Hey Spike and Stan, I appreciate the mention. I just got home from an out-and-back that turned into a three day trip.
I don't think I can say anything that someone on here hasn't said yet, but I would reiterate the thought that, if it's your dream, why not go for it now? I'm two weeks away from the end of my first year at my airline. It's not a perfect job, it has it's moments of ****ing me off beyond belief. But then I watch the sunrise over the Atlantic from the cloud tops at 16,000, or fly 250kts to a 3 mile final and then put the breaks on to hit the 1000 footers, or fly through some heavy weather and get congratulated by 19 people who are just happy to be on the ground, or
I get to see the sun set over the Adirondacks on a clear enough night that I can see downtown Boston and downtown New York at the same time. I loved my job at the TV station, but nothing in this world beats getting paid to do what I do four or five days a week.
As far as the salary goes...base guarantee is less than $20k, but you'd have to work harder to get only your base than you do to get paid more. Here at CJC, our first year FO pay is $21/hr. That gives a base of just over $18k a year (you get paid for 75 hours per month, no matter what you fly). Second year (which I start getting in two weeks) is $26/hr. There are A LOT of places that pay better than that, but some that are worse (generally pay is dependent upon the number of seats you fly). Nevertheless, at first year pay I was able to move myself, my fiancee (I too am engaged), and her idiot cat halfway across the country (Des Moines, IA to Lebanon, NH); then move again, three months later, to Waterville, Me. We had to budget carefully, almost literally count pennies at first, but once she found a job (oh ya, she was unemployed for the first five months I worked here) things have gotten a lot better. We have a great condo here in WVL, we bought her a car, and now we're looking at moving to Portland when I switch airplanes. While my base may only be $18k a year, at the six month mark I had made a couple hundred less than $15k. Not huge, certainly not going to set a record, but it's enough to live on comfortably. If this month and next month play out as they're projected (92 and 117 hrs flown, respectively), I should be decently over $30k for the year. I don't work much "overtime" beyond what I'm scheduled for at the start of the month, and I'm able to pick my schedule to a decent degree. And the captains do a lot better for themselves!
Don't get me wrong, it has it's drawbacks! Somewhat unpredictable schedules, maintenance delays, weather delays, ****y passengers, the TSA...pretty much everything out there can and will conspire to give you bad days, but in the end, you're still getting paid to fly.
This week has been a perfect example of the bad side. We were supposed to come in at 3:55pm on Tuesday, fly down to Boston, sit for an hour, then fly Rockland and Augusta and be done. The plane broke earlier in the day and got ferried to Albany (our mx base). A new plane was ferried in for us, so we could operate our flights only 2.5 hours late. The plane we got (used to be one of my favorite airframes) was a dud. By the time we got back to Augusta, we had four write ups on it...two of which were killers. We ferried out to Albany, too, and ended up spending the night. Wednesday rolls around, we show at noon, take the plane to Boston, make one round trip to Augusta, and kill it again. Ferry to Albany, and spend the night because there's not replacement planes. Today rolls around, we take the plane at noon again, ferry to Boston, fly an Islip round, and kill the plane again. This time it's not ferryable. Fortunately there's another plane available, and we run the last flight to Rockland/Augusta 2 hours late. The passengers were ****ed, the gate agents were grumpy, we were exhausted...but after an hour in ice filled clouds, we broke out to crystal clear skies over RKD, and moonlight that was bright enough to read our charts by.
At least twice a week I get asked "when I'm going to jet training," or told that my "tiny little prop plane is the smallest thing I've ever flown on," or asked if I'm "serious that I expect people to ride on this thing with no bathroom or drink service," but it's worth it to see their faces when we fly through the Nor'easter and get them on the ground at the other end. I'd say a couple times a month I get either "when are you going to jet training," or "where are you going to sit [apparently people don't get that I'm a pilot, not a flight attendant, when I close the door]". Those two questions are probably my greatest pet peeves about this job, and I don't think either of them would happen if I flew anything other than the 1900 - and despite it all, I'd keep flying the 1900 if I could.
Personally, I like flying the turbo-prop. It's a lot less systems management and a lot more of simply flying the plane. You don't get to buzz down the river at 500 feet, or just go up to the next town for lunch, which is something I really really miss doing, but I put 800 hours in my logbook this year and didn't pay for any of it, so I'm not going to complain too much.
I do have a large loan out to cover all my training, but even so, I can't imagine doing anything else. It was my dream, back when I was working overnights at the TV station, and now it's what I get to do every day. I'd be fine if I was still in journalism, but I'd much rather be where I am today. Who knows what the future of the industry will be (hopefully I'll be in a corporate department before it gets bad again), but for now I'm getting paid to fly a lot, I get to spend quite a bit of time at home, and I don't have to worry about creditors coming for me...and that's all that matters to me.
PS
I'm sorry for any misspelled, grammatical errors, or other travesties I may have committed upon the English language...it's been a long couple days.
Best of all, it'll be on YOUR terms and you can make YOUR dream be whatever you want it to be.
