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Seriouse question for regional FO's

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Horizon

Thrust=Weight+Drag
Joined
Jun 9, 2005
Posts
94
How do you pay your loans, and basically live your life on 25K a year? Do you do anything on the side?
 
dingo222 said:
sling pizza's. It has flexible hrs, you eat free, and you take home cash every night.

lol.

i used to make more money in college on a friday night by delivering pizzas than i do in a day of flying.

oh, and to seriously answer your question, the only way i can afford anything is because my wife makes 4x my salary.
 
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I made 25k or so first year at SkyWest. It was pretty lean, but planning makes all the difference. have a gameplan. then, once you're on 2nd year pay, you can easily double that. I'll make upwards of 60K this year, most of it on 2nd year pay. this has been hashed out ad naseum on these boards, you can search it.
 
SkyNation said:
I made 25k or so first year at SkyWest. It was pretty lean, but planning makes all the difference. have a gameplan. then, once you're on 2nd year pay, you can easily double that. I'll make upwards of 60K this year, most of it on 2nd year pay. this has been hashed out ad naseum on these boards, you can search it.

skynation,

you have made claims like this before...I still do not see how you will make that much as a second year FO...

I have spoken with several of my friends that work there and they are calling flaimbait on that as well.

To answer the guys question though, the first year is tough, but after that, it is at least livable...you will have to upgrade though before you make anything significant (and even then, it still isn't great)

As far as how these people coming out of ERAU and stuff with $100,000+ debt....It will most likely never pay off for them. They will be paying that off for the rest of there life
 
I am an airline FO by day, gigolo for lonely Hooters waitresses by night. Tough job but they need love too.
 
I am a 4 year fo and I don't make 60k. How in the heck are you making that much? I know that you can make some money at Skywest, but a 2nd year fo, how can this be?
 
I will make at least 55k this year on 2nd year pay at SKYW. Granted I am crediting at least 100 hours per month. This also includes per diem which some don't include as income. It shows up on my W-2 as income.
 
Magneto said:
I will make at least 55k this year on 2nd year pay at SKYW. Granted I am crediting at least 100 hours per month. This also includes per diem which some don't include as income. It shows up on my W-2 as income.

It still doesn't make sense as a 2nd year fo at Skywest makes 34-35 a hour. I make 39.38 a hour and even with perdiem and I am flying 100 a month, I will not make what you're saying youll make.
With all my credits (being added trips worth 150% and lost block with trips taken away) this month at ASA, I will get paid for 142 hours in July. I have been doing this the last 3 months and I will still not make what you're talking about.
Confirm?
 
I'll make over 40K this year and I hardly ever work
 
Don't forget, a Continental Airlines Mainline fo only makes about $23K their first year. Then something like $55k the second year.

Pretty lean when you're used to the $80k from your regional job.


(yeah, I know the long term upsides are better at C than at a regional, but $23 k? Xist!)
 
SkyNation said:
I made 25k or so first year at SkyWest. It was pretty lean, but planning makes all the difference. have a gameplan. then, once you're on 2nd year pay, you can easily double that. I'll make upwards of 60K this year, most of it on 2nd year pay. this has been hashed out ad naseum on these boards, you can search it.


I won't make $60000 as a captain at SkyWest.

I know you work a lot, but I think you may be spinning just a little SkyNation...

$60000
- Per Diem $7000
- 2'nd year bonus $1000
____________________
$52,000 Base / 34.57 per hour = 1504 credit hours per year

or 125 credit hours per month



Go to etrip > options > crew time report and I'd be curious to see if you have credited over 750 hours ($26,000) so far this year?
 
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As a pretty junior PDT F/O, with a reasonable build up (14 days off), you can bring home about $2100 after taxes, various deductions and medical insurance (that's including per diem)
That amount can be increased if you pick up extra flying on your days off.

That works out to about $25,000 a year after taxes. That's how much I brought home making $40,000 (before taxes) at a desk job, straight out of college.

$40,000 a year isnt too bad for someone in their mid-twenties, possibly married (much better single :) )

As far as loans, a lot of us paid for training out of pocket and paid off college loans before getting into aviation.

Eating PBJ sandwiches on the road helps too. Plus, I can't stand Sbarro's and Chao. Can't wait 'till Subway makes landfall at the F concourse.
 
rightseatjocky said:
I am a 4 year fo and I don't make 60k. How in the heck are you making that much? I know that you can make some money at Skywest, but a 2nd year fo, how can this be?
These potato heads take the company propaganda sheet that says how much they cost the company, and use that as their answers. Been there for 7 years and flew my butt off and never came close to that. The suprise will be on them, when they find out the company uses the blue juice tablets to make the kool aid.
LMA off
tools
PBR
 
It ain't easy, but its also not terribly hard to survive on 25k if you 1. are single or have a working spouse, 2. have no children, 3. live in a location with a reasonable cost of living and 4. (most importantly) don't have debt outside of a modest mortgage or student loans.
 
