I think I want out!

[DoinTime]

If you think making 70k being a Captain for a regional airline is a good life, you are kidding yourself. Go get a job as a pipe fitter and you can probably double that pay and see your kids grow up.

Unionized Journeyman pipe fitter wages in one of the most expensive (therefore highest wage) geographical areas in the country (southern cal) make $27.11 per hour. Working 40 hour work weeks will net you $58,558 per year. A pipe fitter would have to work six days a week to break even with a regional captain making $70,000/year. In order to double the regional captains wages a pipe fitter would have to cram 95.6 hours of work into ever week (13 hours every day of the week).

 

[FN FAL]

I don't know if you guys have looked around, but there are people working in fast food restaurants making more than that.

Paper hats is where it's at, daddy-o.

 

[imacdog]

F*#King regionals....wow.....that is where I want to work....oh yeah what is the starting pay there....yeah that's what I thought 20k at a good one. I don't know if you guys have looked around, but there are people working in fast food restaurants making more than that. One day under paid pilots are going to wake up and walk off the job. If you think making 70k being a Captain for a regional airline is a good life, you are kidding yourself. Go get a job as a pipe fitter and you can probably double that pay and see your kids grow up.

We all better get a clue soon or we are going to be working for peanuts for the rest of our lives. The young kids coming into these regionals are destroying the industry and it is not their fault, but the fault of the guys who have been in this industry for the last 10-20 years. I can't even believe what I read in this thread...30k that's good money said one guy...puke.

GoFaster

Were you destroying the industry when you flew the EMB-120 and ATR?

 

[Flip Conroy]

One day under paid pilots are going to wake up and walk off the job.

GoFaster

No they aren't. Not gonna happen. Ever.

 

[rickair7777]

I did my flight training, I starved as a fight instructor, I starved as a first officer.... and I got furloughed. Now I am back starving as a flight instructor. Has anyone made the move out of the industry? I will probably still instruct when I have time, now I just need to find a good ole 9-5. Has anyone else made the leap? What kind of things were you qualified for and how do you enjoy things now? I have a college degree, unfortunately it's related to aviation. But hell, if you can get a decent job with a history or Latin degree, it has to be possible for me too. Any ideas, suggestions, remarks? I am a big boy I can take it.

If you have a degree, military experience (any combat field), and security clearance eligibility, General Atomics might hire you as a UAV pilot and/or instructor (Predator-B). Pays $100K+ without the usual hassles associated with an aviation career. They need REAL turbine-experienced pilots to operate those things, and not too many guys are willing to fly an airplane where they are not actually IN the airplane. Look them up in San Diego.

 

[GoFaster]

Wow..I really rattled some cages

First...let me say if you read my post you'll see I blame my own peers, not the current young new hire regional pilot for this dilema. He/she is simply getting used by a system that my generation and the one just before me allowed to fester. The next step is vendor relationships and foreign pilots to man these "regional" aircraft.

Second...last time I checked they were using the EMB120 and ATR to fly from STL to Moline, ILL not from ATL to Mexico City or Toronto, Canada...just what exactly is "regional" about those flights?

Lastly, check out what a journeyman steamfitter in the Northeast is making and then lets talk.

I hope and pray one day that pilot groups from all the carriers wake up and realize we are not doing a easy job and that we collectively begin to demand a wage and lifestyle that properly reflects the level of training and education required to perform these jobs. Good luck gentlemen, I hope it works out for you.

GoFaster

 

[TAWS]

WRONG!!

I was a union electrician in Chicago. 2 years ago I was making $35 an hour plus approx. $18 an hour in benefits - I had the best healthcare money could buy, a pension (administered by the IBEW - who could teach ALPA/teamsters alot about how to run a union) and a HUGE annuity account, plus some other things. The union pipefitters were paid more than us and still are - today, an electrician earns around $38 plus $22 in bennies and the pipefitters still earn more!!
I have a degree and love flying, the pay sucks but it still beats working for a living. Remember, if you haven't had to ever actually WORK for a living, then you have no idea what it entails!! That is the problem with these kids who come out of University with no skills outside of flying!! When I got furloughed from XJ, I had something to fall back on. I'm now with a S5, the pay sucks, but it beats sweating your balls off laying conduit in a ditch. One day it will get better.

 

[Regul8r]

I hope and pray one day that pilot groups from all the carriers wake up and realize we are not doing a easy job and that we collectively begin to demand a wage and lifestyle that properly reflects the level of training and education required to perform these jobs. Good luck gentlemen, I hope it works out for you.

I hope so too. Unfortunately the management teams are continously beating into the pilot's heads that pilots are still overpaid. And on the other side, Unions like ALPA are telling the pilots to take the pay cuts so the pilots can "live to fight another day" thus ensuring a continous cashflow into ALPA coffers. What's sad is that none of these big flight schools prepare kids for the airlines. Sure they know how to fly, but they know nothing of the politics involved and are stunned when they get their first airline job.

 

[capt. megadeth]

Go get a job as a pipe fitter and you can probably double that pay and see your kids grow up.

Yeah, and work like a dog 40+ hours a week for the rest of your life.....no thanks! I have worked a regular job. No thanks!

TAWS....I'm with you.

 

[gkrangers]

"It beats working for a living"

As much as we love flying, if we don't refer to it as work, we can't expect to be paid fairly.