Historic Pay Scales

[Dan Roman]

^^^^^^^^

That is essentially it. The discrepancy in income between working Americans and the few at the top that are manipulating capitalism to their benefit at the expense of the people who are actually doing the work is outrageous. Its a huge threat to the future of this country.

 

[Dan Roman]

And along those lines I think you can make a case for greed backfiring in our industry right now. Half of all domestic airline flying got transferred from good career airlines, Allegheny, North Central, PSA, Hughes Airwest etc. etc. to Regional Airlines that consistently have to bid for flying, pay less than a realistic livable wage to pilots and provide substantially diminished career prospects. A few Manipulators made a lot of money, Ornstein, that Reverend guy (Bedford?) etc. a few people got rich, thousands got screwed.
I think the pendulum is now going to swing back from the greed of the few to the rest of us. There simply will not be enough pilots to fly 50% of the domestic traffic at the current RJ pay scales and working conditions. The legacy airlines are going to hire 1000's of regional pilots over the next few years. There will not be anywhere near enough qualified pilots to replace them.

 

[Dan Roman]

good point, it was first year pay, if I remember correctly, 50 hr guarantee $18/hr, we normally flew close to 80 hours. That meant take home of $1200-$1500/mo with per-deim, which was not much different that my first year counterparts at the majors. TransAmerican was the largest supplemental air carrier in the country around 50 airplanes, L-188's, L-382's, DC-8's, DC-10's and B-747's. I remember the DO coming into ground school and telling us we would all be 747 Captains in five years with their growth plans. We would be making $100K/yr . In five years they were all but out of business and I had moved to the job security of the Corporate world, but that is a different story.

I believe I was paid $1200 a month to start as an Electra FO at Hawaiian Air Cargo at YIP before they moved to Macon. That was in 1978.
I'll bet you flew with my old friend Gerry Staiger. He was Mario Andretti's pilot before going to TransAmerica as an Electra FE

 

[Dan Roman]

My Dad retired from UAL as a very senior 727 Captain in 1979. $80,000 a year

 

[pilotyip]

I believe I was paid $1200 a month to start as an Electra FO at Hawaiian Air Cargo at YIP before they moved to Macon. That was in 1978.
I'll bet you flew with my old friend Gerry Staiger. He was Mario Andretti's pilot before going to TransAmerica as an Electra FE

Did you do the DAY Emery sort? If so our paths probably crossed. Let me check my log book, Staiger rings a bell

 

[Dan Roman]

Did you do the DAY Emery sort? If so our paths probably crossed. Let me check my log book, Staiger rings a bell

I remember DAY in the middle of the night and seeing more varieties of A/C than most aviation museums! Didn't do it that often though. A lot of LogAir, some scheduled emery and PBA stuff up and down the East Coast and some Alaska flying.