CFI pay

[pgcfii2002]

DCA = Delta Comair Academy. Buffet's comments are actually a welcome dose of disgust with the industry. It was because of people like Buffet that I realized this industry was simply a young, rich-kid's game. Two years ago I was riding a Beech 1900 run by Gulfstream Academy. If you could only see the look of disappointment when I realized that I would have my life in the hands of some rich kid trying to play pilot for a day. I, being from the west coast, decided to travel east for a visit to FL. Upon boarding, I peeked my head in the cockpit and said "hm, I didn't know this 1900 had 20 fare-paying passengers aboard?" Ah, yes, the stunned look of silence.

There is always the option of getting out, finding another industry, and still flying for fun. It's simply not worth it to beat yourself up in the hopes of one day getting an airline job. So long as we are disillusioned with the industry, we shall continue to be recepticles for the shaft.

What troubles me about this industry the most is that one is considered a "loser" (not my phraseology, but that of others) if one doesn't work for the airlines. There are other jobs in aviation that can be equally rewarding and not be airline jobs.

What I have noticed here is that some folks have simply been "flight schooled." Being "flight schooled" is unlike going to flight school. You can be flight schooled and have never attended a flight school. In fact, people all over the world are being flight schooled every day and they are silently unware of that very fact. Here are some of the signs that you are being flight schooled.

1) Someone asks you: "How much multi-time do you have?" even though you don't have a multi-engine rating.

2) In the CFI lounge, you are constantly pestered by a fellow CFI with the following: "Hey, did you get your thousand hours yet?" This question is usually asked multiple times a day when he knows that you're at 600 or so hours and simply didn't complete that 400 hour x-c trip to hell.

3) "Are the airlines hiring?"

4) "I bet you can't wait to get the class date for the jet!"

5) "I calculated my actual IFR total. It's 2.1229 hours"

This sad representation of "intelligent talk" is usually conducted, with the exception of #2, on the flightline where instructors walk around in their captain's uniforms with the "Top Gun Anthem" blaring in their skulls as they see a fellow CFI's 172 taxi by. Being flight schooled, of course, is as common as the skidmarks on one's underpants at places like Wastewind, Pan-Scam, and Delta Comscare Academy. However, aviation isn't the only field. Financial services, engineering, and public service all have their versions of being flight schooled. A wise man once said: "Even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat." The sad thing with CFIs is that there are so many rats that cheese is a hard item to find. And I'm not talking buttcheese, folks. There will always be plenty of those morsels lying around. Just pick up a copy of AOPA Flight Training or Flying and you'll find it dripping with such garbage.

I know a guy who was a DCA hopeful and now works as a baggage screener for TSA. I walked up to him one day and asked him how it felt to be "Thoughtlessly Standing Around?" (TSA). He nodded and asked me: "How do I get the fark out of this mess?"

You just do. Get out and breathe a sign of relief when you do. It'll be the biggest psychological dump you take and when you hit the flusher on the way out, you'll feel mighty good you did.

AMEN!!! To hell with the flight academies.....fly cargo or do the CFI route, way too many rich kids lunging for the epaulets!!

 

[stupidwork]

i dont work at a flight acadamy now... i work at a private flight school/FBO. there is a difference.

 

[jaxpilot]

regarding the topic of the thread- I make 15.50 an hour. Its the highest starting pay around in this area, gotta love Florida. I just started this week though so it will go up as I build time.

regarding what everyone is talking about. DCA is a hell hole, I wish I would never have gone there. buffettck is right about them making you buy new manuals and charts whenever they get a wild hair up their ass. Im surprised they didnt make us pay for the revisions sheets that go in the manuals. Most of the kids that went there were rich boys/girls that were doing the airline pilot thing before they went to medical or law school . My own ignorance is why i decided to go there but Im glad to say that I got out before shelling out 100k, thanks partly to this website. Good points all around

 

[paid4training]

So then go ahead and register for food stamps. Look at all the fat welfare mommas dragging along their 5+ chillun's (i.e. paychecks) at the Wal-Mart on hwy 17-92...or the Winn Dixie towards Lake Monroe...or whatever your local "mart" is. The DCA guys know what I'm talking about... White, black, Hispanic, etc...doesn't matter... That's life in Sanford, Fl...glad I don't live there anymore...

But, them gov't lackie mommaz gots their steaks, ice creams, frozen pizzas, and 12 packs of brand XXX beer in their shoppin' carts... All they gotta do is whip out that WIC card and bada-bing, bada-boom... The REST of us finance their lifestyles via the taxes we pay... Think about THAT when you're making the low $20s/hr at a regional...

So, why should you have to endure the fat/carbs/calories horror of "just because it's so cheap" ramen? Read the label of that packaged fried "before boiled" crap...

I say get that gov't aid if you qualify for it (thankfully, I don't)...it's out there for anyone and at least you're doing something with your life besides worrying about where "yo baby daddy at"...

