Mid-life Career Change to Airline Pilot. It's Doable.

NealRomeoGolf said:
@SixPapaCharlie have you made a list of us that are living in places you might have an overnight at that would buy you dinner?
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Why shouldn't he pay? He's a "rich airline pilot" now, isn't he?

I'll buy if he has a BNA layover, but only because I'm a "richer airline pilot". LOL
 
Larry in TN said:
Why shouldn't he pay? He's a "rich airline pilot" now, isn't he?

I'll buy if he has a BNA layover, but only because I'm a "richer airline pilot". LOL
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Let me know when you're coming to MCO and you can buy, since I'm poor and unemployed.
:devil:
 
Larry in TN said:
The best part of an MCO layover is getting to hear the special message from the mayor on the tram!
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Many years ago, it was done by the same guy who did all the announcements for Disney World. After hearing "The tram is coming to a stop" I always expected the next thing to be "Enjoy your stay in the Magic Kingdom."
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
@SixPapaCharlie have you made a list of us that are living in places you might have an overnight at that would buy you dinner?
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Well, @masloki may tell you to stay far away.
I was flying into ORD awhile back and said. I am in your area, landing at 6:45. Want to grab dinner?
This kind soul of a man says yes and lets me know there is a restaurant in my hotel and I am like perfect. I will see you around 7:30.

3 hours later the text turns to "Ok, it is closing in 10 minutes here's a photo of the menu"
I felt HORRIBLE. So I have thought about posting on here when I am going to be in a POA'ers area but planning dinner might work or it might end up like that where we had about 15 minutes to chat while I scarfed down some food in a closing restaurant. On the other hand, a lot of that is Chicago specific. 52 minutes to taxi from our company maint. hangar to Hotel Ramp. It was during a snow storm and a lot of other factors but I still feel bad about it and until I get a better grasp on how to tell what overnight "really" allows for dinner, I need to hold off. I hate to make anyone wait on me because of airline issues of which there seem to be plenty.

I just bid hard lines for Jan and I will post the overnights on this thread in case anybody wants to play dinner roulette with me.
 
Larry in TN said:
Why shouldn't he pay? He's a "rich airline pilot" now, isn't he?

I'll buy if he has a BNA layover, but only because I'm a "richer airline pilot". LOL
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Probably significantly.

I quickly shot to a place that some people love. The obscurity section of the reserve list which is a great place to be a poor pilot who rarely flies. I either don't get called, or I get SBY which blows.
I want to fly as much as possible. This led me to the discovery of how to pick up over time. 25 hours OT logged in Dec already and 3 more DFPs that I can use to snag more without going below my min required days off.

You can make money as a new guy but you have to work for it and game it. Was junior manned yesterday which means extra pay and an added day off. No complaints here.
I love this job. I do look forward to the day when I can make the money while hiding at the top of the reserve list and not flying though.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Well, @masloki may tell you to stay far away.
I was flying into ORD awhile back and said. I am in your area, landing at 6:45. Want to grab dinner?
This kind soul of a man says yes and lets me know there is a restaurant in my hotel and I am like perfect. I will see you around 7:30.

3 hours later the text turns to "Ok, it is closing in 10 minutes here's a photo of the menu"
I felt HORRIBLE. So I have thought about posting on here when I am going to be in a POA'ers area but planning dinner might work or it might end up like that where we had about 15 minutes to chat while I scarfed down some food in a closing restaurant. On the other hand, a lot of that is Chicago specific. 52 minutes to taxi from our company maint. hangar to Hotel Ramp. It was during a snow storm and a lot of other factors but I still feel bad about it and until I get a better grasp on how to tell what overnight "really" allows for dinner, I need to hold off. I hate to make anyone wait on me because of airline issues of which there seem to be plenty.

I just bid hard lines for Jan and I will post the overnights on this thread in case anybody wants to play dinner roulette with me.
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I guess I was thinking of smaller places that have less options like where I live. An overnight in a place like PIA is probably not high on the bid list.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Probably significantly.