I have no idea why you guys don't believe me. why would I lie? this is cut and pasted from my last stub, 7/22. yes, I include per diem, and we are talking gross. yes, I work extra days.

Pay type Hours Pay rate Current YTD
Holiday Pay 4.30 34.5400 148.52 594.08
NonTax Per Diem 0.00 180.67 2845.80
Other 0.00 0.00 1335.45
Overtime Pay 0.00 0.00 163.72
Perf Reward Opr 0.00 0.00 400.00
Regular 36.31 34.5400 1254.15 22035.51
Reserve Pay 1.19 34.5400 41.10 1751.20
Taxable PerDiem 0.00 0.00 277.17
User Pay 0.00 0.00 508.10
Vacation Pay 0.00 0.00 859.02

Gross FIT taxable wages Taxes Deductions Net pay
Current 1624.44 1285.42 101.65 387.48 1135.31
YTD 30770.05 25528.03 2013.00 4974.21 23782.84

cut and pasted this from etrip/crewtimereport/1/1/06 to today:

Grand Total: Scheduled: 507:15 Actual: 496:35 -10:40 683:10
 
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SkyNation said:
I have no idea why you guys don't believe me. why would I lie? this is cut and pasted from my last stub, 7/22. yes, I include per diem, and we are talking gross. yes, I work extra days.

Pay type Hours Pay rate Current YTD
Holiday Pay 4.30 34.5400 148.52 594.08
NonTax Per Diem 0.00 180.67 2845.80
Other 0.00 0.00 1335.45
Overtime Pay 0.00 0.00 163.72
Perf Reward Opr 0.00 0.00 400.00
Regular 36.31 34.5400 1254.15 22035.51
Reserve Pay 1.19 34.5400 41.10 1751.20
Taxable PerDiem 0.00 0.00 277.17
User Pay 0.00 0.00 508.10
Vacation Pay 0.00 0.00 859.02

Gross FIT taxable wages Taxes Deductions Net pay
Current 1624.44 1285.42 101.65 387.48 1135.31
YTD 30770.05 25528.03 2013.00 4974.21 23782.84

cut and pasted this from etrip/crewtimereport/1/1/06 to today:

Grand Total: Scheduled: 507:15 Actual: 496:35 -10:40 683:10



25528 (gross pay excluding perdiem) divided by $35/hour is 729 hours... 729 divided by 6.5 months (Jan 1- July 15th) is 112 hours per month.

30770-25528=5242 total perdiem for the year. 5242/6.5 months = $806 perdiem per month which is 504 hours TAFB on avearge??

Dude, i hate to say it but something really doesnt add up here... Especially because youve only flown 496 hours this year. Somehow you got 225 hours of softtime in 6.5 months, and were at home 9 days a month MAX (theres only 720 hours in a month).

Whats your base and how the heck are you making this happen?
 
huge difference between BLOCK and CREDIT. I do probably only average 10 days off per month. I have had lots of reserve or vac/trg lines where I went way over guarantee, crediting 120+ hours for flying less than 100.

I don't know what to tell ya'll, I did a simple cut and paste from my last stub. why would I lie? if you're a SkyWest guy, I'll COMAT you a copy if you still don't believe me.
 
Duh, live with your parents untill you pay off the loan dude! A 100k loan takes 4 years to pay off if you live with parents, just put all the pay into the loan!! Fly all day, surf in the evening, eat your parents leftovers, sleep in the garage. You won't find any chicks but you can always trick the FAs. It's called sacrifice.
 
CX880 said:
Duh, live with your parents untill you pay off the loan dude!

Pretty convenient if you live in STL. There's this sweet airline there that's hiring right into a jet.

Unbelievable! :smash:
 
FL990 said:
skynation,

you have made claims like this before...I still do not see how you will make that much as a second year FO...

I have spoken with several of my friends that work there and they are calling flaimbait on that as well.

To answer the guys question though, the first year is tough, but after that, it is at least livable...you will have to upgrade though before you make anything significant (and even then, it still isn't great)

As far as how these people coming out of ERAU and stuff with $100,000+ debt....It will most likely never pay off for them. They will be paying that off for the rest of there life

My second year at SkyWest was around 54K. Not quite the 60K claim, but not bad. I could even prove it with a pay stub/W2. I didn't even do anything that speacial either...average of 90 hours credit a month and very little junior man pay. It was the easiest money I ever made....
 

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