythm and the list keeps going. You can find a desk for that's 9-5 for $50k anywhere.

For the sacrifice you make, you should get a lot in return!
Click to expand...
At 8 hours a day that comes out to about 34 bucks an hour. My wife makes more than that running a MRI machine.
 
mrivc211 said:
Screw 40k. Minimum $50k, 15 days off per mo, 100% 401k match, 3 weeks vacation per year to start!

You are giving up years of your life you don't get back. Years in a hotel alone, eating alone, working out in hotel gyms, eating airport food, screwing up with sleep rhythm and the list keeps going. You can find a desk for that's 9-5 for $50k anywhere.

For the sacrifice you make, you should get a lot in return!
Click to expand...

While I don't disagree with more money, 40-50k will never happen. All I want is a livable wage for the first couple years, not one where after taxes I need to get food stamps to eat. If the airlines all paid $30ish/hr first year to start they'd fill classes right away.

Here's one thing that I've been thinking about though, what about just paying pilots for ALL their time? At the current $22-$26/hr some regionals pay, how much would you guys make if you were paid every hour you were at work, and not just door close to open?

This is the other reason I'm hesitant to get into the airline world. It's not just lack of pay, but lack of paid hours. Pre and post Flight planning is all part of the job, and it boggles my mind that you airline guys don't get paid for that! How about $30/hr to start and you punch a clock once you clear security, both into and out of the airport? I mean heck, you're at work right? I can't think of any other job (other than getting commission from sales) where you don't get paid for all your time. It's an absolute joke, and these airline execs must have laughed all the way to the bank when they adopted that pay system. Where did this model even come from?
 
ATN_Pilot said:
I'll put it this way: I pay my receptionist more than entry first officers make at the regionals, and she gets better benefits and retirement. Not to mention that she's home every night and on every holiday. If that's not a wakeup call to the people shelling out six figures to become a regional airline pilot, I don't know what is.
Click to expand...

I didn't shell out all that money for training to become a regional airline pilot, I shelled it out to become a major airline pilot. Being a regional pilot is a step on that road.

So the difference is that your receptionist will be a receptionist for the rest of her life. She will make somewhere between miserable and ok money, depending on who she works for.

I won't.
 
mrivc211 said:
Screw 40k. Minimum $50k, 15 days off per mo, 100% 401k match, 3 weeks vacation per year to start!

You are giving up years of your life you don't get back. Years in a hotel alone, eating alone, working out in hotel gyms, eating airport food, screwing up with sleep rhythm and the list keeps going. You can find a desk for that's 9-5 for $50k anywhere.

For the sacrifice you make, you should get a lot in return!
Click to expand...

And that there is the reason a career change will never happen for me. It's all about timing. Had I started pre-kids, pre-mortgage, it would have took work but could have been done. Now it just isnt feasible. Working M-F, holidays off, company match $ for $ up to 6%, 4 weeks vacation, tele-commute if needed and well north of any regional f/o starting wage and many CA's.....

Granted the top end of a major pilot is far more but it would take so long to get back to where I am now and I am staring down two college educations coming up as well....

It's basically a cost/benefit analysis that has to happen for each individual and for me, the benefit just isnt there...
 
mrivc211 said:
Screw 40k. Minimum $50k, 15 days off per mo, 100% 401k match, 3 weeks vacation per year to start!
Click to expand...

I'd like to see tuition reimbursement also. Hell, all large FBO's have it. Most companies like to see their employees grow. Not the regionals.
 
Rodger Wilco said:
On a side not- do the guys in the picture look like real pilots to you guys?
Click to expand...

No they don't, real pilots don't wear sleeves.

mrivc211 said:
Screw 40k. Minimum $50k, 15 days off per mo, 100% 401k match, 3 weeks vacation per year to start!

You are giving up years of your life you don't get back. Years in a hotel alone, eating alone, working out in hotel gyms, eating airport food, screwing up with sleep rhythm and the list keeps going. You can find a desk for that's 9-5 for $50k anywhere.

For the sacrifice you make, you should get a lot in return!
Click to expand...

I truly enjoy the travel, variable schedules and more often than not I prefer to eat alone as I just don't like other people all that much.

That being said, it is worth at least $10k/yr to me not to be stuck at a desk 9-5 every. damn. day. I can't handle the monotony. Been there, done that, no thank you. I believe that people living in cubicle cities are wasting far too much of their lives doing completely mundane tasks that hardly benefit society one bit. Would I like to see the pay raised? Hell yes. Is starting pay too low? Of course it is. But at the end of the day we can't throw out invalid comparisons as justification for shooting for the moon in a compensation package.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top