I quickly shot to a place that some people love. The obscurity section of the reserve list which is a great place to be a poor pilot who rarely flies. I either don't get called, or I get SBY which blows.
I want to fly as much as possible. This led me to the discovery of how to pick up over time. 25 hours OT logged in Dec already and 3 more DFPs that I can use to snag more without going below my min required days off.

You can make money as a new guy but you have to work for it and game it. Was junior manned yesterday which means extra pay and an added day off. No complaints here.
I love this job. I do look forward to the day when I can make the money while hiding at the top of the reserve list and not flying though.
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Ya but do you have a rocks glass etched with your tail # for those lonely* hotel stays?


*I’m just assuming you’re alone and not shacking up with all those hot stewardesses looking to hook up with a rich pilot.
 
Larry in TN said:
Why shouldn't he pay? He's a "rich airline pilot" now, isn't he?

I'll buy if he has a BNA layover, but only because I'm a "richer airline pilot". LOL
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"Hi, its Bryan here on layover in Nashvegas. If you're still up to buy dinner, I'm in. Yeah, I know. The online pictures don't do me justice."

-Every POA'er who visits Nashville.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Well, @masloki may tell you to stay far away.
I was flying into ORD awhile back and said. I am in your area, landing at 6:45. Want to grab dinner?
This kind soul of a man says yes and lets me know there is a restaurant in my hotel and I am like perfect. I will see you around 7:30.

3 hours later the text turns to "Ok, it is closing in 10 minutes here's a photo of the menu"
I felt HORRIBLE. So I have thought about posting on here when I am going to be in a POA'ers area but planning dinner might work or it might end up like that where we had about 15 minutes to chat while I scarfed down some food in a closing restaurant. On the other hand, a lot of that is Chicago specific. 52 minutes to taxi from our company maint. hangar to Hotel Ramp. It was during a snow storm and a lot of other factors but I still feel bad about it and until I get a better grasp on how to tell what overnight "really" allows for dinner, I need to hold off. I hate to make anyone wait on me because of airline issues of which there seem to be plenty.

I just bid hard lines for Jan and I will post the overnights on this thread in case anybody wants to play dinner roulette with me.
Click to expand...

The lesson my wife has learned over time is to never tell anyone you’re there for to you’re shut down and out of duty time to go anywhere else (the last part is probably different for you in the airline world). Things always change, you always get curveballs, the schedule is a suggestion not gospel.

I’m the only one she tells potentials to because I know it’s a 50/50 at best. If she has a local overnight (which is rare) we don’t tell the kids until it’s time to leave the house so they don’t get their hopes up.

It’s just the nature of the beast.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
52 minutes to taxi from our company maint. hangar to Hotel Ramp.
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With all of the construction, ORD is a ground-ops limited airport. Most are limited by runway capacity, or gate capacity, but not ORD.

SixPapaCharlie said:
Probably significantly.
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When I was hired by American Eagle in 1991, starting pay was $15.50/hr and it didn't really go up all that much from there. Captains would break $30,000/yr, though.

NealRomeoGolf said:
An overnight in a place like PIA is probably not high on the bid list.
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Not in December!

kyleb said:
-Every POA'er who visits Nashville.
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Ya know, I've made the offer before. So far, no takers (from POA).
 
Larry in TN said:
When I was hired by American Eagle in 1991, starting pay was $15.50/hr and it didn't really go up all that much from there. Captains would break $30,000/yr, though.
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It's definitely better now. I don't think I could have made this career change 10 years ago.
 
Larry in TN said:
When I was hired by American Eagle in 1991, starting pay was $15.50/hr and it didn't really go up all that much from there. Captains would break $30,000/yr, though.
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In the mid-eighties, a good friend got a call from his boss telling him that the airplane (King Air) had been sold and his services were no longer needed, effective immediately. He took the first and only job he could find, F/O on a Bandeirante for a Louisiana-based commuter. The starting salary was $775.50/mo. Even at some majors, starting salaries in that ugly B-Scale era were under $2K/mo.

