acaTerry
SAPM
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2001
- Posts
- 2,393
Oh, cry me a river!
No, you're up against flight instructors who bust their ass to fly 50-80 hours a month tops. At $10 an hour, that doesn't add up to much and everything ahead of you looks pretty rosy in comparison.
No way Jose. Don't even ATTEMPT that argument here. You as a CFI have no idea, at all, what the issues of being a regional pilot, and the regional pay involve. We as airline pilots know, very well, the issues of being a CFI because for most of us being a CFI was one of the hurdles on the way to being an airline pilot. Myself, over 3000 hrs dual given. That's right. Three frickity dickity thousand hours in light aircraft in that desert sun with kids trying to kill me. Most of those hours I didn't even get that 10 bucks an hour that you get. Let me guess, you work at Pan Am or Westwind or something. You don't even have to hunt down students and pay for advertising....the school does that. If the student load is light, you are allowed to have a job elsewhere. Most of us came up at the FBO's where you were there from 5 a.m. to 8 or 9 p.m. whether we had flying or not. Clean the toilets, pull the weeds, clean the hangar, wash the planes. It was all in a days work. We were not allowed to have another job. And we got NOTHING for it unless a propeller was turning.
The "poor me I'm a CFI and would do anything to fly a jet" is why regional airlines pay so poorly. The airlines know that there will always be people who will do something for nothing. But you have to ask yourself, when the thrill of polyester wears off, what's in it for you? We all love to fly, but we deserve a decent living whether
a) we love flying or not
b) the millionaire CEO wants to pay it or not, and
c) someone else will come along and do it cheap.
Something I learned from 19 years of flying is that I keep quiet about something until I have done it. When you are an experienced professional pilot at a regional, flying a sophisticated jet airplane sometimes in lousy WX with broken equipment, in crowded skies with cranky passengers, cranky controllers, and an FAA wingnut sitting in the JS just waiting for the opportunity to nail you, ask yourself if it was worth $20,000-$30,000. No way. It needs to be fought upward, which is why so many people want to raise the minimums for hire. If it was harder to get there, people will fight for a better wage. Getthe job with 400 to 1200 hours and someone will roll right over and say "hit me again Ike, and this time, put some STANK on it!!". (couldn't resist)
Not trying to come on in assault, just wanting to give you something to think about for later. Fly safe.
No, you're up against flight instructors who bust their ass to fly 50-80 hours a month tops. At $10 an hour, that doesn't add up to much and everything ahead of you looks pretty rosy in comparison.
No way Jose. Don't even ATTEMPT that argument here. You as a CFI have no idea, at all, what the issues of being a regional pilot, and the regional pay involve. We as airline pilots know, very well, the issues of being a CFI because for most of us being a CFI was one of the hurdles on the way to being an airline pilot. Myself, over 3000 hrs dual given. That's right. Three frickity dickity thousand hours in light aircraft in that desert sun with kids trying to kill me. Most of those hours I didn't even get that 10 bucks an hour that you get. Let me guess, you work at Pan Am or Westwind or something. You don't even have to hunt down students and pay for advertising....the school does that. If the student load is light, you are allowed to have a job elsewhere. Most of us came up at the FBO's where you were there from 5 a.m. to 8 or 9 p.m. whether we had flying or not. Clean the toilets, pull the weeds, clean the hangar, wash the planes. It was all in a days work. We were not allowed to have another job. And we got NOTHING for it unless a propeller was turning.
The "poor me I'm a CFI and would do anything to fly a jet" is why regional airlines pay so poorly. The airlines know that there will always be people who will do something for nothing. But you have to ask yourself, when the thrill of polyester wears off, what's in it for you? We all love to fly, but we deserve a decent living whether
a) we love flying or not
b) the millionaire CEO wants to pay it or not, and
c) someone else will come along and do it cheap.
Something I learned from 19 years of flying is that I keep quiet about something until I have done it. When you are an experienced professional pilot at a regional, flying a sophisticated jet airplane sometimes in lousy WX with broken equipment, in crowded skies with cranky passengers, cranky controllers, and an FAA wingnut sitting in the JS just waiting for the opportunity to nail you, ask yourself if it was worth $20,000-$30,000. No way. It needs to be fought upward, which is why so many people want to raise the minimums for hire. If it was harder to get there, people will fight for a better wage. Getthe job with 400 to 1200 hours and someone will roll right over and say "hit me again Ike, and this time, put some STANK on it!!". (couldn't resist)
Not trying to come on in assault, just wanting to give you something to think about for later. Fly safe.
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