Be Honest.

[Thedude]

Me thinks AAsRed might be telling a tall tale

 

[SkyBoy1981]

What part of it do you find to be so unbelievable? It all seems quite possible to me.

 

[jumppilot]

Every time I see my grandfather he says to me:

"Son, you'd probably be doing this even if they didn't pay you a thing as long as they covered your hotel and food and the road."

It's hard to swallow when one of them is working as a grocery store stocker/donut frier and is just about out-earning you.

Except one thing..Most of them are not out earning you. It's more like a hard pill to swallow to realize all your friends would kill for this job, but are not willing/able to put in the years it takes to get to this level.

My 3rd year capt pay at CHQ was $64,000. Yeah, I worked a lot of overtime and only saw 12-14 days off a month, but I still had a lot of fun.

A Doughnut frier would be hard pressed to see that kind of money.

Really, we are all our own worst enemy....

 

[spiffomatic]

I was pretty set on getting to the airlines from a little before 9/11 and the current downward spiral. I left a good career making good money and I may NEVER make up the ground I've lost in income and retirement savings. This I regret a little. I do like the lifestyle - most of the time - and am finally making a reasonable salary on CA's pay, and stress levels are down. Overall I enjoy the job. But we as pilots have a long and hard road towards building this profession back up and I plan on pushing hard for that progress when contracts come back up and when I can talk to younger pilots. I don't think we help our cause when we threaten to do things like not get a haircut to spite mgmt. Overall I'll probably stick this profession out unless my company implodes - and be a lot more careful about saving for retirement, but the non-flying resume can and will be dusted off if this spiral continues downward for too much longer.

 

[El Ocho]

My only regret is that I didn't appreciate the importance of connections.

In hindsight, I might have delayed my flight training and spent some time working some stupid job or gotten some intership at a company I wanted to work for. Then, once I had the minimum qualifications, I could apply and probably been hired at a company like FedEx or UPS...

Oh well, I'll just keep collecting my turbine PIC with the rest of you fools and hope things eventually change from who you know to what you know...

Tell me again when that pilot shortage is supposed to impact our industry?

 

[Flying Ninja]

Seeing that everyone's reflecting, I was curious to learn one thing now that I'm struggling to make the math work:

How the hell did you all manage to pay rent/food/utilities your first year as an FO?

 

[ratherbeflyen]

Now that I'm here and put in my 6+ years to get up to an airline job, I'm happy to with the job I have. If I would have known then what I know now. There is no way that I would have dropped all the $$$ I had into learning to fly a plane, if I knew it would take me almost nine years to get back to the $45,000 a year I was making when I was 19. I got my CFI right after 9/11 and watched the industry change after it was too late.

If someone would have pulled me aside when I was 19 and showed me a crystal ball with my current reality and what it took to get here ... no way. However, looking back I dont regret any of it and I'm glad I made the jump. I challenge any of you to name one better job. Not more pay or more days at home but a better "JOB." I still can't think of any.​

 

[ratherbeflyen]

Seeing that everyone's reflecting, I was curious to learn one thing now that I'm struggling to make the math work:

How the hell did you all manage to pay rent/food/utilities your first year as an FO?

Roomate(s)

 

[AAsRedHeadedbro]

Thedude,

Now why would I make this up?

I started in late 1991 as an FO on the Jetstream at $15.50/hr with a 72 hour guarantee which equals $1,116/month.

I got displaced or bid voluntarily so many times I need to stop and think hard about it - LAX to MIA to BNA to DFW to MIA to BNA to JFK to MIA to DFW to LAX to BOS to ORD to LAX. J-32 to SF3 to J-31 to SF3 to AT42 (and 72) to SF3 to EMJ.

I make a little more than $85/hr now (public knowledge for my seniority). Throw in a small amount of OT, Per Diem, etc. and the income is just under 90K Gross.

I still really like the job overall, but have to admit that other things are more enjoyable to me when I am away from work, like old air cooled Porsche’s.

Eagle is correct, btw.

 

[Palerider957]

Screw the airlines

I really disliked the job almost from the very beginning. Of course I was an E-120 ASA guy who was abused, lied to, cheated, threatened, insulted, humiliated, and generally treated like the enemy. But I did have the $400 paychecks to look forward too.

Should I have known? Perhaps, but I just couldn't believe that airline pilots would be treated in such a way. Like a few of the others here, I didn't have any guidance or family insight.

I was so fed up with the blithering idiocy of ASA I finally quit, and am doing very well in commercial real estate (and flying my Baron regularly).

I don't miss the airlines at all, but I do miss some of the people.