Larry in TN said:
Why shouldn't he pay? He's a "rich airline pilot" now, isn't he?
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Right. He could locate some of the many now-retired pilots who endured strikes, furloughs, and concessionary contracts; who lost pension plans and/or had their ownership stake wiped out in bankruptcy proceedings; yet who persevered and finally restored decades of wage and benefit cuts to pre-deregulation standards. Consider also that many whose efforts to rebuild the profession were forced to retire before being able to realize the fruits of their labors (so to speak). Find them, and buy them dinner. Just sayin'.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I was flying into ORD awhile back and said. I am in your area, landing at 6:45. Want to grab dinner?
This kind soul of a man says yes and lets me know there is a restaurant in my hotel and I am like perfect. I will see you around 7:30.

3 hours later the text turns to "Ok, it is closing in 10 minutes here's a photo of the menu"
I felt HORRIBLE. So I have thought about posting on here when I am going to be in a POA'ers area but planning dinner might work or it might end up like that where we had about 15 minutes to chat while I scarfed down some food in a closing restaurant. On the other hand, a lot of that is Chicago specific. 52 minutes to taxi from our company maint. hangar to Hotel Ramp. It was during a snow storm and a lot of other factors but I still feel bad about it and until I get a better grasp on how to tell what overnight "really" allows for dinner, I need to hold off. I hate to make anyone wait on me because of airline issues of which there seem to be plenty.
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Pshaww. I felt bad your company had you in a hotel so close to the airport but that worked out for the best. It's the rare hotel that has a legit quality restaurant as most are frozen over industrial food. And I can think of many, many worse ways to spend an evening that drinking pint or two, eating some tasty calamari, and watching some sportsball. Bummed we didn't get more time to swap stories. :cheers:

Plus, I am on the other side of the planes and schedules for another airline and well acquainted with what I signed up for, and doubly so with O'hare's shenanigans.
Larry in TN said:
With all of the construction, ORD is a ground-ops limited airport. Most are limited by runway capacity, or gate capacity, but not ORD.
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Gate capacity is a new issue for all airlines not named United. They played the ORD gate utlization game perfectly and quite a few other airlines lost gates this fall.
 
Roger Wilco said:
The starting salary was $775.50/mo. Even at some majors, starting salaries in that ugly B-Scale era were under $2K/mo.
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Yeah, a lot of the young'uns have very different career expectations than we did.

Roger Wilco said:
endured strikes, furloughs, and concessionary contracts; who lost pension plans and/or had their ownership stake wiped out in bankruptcy proceedings
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Well, I've had three furloughs and one frozen pension. I can still buy dinner for half-wings (probationary pilots).

masloki said:
I felt bad your company had you in a hotel so close to the airport
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On short layovers, we prefer to be close. Our cutoff for airport layover is 14 hours at most airports. More when the drive into the city is particularly long.
 
If I remember correctly, somebody flew into ALB to look at something, rented a car, and broke down in a part of town where the NYSP undercover units travel in pairs.

So I'm terrible at keeping plans, but if anyone ever has a need to fly into ALB, the least I'll do is try to point you to a hotel that won't ask "how many hours" when you walk up to the front desk, and provide guidance on a couple of places to eat that aren't just safe, but tasty. Dress warm if it's this time of year.
 
Larry in TN said:
When I was hired by American Eagle in 1991, starting pay was $15.50/hr and it didn't really go up all that much from there. Captains would break $30,000/yr, though.
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At the time I got my Commercial multi, I was a truck driver. Other truck drivers were like "You're a commercial pilot? What the hell are you doing here?" And my answer was that it'd take 8 years to get back up to truck driver pay, and that was if nothing went wrong along the way.

Those really were the bad old days. Of course, now there are people who think 2022-23 was "normal". I know of someone who got their ratings in 9 months, instructed for 9 months (up to 1200hr), spent 3 years as a cargo turboprop captain, and went directly to a major and into the right seat of a 787. Bonkers.

