Colgan air crash

[Freight Dog]

It's simply demand and supply. A physician has to have a 4.0 in grade school thur college to have a shot at med school. One must do very good at the MCAT (3 shots at that test; no go; you are out). Assuming you dont go crazy and died of sleep deprivation while in med school, you still have to make a good showing at the residency.
Requirments to become a pilot. 1) $40G in da pocket. 2) Check out the local flight school and its wide selection of crappy 150s and cherokees. 3) pay up, stay put, hang tight for the career ride. Sure it take some skills to pilot and command, but there are no "weed-out" process similar to going to med school. While I am not selling short on my captainship, but I know there is an infinite supply of numb nuts who would eagerly trade in the cherokee for my job. Meanwhile, some of my "wiser" fellow pilots are just as eager to replace the 737 with RJs. No Degree, no problem. You can get one online. As long as there are no restriction on the supply of rookie pilots, the pay will continue to decline.

Great post!

 

[Freight Dog]

Supply and demand - that's b.s. Why are major airlines salaries so high? I'd wager there are more pilots that want to work for Delta, United, and Continental etc. than ANY regional carrier. The wages are low because the companies can't afford to pay pilots more, and the unions aren't doing a good job of forcing the company to cough up more dough - simple as that.

By your reasoning ALL pilot positions should be low paying (especially after 9/11). I don't buy it.

~wheelsup

The difference is that you as a CFI with 750 hours getting paid $15/hr to instruct would consider it a beautiful thing to go fly that shiny new glass cockpit CRJ for $20/hr. It's a pay-raise for you, plus now you're building jet time. Beats doinking around the pattern in a C-172 with a smelly student, doesn't it? It's still also considered by many to be a stepping-stone job.
The managements aren't THAT stupid. They realize you want to go work for the majors, and that you can't get there without time and experience that they offer. You may not want to sit in the right seat of that CRJ for $20/hr, but if you look behind you, the line is very long for that job and they'd be willing to do it for less than you...

By the time you get to the majors, your priorities will shift from getting jet time or that 121 turbine PIC time to focusing on payscales, lifestyle, retirement plans, work rules... and so on.

Believe me, these regional airlines can more than afford to pay their pilots more. The question is why should they?

 

[xanderman]

The difference is that you as a CFI with 750 hours getting paid $15/hr to instruct would consider it a beautiful thing to go fly that shiny new glass cockpit CRJ for $20/hr. It's a pay-raise for you, plus now you're building jet time. Beats doinking around the pattern in a C-172 with a smelly student, doesn't it? It's still also considered by many to be a stepping-stone job.
The managements aren't THAT stupid. They realize you want to go work for the majors, and that you can't get there without time and experience that they offer. You may not want to sit in the right seat of that CRJ for $20/hr, but if you look behind you, the line is very long for that job and they'd be willing to do it for less than you...

By the time you get to the majors, your priorities will shift from getting jet time or that 121 turbine PIC time to focusing on payscales, lifestyle, retirement plans, work rules... and so on.

Believe me, these regional airlines can more than afford to pay their pilots more. The question is why should they?

Right on! I've never heard anyone say it better!!!!
Andy

 

[flybrowntails]

some really great posts!

great post tcas. (regional or major--it still holds true)

fbt

 

[climbhappy]

hard ifr in a hand held turboprop comes seldom.

flying4 food:

quote" logging 2 to 4 hours if IFR, shooting multiple approaches to minimums"

I've flown in PIT,BOS and the south for many years as a frickin GA Pilot and as a "regional airline Captain" (boys that sounds fancy doesn't it) fact is I enjoy it. But it is not a skill that our economy has recognized as worthy of six figures, unless maybe you're at comair for 10 years.

Fact is hard IFR comes very seldom, and I've been doing this for 6 years now. I submit to you and others that you often present this like you do it every day, day in and day out. It simply isn't true, and paints this picture of a pilot who can barely walk after all this hard work, and of course lives on a diet of rice and bugs approaching starvation. Hence the label, "flying4food"

In this day and age, Regional airlines are pimps, and its young aspiring pilots are a bunch of runaway teenage whores who'd do anything to trade their cessna for a an embraer gear handle. That's why it pays $16,000/year ( at Colgan mainly) and only the first year at the better ones like ASA or comair.

I guess you could call me a forty something runaway whore!

 

[capt. megadeth]

Freight Dog,
What you wrote is right on the mark!

 

[climbhappy]

freightdog:

bullseye! that's why i refer to them as pimps!!!