Yes but we ARE talking about the initial commitment timeframe of life. Nobody starts at a regional AFTER they've gained the experience they need to go to a major. People go to regionals when they've got a wet license and bills to pay, usually early in adult life.
You're missing the point, but you're sort of dancing around it, without realizing that you really DO understand the point we're making...
You say "nobody starts at a regional AFTER they've gained the experience they need to go to a major." You're EXACTLY RIGHT. That's why military aviators DON'T LEAVE THE MILITARY FOR THE FRAKKING REGIONALS!! And that's a problem, because the majors aren't hiring, for the most part. They have THOUSANDS of pilots on furlough. So if the military pilots won't go to a regional and CAN'T go to a Major, what do they do?
Get it now? We have a problem because the pay is SO LOW at the regionals, they cannot attract QUALIFIED pilots. Only puppy mill kids. Do you remember when the airlines paid so well and had such a good quality of life, you couldn't even get hired AT A REGIONAL without 2,500+ Total Time and the Military guys were standing in line at FAPA conventions?
I do.
Supply and demand arguments don't stand up. It's about who's in charge of the process of cultivating the pilot core. In the case of the airlines, management (anti-labor) is in full control.
No they're not. Airline management doesn't "cultivate" the pilot core. They HIRE their pilots, but only from the pool of applicants. That's the problem, NO ONE is "cultivating" the pilot core, they're just coming up however they can, clawing, kicking, and gnashing of teeth to get flight hours wherever they can, OR have Mommy and Daddy buy them a GIA slot.
THAT'S where our "pilot core" comes from these days, and it's lead to and overall piss-poor quality of applicants. 9 out of 10 of them couldn't pass the JAA exams if they wanted to, much less fly the airplane after training in a full blown emergency with the PIC incapacitated.
So the answer is no, pilots should not be making so little. Did you know there are doctors and lawyers and engineers working for very little, sometimes pro-bono, in this country? Is that justice? No, but they do it because they love their jobs and gain valuable personal and professional experience in the process.
Doctors do not work Pro Bono to gain experience. They do it because they want to give back to their communities, as well as the communities of people in 3rd world countries who would otherwise NEVER see a Doctor. I know, we have 3 of them in our immediate family, along with several Nurse Practitioners, Nurse Aenesthetists, and one plain old RN. That argument doesn't hold, my friend.
Attornies are closer to us in job expectations INITIALLY. 95% of them graduate law school and get out earning $40-50k while ambulance chasing or doing crap filing work for a few years. Almost NONE of them start out at $18k a year after Law School, and most go on to earn what we do pretty quickly, after starting at double or triple what we do.
Engineers,,, I have no idea. But you're arguing semantics in an overall issue that most of us don't agree with. The bottom line that most of us understand is that, in this day and age, the majority of exceptional pilots will either go to the military and won't ever leave again, thus depriving the civilian world of their skills, or they will quickly find a way into the corporate world and stay there, or they just won't stay in professional aviation at all, knowing they are capable of much more in terms of earning a decent living for themselves and their famiilies. That is a DIRECT RESULT of the Quality of Life and Career Pay Expectations that this industry is now suffering under.
I've watched the slow deterioration of new-hire pilots as a whole for the last 17 years. There are some good young aviators out there, even a few really great ones, but for the most part, I'm not impressed. Thankfully technology is helping make up for it, so the Children of the Magenta are evidently here to stay.