And consider this... When all that CFI'ing is said and done, most guys probably will STILL qualify for gov't aid for years to come as a piss-poorly paid FO at "whatever" regional...if they go that route. After all, that's what the "guaranteed interview" DCA guys are shooting for... Those guys need a reality check. I understand the whole romantic "love of flying" thing, but bills need to get paid and life needs living beyond the cockpit... I'm sure the divorced airline guys here would agree... I know a few guys like that myself...

The sad thing is most guys won't realize that until they turn 30+ and wonder where that "love of flying" went when they're sittin' furloughed from that $17-25/hr job watching Simpsons re-runs... Thankfully, I punched out of instructing for DCA and didn't end up like that, but I've shared many a beers with good friends who did... And they were not all DCA grads/prior instructors either...(DCA doesn't matter). Just victims of the "regional airline" lifestyle. And two guys flew for a "major".

I pray for these young "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" kids coming into the airline industry these days thinking they'll "make it big"...

Sure won't happen when anyone can go on-line to travelocity.com (or whatever) and pick the absolutely dirt cheapest airfare...that's all that matters...point A to B...regardless of the airline, ya gotta put up with the TSA/airport crap anyway...and the service on any US airline pretty much blows so it might as well be CHEAP. Can't take a Cathay Pacific, Emirates, or Singapore Air flight for US domestic destinations... Those foreign airlines know how to do it right!

The internet killed the "airline pilot" lifestyle long ago... It's not like anyone chooses one airline over another because they have better maintenance or "crash less"... Passenger/food service has pretty much gone out the window on any airline unless one flies first class, but how many "fares" actually do that? Surely, not enough to keep an airline afloat...hence all the financial turmoil these days. Delta, Northwest, etc... 40% pay cuts for the pilots...loss of pension/benefits, etc... Seems like ALPA isn't stepping up to the plate for these guys, although unions in any fashion simply SUCK.

That light at the "end of the tunnel" really IS an oncoming train to financial "wreckdom"... With the airlines, "rectum"...same, same... BOHICA...

But, I guess somebody's gotta fly them airplanes just like somebody's gotta swab the deck and clean the toilets as well... Just do NOT expect glamour, fame and fortune!

Sorry for the sermon, but the "old guys" know it's true...

AMEN BROTHER!!!!

 

[paid4training]

Then stay the hell out of the civilian sector, you clearly don't belong here. I spent my time in the military instructing, don't preach that crap to me! I choose not to retire airforce that was my decision. I wanted a change and to become a CIVILIAN again. That's why I'm here. You tried DCA and it wasn't for you. That's fine. I did my time in the military and I was burnt out after 10 years.

No one today really needs a dang interview. If you have the time and are a people person, you get the job. Any job, regional or major. The military could care less about people skills, We strapped them into F-16s and sent them on their way. Not crew type people. Where is you Major airline job Mr. 5000hr pilot?

My Goal? None of you business. I have my own mission in life.

Just a question...are your hours correct on here? cause I see 800+ but you say you were in the military for 10 years. Why don't you have more than 800 hours? Just a question, I am not bustin your balls or nothin' just trying to find a basis for your agreement.

 

[rfresh]

So, the pilots trying to get hired by a major these days now all understand that they are doing it for the "fun of flying" and not for the big bucks right? The big bucks are fading fast.

 

[paid4training]

Wow sorry I did not realize I was involved in a pi$$ing contest between two guys who know each from DCA. I was agreeing with the "state of the industry" comments...

Are most DCA guys brainwashed like you folks are? DCA just opened a "school" at a nearby college and those guys are so brainwashed into thinking DCA is the only way to get your ratings. These guys are not even Pvt pilots but they talk as if they are already Regional Pilots or something. In my opinion DCA is no different than Paid for training. You are putting A LOT of money into the pockets of management @ Delta while they cut benefits and pay from line pilots and other employee groups. Do DCA "students" ever think about things in those terms? Your $80,000 for flight training (that cost DCA about $25,000) goes to the company led by management that is decreasing the Quality of life for all pilots within the Delta system and is influencing the airline industry as a whole.

I understand you are not directly paying for your job but you are paying for the "interview" which is pretty much the same thing. Its just a way around the PTF wording.

 

[jaxpilot]

buffetck- yeah I am based out of CRG, do some flying at HEG too. We fly over mayport all the time.

paid4training- yes most DCA students think they are gods. Most of them are ignorant to all other facets of aviation besides the regionals. When an instructor goes off to the CRJ Bridge trainer in SFB before his regional class, that instructor is considered a deity.

 

[CalifDan]

Internet?

The internet killed the "airline pilot" lifestyle long ago...

I think maybe you should look to deregulation of the airline industry as the real cause of most of the issues. The intenet has little to do with it. Even without the internet, you would just have travel agents looking for the best fare. Now, if you want to talk about a part of the business that got shafted by the internet....it's the travel agency business. Almost completely gone.

 

[BLing]

double post...