At this point, I'm wishing I would have answered some of the postcards I was getting from airlines in 2014.
 
In 2015, after the flow agreement was announced, I actually talked to a Piedmont recruiter at SNF. I thought ten years down the road, throwing the gear on a widebody for M’lady on the way to a joint European layover (making DINK money) would be a better alternative to being a kept man.

Didn’t Perdue it, no regrets.

(Okay, I have to leave the above autocorrect intact. Appropriate, given I likely would have PURSUED the coveted SBY domicile, living on the Eastern Shore at the time. IYKYK :) )
 
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SixPapaCharlie said:
Well, @masloki may tell you to stay far away.
I was flying into ORD awhile back and said. I am in your area, landing at 6:45. Want to grab dinner?
This kind soul of a man says yes and lets me know there is a restaurant in my hotel and I am like perfect. I will see you around 7:30.

3 hours later the text turns to "Ok, it is closing in 10 minutes here's a photo of the menu"
I felt HORRIBLE. So I have thought about posting on here when I am going to be in a POA'ers area but planning dinner might work or it might end up like that where we had about 15 minutes to chat while I scarfed down some food in a closing restaurant. On the other hand, a lot of that is Chicago specific. 52 minutes to taxi from our company maint. hangar to Hotel Ramp. It was during a snow storm and a lot of other factors but I still feel bad about it and until I get a better grasp on how to tell what overnight "really" allows for dinner, I need to hold off. I hate to make anyone wait on me because of airline issues of which there seem to be plenty.

I just bid hard lines for Jan and I will post the overnights on this thread in case anybody wants to play dinner roulette with me.
Click to expand...
I always give my flight number for the inbound to the folks I’m planning to meet for dinner. They know the deal and track my progress.
 
Half Fast said:
Many years ago, it was done by the same guy who did all the announcements for Disney World. After hearing "The tram is coming to a stop" I always expected the next thing to be "Enjoy your stay in the Magic Kingdom."
Click to expand...

I expected to hear “por favor manténgase alejado de las puertas”
 
Larry in TN said:
Yeah, a lot of the young'uns have very different career expectations than we did.
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Envy aside, let’s hope that this golden era of relative stability and profitability continues.
Larry in TN said:
Well, I've had three furloughs and one frozen pension. I can still buy dinner for half-wings (probationary pilots).
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Reading your posts, I have a hunch that two of those furloughs might have occurred in short succession at a certain major airline, followed by a merger that resulted in a painful career setback. I know a few people who went through that scenario.
 
Roger Wilco said:
Reading your posts, I have a hunch that two of those furloughs might have occurred in short succession at a certain major airline, followed by a merger that resulted in a painful career setback. I know a few people who went through that scenario.
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That is incorrect. The three furloughs were from two earlier employers. I didn't join my current employer until after the merger you referenced.
 
Larry in TN said:
That is incorrect. The three furloughs were from two earlier employers. I didn't join my current employer until after the merger you referenced.
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Great—that gets me off the hook. Had you been a double furloughee at your current job, I would feel obliged to buy you dinner.
 
Just for a sense of the REALLY good old days, my first hourly (non aviation) job was $1.25 / hour. First Aviation job (Engineer) was $7710/year or ~$3.75 / hour.

OTOH, my first new car waas $2500.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Alright just got a trip. if anyone is in the following areas and wants to grab a bite.
LIT tomorrow and GSO on Friday.
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Y'know... I've been thinking that I'd really love to know when I am/will be near my flying friends, and that a pilots-only social network app would be cool. The idea would be that it'd be able to read your schedule, or you could enter it, and use location services, and it would tell you when one of your pilot friends was (or was going to be) nearby so you could get together.

Rod Rakic was really ahead of his time with MyTransponder - I remember the year it premiered at Oshkosh and people asked what it was and he'd say "It's like Facebook for pilots" but every single person he said that to answered with "What's Facebook"? I think it was 2009. Nobody really "got it" at that point and I don't think it lasted very long, but now I wish I had it back!
 
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