Welcome to Flightinfo.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Friendliest aviation Ccmmunity on the web
  • Modern site for PC's, Phones, Tablets - no 3rd party apps required
  • Ask questions, help others, promote aviation
  • Share the passion for aviation
  • Invite everyone to Flightinfo.com and let's have fun

dive a truck and drive a jet

Welcome to Flightinfo.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Modern secure site, no 3rd party apps required
  • Invite your friends
  • Share the passion of aviation
  • Friendliest aviation community on the web
Register   Log in
T

TopGun-MAV

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 22, 2004
Posts
125
i was thinking. pilots will pay money to get a job as a pilot but how many truck drivers will pay for a job driving a truck. truck drivers make more to start with and live the same lifestyle. after 10 years at a regional you will be making as much as a truck driver. pft trucking companies are just around the corner

maverick
 
There are alot of drivers that pay thousands of dollars (some) on their license. Doesnt mean they are going to have a better job then they guy that pays $300. Either way, truck drivers do make good money. What whould you prefer, driving a truck or flying an airplane?
 
bobs98tlr said:
What whould you prefer, driving a truck or flying an airplane?
Click to expand...


Get furloughed and have a choice between poverty RJ F/O rates, or bottom feeder jet charter rates and your question is not as easy to answer.

Especially if you have a family to support.

Did a cross country run with a high school buddy in his truck......he makes a lot more than most Corporate and RJ Captians do. Not much different than an airline pilots life. He drove for a company that paid for his training for about 3 years. same kind of deal as a training contract with airlines. 2 years pro rated, After 3 years he had enough money saved to make the down payment on a 3 year old Freightliner with the works(Toilet, fridge, etc.. Basically a little RV) Running as an owner operator he does very well.
 
when i get furloughed i want to be a rig driver
 
TopGun-MAV said:
...after 10 years at a regional you will be making as much as a truck driver...
Click to expand...
Well, thats why you shouldn't stay at a regional for 10 years. Wouldn't feel sorry for anyone that did that.
 
User997 said:
Well, thats why you shouldn't stay at a regional for 10 years. Wouldn't feel sorry for anyone that did that.
Click to expand...

I can see that you have been drinking the Kool Aid from somewhere. Even in good times getting to a major is not assured.

Current conditions, there is a very good chance that the regionals will be a pilots career. There is a lot of luck involved in making it to a major, and even more luck involved in being able to actually retire from a major.

Look around at the senior guys at regionals, for the most part they are not there because they are bad pilots, or because they didn't apply themselves......most just never got that lucky break, never made contact with that one person that had the clout to get them in, or simply just missed the optimum window for employment because of economic downturns. Some of the best pilots I ever flew with were senior regional guys. In other cases I flew with a few senior guys at the major and wondered how they ever got to be senior at a major.

That is the real problem with the payscales at the regionals, a 1000 or 1500 hour pilot never sees himself staying at a regional, when they hire on they take whatever poverty scale that is being paid because they believe they will be hired by a major in a couple of years. Once he has been there for 5 or 6 years, and knows how the business works, reality starts to set in.

User997, no matter what your Kool Aid supplier has been telling you, you have a much better chance of being stuck at a regional for 15+ years than you do of making it to a major. All you have to do is run the numbers on total pilots in the U.S. and compare it with the total number at the majors, the numbers are not in your favor. Couple that with the fact that even in todays world, you only have a few "prime" years to make it to a major. There are not many newhires at majors over 40 years old. It is not as bad as the previous decades, but age does still affect your chances. The old man in my class of 50 at the major was 40 years old, retired military, the oldest civ pilot was 35, and he came from a supplemental carrier flying as Capt. on a DC-10. Miss your window because of economic factors or whatever, and your chances drop dramatically.

Look around, get some education about the airline industry, talk to pilots that have been there, Once you do, you will not make statements like the one above.
 
TopGun-MAV said:
i was thinking. pilots will pay money to get a job as a pilot but how many truck drivers will pay for a job driving a truck. truck drivers make more to start with and live the same lifestyle. after 10 years at a regional you will be making as much as a truck driver. pft trucking companies are just around the corner

maverick
Click to expand...

fox 2 amram lauch

i feel the need...the need for speed!

jungle jet co-captain



TopGun-MAV-

May I ask: You're an FO, but you call yourself a jungle jet co captain?
 
fokkerfly

i am a co-captain. i am as qualified and deserve the title.
 
Fokker,

What's up?

The guy (Topgun) is fooling us. He is a joke.
 
WTF is a be1900 jungle jet? Is that the new name for the 2006 Big Rig?

Co-captian is what he means by saying he is really a partner on a team truck driving crew!!!
 
If only everyone could be as qualified as a jungle jet co-captain.

Congrats!
 
fox 2 amram lauch

i feel the need...the need for speed!

jungle jet co-captain
Click to expand...


I wish my jet had AMRAAMs. They would have come in handy on the arrival in ORD today!

Eagle has plenty of co-captains. When you fly with a flushbAAck, you'd better be qualfied as co-captain! Inexperience kills...
 

Share this page

Latest posts

Latest resources

Latest media

Carbon Cub FX-3 Shenandoah Valley
Carbon Cub at Kittyhawk
FX-3 in the backcountry
IFR Panel in a Carbon Cub FX-3
Cub-Provo-UT-c.jpg
Back
Top