Should we talk about the airline pilot shortage?

Freight aren't hiring right now. I think UPS still has some on furlough. I get the most up to date information at www.airlinepilotcentral.com. They have pay scales for all airlines. Freight guys make bank, but I've heard it's damn near impossible to get hired without an internal reference or two. I have a few buds flying for SWA who like it. A couple flying for Alaska who like it. Don't know many at the majors (Delta/United/AA/USAir).

My understanding is for first year FO's at SWA make about $53k, then you get to $90k at year two. The upgrades to Captain used to be about 5 years, but lately, you're looking at more than a decade. Freight guys start at something like $60k, then year two takes them directly to $135k flying minimum hrs. This is only FedEx and UPS, which in my opinion, are the only two cargo airlines worth flying for.

My brother graduated with a masters to be a high school history teacher. After not finding a job he did some time disconnecting people's cable and then got a job driving trucks for the ice cream company he worked at in school. He finally got a teaching job but it pays less than his driving job because the market is flooded with teachers. Luckily the military paid for most of his schooling so he's not buried under too many loans like a lot of kids.

I did not know commercial pilots were paid so little, but would you guys believe that experienced crop dusters around here (southeast Missouri) can make up to seven figures? That sounds hard to believe but the owner of one of the local flying services told me that himself.

holy crap. I'd almost live there for that kind of pay. The 7 figure pilot probably owns a business with 10 or 15 planes/employees though, right?

Xceler8x wrote: All the great automotive techs I know are getting up there. I predict that wage is going to go up in the next ten years or so. Same for HVAC and other domestic 'working with your hands' type work. I have the utmost respect for anyone who puts on the blue collar to earn a living.

at age 43 I am one of the youngest Stage Hands in Atlantic City. Most of the guys are getting ready to retire in a few years. There is a crop of up and coming youngsters, but they are still all apprentice and journeymen

The wages will go up but that's because there will be so few. Today's chickens will come home to roost.

Datsun1500 wrote: Another "The rich are getting richer on the backs of the unfortunate" thread? By this time most here know my thoughts

We had a guy at work comment about how a salesman years ago was getting rich off the backs of the $5/hour warehouse workers we had in our shop. Then I read an article about the railroads back in the early days and how the railroad execs were getting rich off the backs of the Chinese and Irish that laid all the tracks.

Maybe this has been the case since the Egyptians used the Israelites as slaves to make bricks? Where is Moses when we need him?

In reply to Teh E36 M3: No sir. The owner of the business owned the planes, bought the fuel, everything. The downside I guess is that the guys fly 18 hour days all spring and summer long and the job is quite dangerous from the way he talked. Being there and watching them fly, I'm not really sure if I would want to do it. He said that in order to make any money, that duster has to take off, land, reload and take off again every 4 or 5 minutes. All day long.

Datsun310Guy wrote:

Datsun1500 wrote: Another "The rich are getting richer on the backs of the unfortunate" thread? By this time most here know my thoughts

We had a guy at work comment about how a salesman years ago was getting rich off the backs of the $5/hour warehouse workers we had in our shop. Then I read an article about the railroads back in the early days and how the railroad execs were getting rich off the backs of the Chinese and Irish that laid all the tracks. Maybe this has been the case since the Egyptians used the Israelites as slaves to make bricks? Where is Moses when we need him?

I believe Karl Marx wrote a book about that...

bwh998 wrote: In reply to Teh E36 M3: No sir. The owner of the business owned the planes, bought the fuel, everything. The downside I guess is that the guys fly 18 hour days all spring and summer long and the job is quite dangerous from the way he talked. Being there and watching them fly, I'm not really sure if I would want to do it. He said that in order to make any money, that duster has to take off, land, reload and take off again every 4 or 5 minutes. All day long.

That's some stinkin' hard work. Lots of low flying and wingovers when you're tired. I wonder what the life expectancy of a crop duster is!

Teh E36 M3 wrote:

aircooled wrote:

Joe Gearin wrote: ...Many students at Riddle start out wanting to be pilots, but decide to go the air traffic controller route, as there seem to be more jobs at a higher pay scale.

I think the "smart" way to do it is to join the military, fly transports there (or better yet, tankers), then transition over. I hear Delta is mostly ex-military.

I'm pretty sure that most airlines are staffed with ex-military. I'm a military pilot considering it, but to tell you the truth, if the commercial pilot forums are any indication, I want no part of being in a fraternity of whiny bitches (I'm looking at you, airlinepilotcentral.com!). For selfish reasons, I wouldn't mind the pay being higher, but as stated above, we choose our jobs and the pay that goes with them. If you don't like being a pilot, become a garbage man.

You are correct that many airline pilots are whiny a-holes. I flew on demand charter and provided pilot service to owners of airplanes. Every lazy whiner, that I worked with, aspired to be an airline pilot. I could not be paid enough to work for an airline.

When I started flying professionally I was flying twin engine Cessnas, hauling auto parts to keep the assembly lines running. We never knew when or where the next trip was. In 1994 I started as a co pilot with 400 hours total time. I earned $200 per week. 7 months later I had 1200 hours, passed my captain checkride, got checked out as co pilot on the Lear 24 and recieved a big raise. I now earned $400 per week and $.25 per mile on the Cessnas and $.10 per mile on the Lear. At that time some of our Lear captains were earning over $100,000 annually and I was earning about $40,000 When I got to 1500 hours I was eligible to apply for airline work. However my pay would have been $13,000 annually. It would have taken about 5 years to get my salary back to the level that I had attained.

turboswede wrote:

AngryCorvair wrote:

mad_machine wrote: I wonder what the revolution will be like?

i wonder if the revolution will be televised?

yeah, but 911 is a joke....

The 911 is a very stable platform if you understand how to drive one.

The revolution will not be televised.

Curmudgeon wrote: The wages will go up but that's because there will be so few. Today's chickens will come home to roost.

Fo' a fine example of this in action... put COBOL or SAS Programmer on your resume. People will throw $300/hr at you if you can even fake it a little.