Lame AOPA article about regional flying

[MJG]

My biggest problem with this article is that the author is profiling someone who just started out not only in this current job but someone who just recently got into this field all together. How can that person be a good pulse for what this job and industry is really like???? No offense to her but she doesn't have a clue what this job is really like. Hell if she's anything like the rest of the new hires at XJet she probably hasn't even gotten beyond the reserve rules of our contract yet.

Seriously if some writer for AOPA wonders what his life would have been like flying airliners then why doesn't he go find several seasoned airline pilots and profile one or all of them. I'm sure their view of the job wouldn't be so rosey. They would tell you that it's a job just like any other, the office view may be better, but it's still just a job none the less. They would probably also tell you that if you want to go flying for fun, go rent a Cub.

Maybe he wanted an easy story and an easy mark, someone who is so new and so green that even a 16 hour duty day doesn't seem that bad. But he's just sugar coating the truth.

I love flying with new hires. Other than the fact that their landings suck, their enthusiasm is refreshing and makes me long for the day when I viewed the job that way. But the truth is that after a while it is no longer the type of flying that people fell in love with. 121 flying is regimented and restrictive. There's no fun to be had in that.

So great now we have a whole new group of wanna be's that just read this article and said to themselves "sweet, that's what I wanna do....."

 

[Peter Brady]

The article mentioned senior airline Captain salaries, but made no mention of what this person's first year pay would be.

Things that make you go HMMMMM...................... :erm:

 

[Fly2Scuba]

Snap

Yea, I'll bite. Problem with these articles is it perpetuates a fantasy world of everything is just peachy when alot of crap is going on throughout the industry. So more borderline people who are thinking aviation versus maybe some other career get the idea after reading it that hey, wow, golly gee that made up my mind. No mention of holidays lost (Christmas in Beaumont or pick your crappy town), missed events, furloughs, near furloughs, Johnny Ornstein, scabs and wannabe scabs (hojets), massive student loans versus pathetic beginning wages, etc. etc. etc. I sure hope that's in next month's issue because we don't need a larger crop of new pilots to take care of the so called "shortage of pilots." Wait, AOPA wants more people to join the training ranks (more money from flight training advertisers). Mutha F'ing for the love of awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

 

[BushwickBill]

Yea, I'll bite. Problem with these articles is it perpetuates a fantasy world of everything is just peachy when alot of crap is going on throughout the industry. So more borderline people who are thinking aviation versus maybe some other career get the idea after reading it that hey, wow, golly gee that made up my mind. No mention of holidays lost (Christmas in Beaumont or pick your crappy town), missed events, furloughs, near furloughs, Johnny Ornstein, scabs and wannabe scabs (hojets), massive student loans versus pathetic beginning wages, etc. etc. etc. I sure hope that's in next month's issue because we don't need a larger crop of new pilots to take care of the so called "shortage of pilots." Wait, AOPA wants more people to join the training ranks (more money from flight training advertisers). Mutha F'ing for the love of awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Nail on the head amigo nail on the head.

Encourage well to do profesionals to give up a good 5+ years in a career field to take an entry level peon job. Oh but don't forget... give 60k to one of our advertisers first. Its cool sell your house. Pay the extra 20k+ for direct track.

 

[SDCFI]

One year later

How bout interviewing her a year from now after CAL has taken those 69 jets and given them to Mesa. Now she's furloughed and is trying to find a way to pay the mortgage on that house she just built. Will she go to Mesa/Colgan/Republic so she can continue to "live the dream"? Or will she go back to making good money in pharmaceuticals and just leave aviation behind? Problem is she probably had no idea what she was getting into. DCA sure as heck wasn't going to tell her about how JO and GohJets are doing their best to bring down already rediculously low pilot salaries, or how the emergence of 70-100 seat "RJs" is eliminating the major airline jobs that most regional pilots are "paying their dues" in pursuit of. I guess somehow there needs to be some sort of grassroots educational campaign to let people know just what is happening to the piloting profession. Seems the general public still believes pilots are over-paid primma-donnas who work 5 days a month and spend the rest of the time on the beach in bora-bora sipping mai tais.

 

[wheelsup]

The article mentioned senior airline Captain salaries, but made no mention of what this person's first year pay would be.

Things that make you go HMMMMM...................... :erm:

I noticed that too.

Keep in mind DCA spends upwards of $8k+ per full color, full page ad in Flight Training. I bet AOPA is just trying to keep that money flowing by publishing this article...

More students, more advertising $$...

 

[Peter Brady]

I noticed that too.

Keep in mind DCA spends upwards of $8k+ per full color, full page ad in Flight Training. I bet AOPA is just trying to keep that money flowing by publishing this article...

More students, more advertising $$...

And they keep using that same picture of the academy's graduates, the same picture from god knows when.....along with their job placement rates, with a huge asteric by it.

I also like SDCFI's idea. Interview this person one year from now and see if she feels the same way. If she does, then good for. However, I'll go out on a limb and say she will not feel the same way.

 

[dojetdriver]

And they keep using that same picture of the academy's graduates, the same picture from god knows when.....along with their job placement rates, with a huge asteric by it.

The sad part is, when that photo was taken, which contains the person this thread is sort of about, it was a class picture so to speak. It wasn't a promotional photo.

I think those students should go back and sue the school over any royalties they might be able to reap for using their image in an advertising campaign.

 

[HughBeamont]

Seriously if some writer for AOPA wonders what his life would have been like flying airliners then why doesn't he go find several seasoned airline pilots and profile one or all of them. I'm sure their view of the job wouldn't be so rosey.

Amen. Have Tom talk to a junior guy on the bottom 5% of the USAirways senority list. Probably 47 years old, used to be a junior 75 captain making $210, now is a 73 FO making half that, pension gone, screwed over in the America West deal.

I think this article was pretty good, more balanced than most - not many detail the salary erosion that has occurred in the last 5 years. But it's still misleading in that they are talking about major airline salaries in an article about a regional pilot.

 

[taloft]

Sweet! So she's making $171,000 and only living in a crash pad while she builds her new house! This is in between the occasional travel to exotic locations while flying a jet! Where do I sign up?