How Low Can We Go?

[ron burgundy]

Burgundy, I'd rather have you just thank me for something you were too selfish to do....Serve your country. Seeing that you are too ignorant to understand the sacrifice, I'll just assume that's what you meant to say.

Yeah, ya got me there. I did kinda feel like leaving the USMC after only 12 years of service was a selfish act.
You read a profile and believe you have the whole picture. Did it ever occur to you that when it asks mil/civ somebody might just respond according to thier flight experience? I served my country, just didn't fly. Anyway, Yes...your welcome!

 

[Tanker Clown]

Couldn't get into military flight school? Too bad. We tend to be picky.

 

[ron burgundy]

Couldn't get into military flight school? Too bad. We tend to be picky.

Thanks for concern. Wasn't the path I wanted to travel at the time. Sorry you did not have the aptitude or ability to get a fighter slot. No disrespect to the rest of you! Just stating the obvious here...A$$CLOWN. Because you are already using up everyones oxygen (which you don't need 'cause you are brain dead) I will not let you use up any more of my time...

P.S. You might want to slow down on your posting here. Your posts are about to exceed your flight time...Pathetic!

 

[Wesb737fo]

Couldn't get into military flight school? Too bad. We tend to be picky.

Well....I think you missed a few....as a matter of fact ...you can have some of those a$$ clowns back.
I flew with one of the worst ever (ex-KC-135). DID NOT know his a$$ from a hole in the ground when it came to flying the 737. A human violation looking for a place to happen. Should have been fragged by someone long ago. Probably a buddy of yours.

 

[Wesb737fo]

That's not nice.

No it wasn't. I don't feel like being nice to you.

 

[Tanker Clown]

Well....I think you missed a few....as a matter of fact ...you can have some of those a$$ clowns back.
I flew with one of the worst ever (ex-KC-135). DID NOT know his a$$ from a hole in the ground when it came to flying the 737. A human violation looking for a place to happen. Should have been fragged by someone long ago. Probably a buddy of yours.

What does that have to do with you guys signing the first thing your BOD brings you? A pilot's background won't change the fact that reguardless of the code share language, absense of COLA, and/or retro won't change your pilot groups outcome on the vote of the contract. The old dudes there run the show.

My buddy told me that even though the FOs got bent over on age 65 still hardly even vote on union stuff and the old guys just don't want to rock the boat.

 

[Caveman]

I have to disagree with the assessment that military guys are responsible for the low pay that we are now seeing.

Most guys and gals getting out of the military now have at a minimum 10 year commitment, which means that they are 32-33 y/o, and most probably have families that they have to support.

None of the guys that I know that have gotten out would even think of starting at a regional for 19-25 bucks an hour...THEY COULDN'T AFFORD IT. A Senior LT/Capt getting out of the mil is probably getting close to 90k a year. I personally would not work in this industry if I were making 20-30 bucks an hour...I could make more at McDonalds and be at home everynight.

The guys that are dragging down salaries are those that are willing to accept $20 an hour jobs as a regional FO. With people willing to fly for those salaries, of course management is going to farm out as much of thier operations to those entities.

Some mil guys have stayed in for 20 years and have a good retirement and they may not be so militant about drawing the last drop of blood from the company, but that is their perogative. Also remember that many of those guys and gals have made significant sacrificies over the past 20 years and are happy just getting a decent paycheck and not having anyone shooting at them.

We all make choices which affect how we look at our industry and our interests.

I've flown RJs with retired 0-4's, O-5's and even one O-6. So to say that no retiree is ever going to fly for a regional at $20 @ hour is just not true.

The way the system is setup most civilian only pilots that started in the last 10 years eventually have to pass through a regional on their way to a major. That's not always the case, but for most it is. Since most regionals pay about the same how is a new guy supposed to do something about low wages? Most of them have to get the 121/jet/PIC somewhere and for most that means sucking it up and working at a regional for a few years. Only a minority of civilian only pilots get to bypass this system and get hired at a major. For every 135/corporate/turbine freight pilot that gets to a major there are 5-10 regional guys working their way up too.

The majors are farming out flying to the regionals because legacy pilots let the scope genie out of the bottle about 15 years ago. If they had kept RJ flying at the major/legacy level it would be a whole different ballgame these days. FWIW, at the time a large majority of the major/legacy pilots were former military aviators. I'll leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions.

As much as it galls me to say this, TankerClown does have a valid point. There are some military retirees that may not be overly concerned about raising compensation levels. They are comfortable and see no need to rock the boat. Nothing wrong with that and there's no law against it. In fact as a military retiree myself my monthly check made it possible for me to spend a few years as a regional pilot. Without that check it would have been impossible.

 

[Tanker Clown]

Be careful Caveman. The standard response to anything not 100% pro-SWA-will-hire-100pilots-a-year-and pay-them-$350,000-a-year is to put you on the "ignore list." They really can't handle anything other than their utopian ideals.