Flying a lot to pay the bills??

[av8er2]

Being a regional pilot means low pay.

How many of you try to fly 90 to 100 hours a month to make ends meet?

How many of you think you would function much better on the job flying less and being able to pay the bills?

 

[goahead]

I would function much better if I flew twice a week.......

 

[YourPilotFriend]

You could probably rest properly if you could pay those bills.

 

[Gofish]

I routinely fly as much as I can. It isn't that I want to but I have bills and being able to eat is a good thing.

 

[COOPERVANE]

I agree that we should be professional no matter what we are paid. One poster questioned if you wanted your eye surgeon to be stressed out about life during your surgery. What if he made a bad cut and "oops" you're blind. Would you be upset with him?

The problem is that we are human and we cannot simply "profession" out all of our life stress about paying the bills. Wondering if you will have a job next month HAS AN EFFECT.

One Comair pilot tragically ended his life on an overnight because of life stress. Are we and the public all so arrogant that we believe that it won't affect us during routine flying?

I'm not saying that if the pilots made more money that this would not have happened. More training would probably not help.

The problem is that we have 50,000 flight cycles per day in this country, and there is a .002% chance of a fatal mistake on one of them. The numbers just caught up with these guys. Had they made it we probably wouldn't have heard about it.

 

[bacardi]

i am constantly above 27 hrs a week (at least double and thats the minimum time im at work) and always above 95 hrs a month. ive had 2 sims this years and one of my vacations and im at 708 hrs on the year as of today. and the bills barely get paid.

so if anybody things we are not overworked and overpaid somebody needs to get this out in the media

 

[olympus593]

I fly 90H a month/110H credit and I sell 5 Day of vacation back to the company every year, You got to do what you got to do.

 

[HoserASA]

Seems baby always need new shoes! lol

Hoser

 

[av8er2]

I would suggest ALPA hire a outside party to evaluate the stress levels at the regionals from pilots not being able to support their families and pay the bills.

Just look at how many FO's today have $30,000 to $100,000 in debt and only making $35,000 a year. Don't you think this will stress them out for a while.

 

[pgcfii2002]

I would suggest ALPA hire a outside party to evaluate the stress levels at the regionals from pilots not being able to support their families and pay the bills.

Just look at how many FO's today have $30,000 to $100,000 in debt and only making $35,000 a year. Don't you think this will stress them out for a while.

I agree...better to have all of that paid off before trying to make it as an FO.

 

[LearLove]

When I was at MDA on long call reserve (9 hour call) I flew about 50 hours per month. All my trips were sked the day prior if not several days in advance. I wound up flying 10 to 15 days per month and I lived in base about an hour from the airport so the days I was on call but not used were no stress at all because no commute and no short call.

With that said I'd definately say I was much more on the ball at work compared to short call reserve in the crashpad in DC where I flew only 20 hours per month but sat away from home and commuted. While I have a line now I feel the time I flew 50 hours per month, no commuting on long call left me better prepared to work than anyother sked i've ever had.

The long call was also prior to BK#2 at US Air and prior to the Rep-MDA "sale" which caused alot of stress.

I'd have to say my most "non-safe" time flying was during the time when all the events below were happening at the same time:

CH13#2, short call reserve in a crashpad, commuting (because I was bumped out of my base where I lived and couldn't afford to move to DCA), REP-MDA transaction and only flying 20 hours per month

All of these produced alot of stress and I could do nothing about them.

Then they wonder why we crash planes - go figure