Career questions

[Grant]

I am in search of some current information about flying for a living.
I have looked all over the internet but usually the stuff that I find
is out of date or its off of a job finder website that generalized the
occupation, and seemingly not accurate. I currently hold a private
ticket and I'm aware of the requirements and stuff like that, the
things I am fuzzy on is what is the demand for pilots, what's the
schedule like, are you away from home for weeks at a time, stuff like
that, just some things that you experience along the way. Thanks.

[Parvaz]

Grant,
Welcome! The demand for pilots mirrors the economy. When things are
in bad shape it is almost impossible to get a job. If you do have a
job at an airline you may be "furloughed". The company says in effect
"sorry it didn't work out we don't need you anymore best of luck with
the rest of your life and goodbye. We will call you back and offer
you your old job if we need you-see ya chump." If anybody is hiring
during a recession the requirements go through the roof.
When things turn around, suddenly there is a shortage of pilots and
airlines are crying for a warm body to put into the seat. Since 9-11
we have seen both extremes. We are currently in a shortage. A lot of
people have gotten fed up with the industry and have walked away for
good.
The first 3 years I was married I was out of work twice as two
different airlines went out of business. The second time we were
expecting our first child with me having no employment or insurance.
I'm sure my mother in law thought her daughter had married a real
loser who couldn't hold a job.
Compensation is usually awful and remains so for many years as you
pay your dues. As you are working your way up the experience ladder
your employer knows that you are there for the experience. They ALL
exploit you - because they can.
It is common to make $12,000 a year; it might be a little more now
but not much. Check it out for yourself starting pay for flight
instructors, cargo, commuters and most corporate flight departments is
miniscule. You will pay your dues for many years.
Even at the major airline I work for my first year I made $23,000.
The following year they took $1,000 back from me because they had
inadvertently "overpaid" me.
If you are motivated by money then I would emphatically recommend
that you do not get into aviation. There are much higher paying
professions. Go to law school, take up finance or find some niche and
go into business for yourself.
Some of the pilots I fly with had other careers. Some were
physicians and got out of medicine because they wanted to fly. Others
are married to physicians who are experiencing some of the same
pressures we are. As a pilot or physician you work for the airline or
HMO, the corporation is looking for ways to minimize your compensation
and maximize your utilization. They are not going to pay you what you
think you are worth or what you think you should make.
So, if you do get into aviation then you had better adopt a street
fighter mentality because you are going to have to fight for your pay,
benefits and work rules. And that is a problem with most of us we
because we think of ourselves as "professionals" and just want to do
our jobs and be compensated well for that.
I've LOST around $100,000 over the last two years due to a legally
imposed concessionary contract. And my employer tried to take away my
retirement through binding arbitration. We are not in bankruptcy mind
you, in fact we are having record quarterly profits - they "went for
it". Many pilots saw their retirement legally stolen from them and
are working for a small percentage of what they were paid prior to
9-11. You can be certain that our financial pain was not shared by
upper management ranks or the bankruptcy attorneys who brokered the
deals.
As a pilot you are limited to flying 1,000 hours a year. Do the math
for yourself and it comes to flying a maximum of 83 hours a month.
With vacation and training factored in most airlines build their
schedules to around 85 hours of flying a month. At my base we have
about 275 possible schedules for the airplane I fly. They are all
build to around 85 hours of flight time. The difference is in the
number of days off. Some schedules have as many as 18 days off others
have as few as 11 days off. Schedules are awarded based on seniority.
But as a junior pilot you will not have a schedule you will be a
reserve pilot. Meaning you will be on call for about 15 hours a day
to fill in when the need arises. You will have the minimum number of
days off, at our airline that is 11 days off a month. When you do get
a call, and it happens almost every day you are available, you can be
gone for as little as one day or as many as six. When you are gone
your two day trip can turn into a 5 day trip. I am a junior captain
at my airline and have been on reserve, as a captain, for 7 years. In
7 years I have only had a set schedule 4 times-4 out of 84 months.
It makes me sick to read accounts of pilots only flying 75 hours a
month. Those numbers make intentionally make it look like you work
less than 2 regular 40 hour weeks. What is deliberately left out of
that number is the 12 to 14 hour duty day including many hours sitting
at some airport waiting for another airplane to come in, and all the
time spent getting ready for the flight. A running joke in my family
is that my wife and I have been married for nearly 20 years, but it
has only really been 9 years because I am gone more than half the
time.
When I was a young person the airline captain was a respected
professional. That has changed; culturally we don't seem to respect
pilots much any more. "Glorified bus driver" is a term I hear. If
you want "respect" then become successful in the entertainment
industry, politics or make a ton of money somewhere else. Respect
comes with money & power, not with a polyester airline pilot uniform.
On the bright side you will never know the prison of being trapped by
4 walls shuffling through stacks of never ending paper. Every day is
different, every flight is different. The view out of your window
defies explanation. You will see beauty most people never dream of.
When you close the flight deck door and push back from the gate you
leave most of the bad stuff behind you. It is you and your flying
partner, a 50-100 million dollar jetliner, the latest in technology
(if you are fortunate to fly a new jet) and a thousand miles of wide
open airspace ahead of you with all of the opportunities and hazards
it can contain. This isn't "Groundhog day" or like watching the same
movie over and over where everything is scripted and the outcome is
predictable. What you are about to do is REAL and unscripted, the
outcome of your flight is what you make of it.
Most people in the world avoid risk. They hire attorneys to shield
them from it, take out insurance to mitigate its damage, and bury
themselves under layers of bureaucracy to hide from it. You on the
other hand will directly shoulder the responsibility for the safety of
a couple hundred people. You work in a complex, rapidly moving and
constantly changing three dimensional world.
I am a second generation airline employee; my father gave 36 years of
his life to his airline employer. I am almost 50 now and it has been
a great ride. However, I recognize that as a profession we are in for
a long bitter battle. We have 3 children and I would not recommend any
of them get into aviation.
Grant, sorry the response is so long. Your question is more complex
than "go for it; it's great" or "it stinks dude do something else".
It depends on your motivation, expectations, temperament, risk
tolerance and financial needs.
I have seen more than one coworker buried leaving behind a grieving
young wife and a few devastated kids with little or no financial
resources because he got killed trying to gain experience. If you
need a steady paycheck, a predictable career path, weekends and
federal holidays off then it isn't the job for you.
If on the other hand you have the disposition of a linebacker, have
tungsten for a spine, are not afraid of responsibility, demand nothing
but the best from yourself and everybody else around you; and you are
prepared to ride out the best and worst of times with no guarantee of
a happy financial ending and you can't possibly see yourself doing
anything else for a living then welcome aboard. It would be a
privilege to share the flight deck with you.

[Grant]

Wow, now that is truth, and that's what I came for. Thanks for all the
info, the more the better... I have heard this story before and that
was why I was asking, I just didn't want to believe it. I love
aviation and everything about it, but I don't like the "bagage" that
comes with a job in aviation. I am married and my personality is not
really the go-getter style so I could see myself being ran over a
lot... I just want to fly. My mindset, like you said is to just do my
job as a professional and get paid, but its not that easy.