Yearly Income (Before Taxes)

Yearly Income

  • 25,000 to 50,000

    Votes: 13 11.4%

  • 50,000 to 100,000

    Votes: 23 20.2%

  • 100,000 to 150,000

    Votes: 28 24.6%

  • 150,000 to infinity

    Votes: 50 43.9%
  • Total voters
    114
L

LJS1993

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Apr 11, 2012
Messages
584
Location
Riverside, California
Display Name
Display name:
LJ Savala
Well gentlemen considering the issues regarding cost and accessibility of GA I have always been extremely curious as to just how much money you guys are bringing in per year. Of course, considering the sensitivity of this question this is completely anonymous and your input or identity is not needed.
 
Well LJ - looks like you and I are gainfully employed :)
 
I voted, but I find it interesting the poll has 150k to infinity but not less than 25k. A friend of mine is a PPL who makes under 25k/yr and still manages to fly an hour a month on his own dime.
 
Is this individual or household? If household why not go up to Obama's magic "$250,000" number before you break for infinity.

Start the poll over again before it gets too many votes. Add a lower bracket (<25) and a higher bracket (150-250, >250)

Are the results anonymous?

Jim
 
Apache123 said:
I voted, but I find it interesting the poll has 150k to infinity but not less than 25k. A friend of mine is a PPL who makes under 25k/yr and still manages to fly an hour a month on his own dime.
Click to expand...

Yeah, pretty much leaves out a chunk of the "professional" pilot population...Regional FOs and CFIs!
 
I pay enough in taxes to buy a used 2-seat trainer every year.
 
Apache123 said:
I voted, but I find it interesting the poll has 150k to infinity but not less than 25k. A friend of mine is a PPL who makes under 25k/yr and still manages to fly an hour a month on his own dime.
Click to expand...

I didn't include less then twenty five thousand because I felt that income level, or lack of, would make flying on a consistent basis pretty much impossible. However one error with this poll is, as mentioned, household size, age, living situation, etc....... But I wanted to keep it anonymous so that would have necessitated more info.
 
I got my PP-ASEL in grad school (20 years ago), making around $16K/year. I lived in cheap housing (sometimes split with other students), and lived a pretty spartan but comfortable enough life. The C-150 I rented was $39/hr wet + $19/hr for the instructor (a retired ATP).

Extrapolating from those numbers today, you can still find a C-152 for $85/hr wet in LA (Long Beach Flying Club - monthly and initiating fees are minimal, IIRC), and you can find a decent primary instructor for $40/hr. So flying an ~equivalent plane costs about twice what it did 20 years ago. Looking at all the numbers, someone who has the bug and really wants to fly, and is unencumbered by family expenses, should be able to figure out a way if they make $40K/year. There just are not as many willing to make the sacrifices needed to make it happen.

Jeff
 
I make about $100 every week as a 141 Flight Instructor. :nonod:

Just enough to pay my rent and buy some food.
 
We are what we want to be. It ain't income. It is choices, we'd rather be fat and lazy then skinny and occasionally sweaty. Likewise we'd rather not stand up to our brutish wives then man up and go flying. Money is an excuse and a poor one at that.
 
To put it in perspective, 75% of the voters belong to the 80th or 90th percentile income earners, if one is to be conservative and assume the figures apply to household income. That's in aggregate a substantially well off crowd. Whether their lifestyle is opulent or not will only vary as a function of the specific cost of living in their region and whether they have expensive medical costs as a result of a special needs dependent or not.

Put in other words, median households in this Country have little in the way of disposable income after housing,healthcare and education costs. That checks. The material comfort downgrade required for the median household to have the kind of disposable income necessary to have an expensive hobby (what I define as more than $10K/yr habit) is simply something most households are unwilling to accept. The latter is almost usually the result of a combative and entitled female half, as Greg pointed out. Life is a choice, indeed...
 
I can't vote either. Currently on unemployment. Fortunately my husband works so he pays the bills and always has my small income was all to go to flying and I made less then $25k year and I got my PPL so this survey like most is quite flawed.
 
saracelica said:
I can't vote either. Currently on unemployment. Fortunately my husband works so he pays the bills and always has my small income was all to go to flying and I made less then $25k year and I got my PPL so this survey like most is quite flawed.
Click to expand...

So basically you can fly consistently and often with less then $25k a year in income?
 
I flew often enough with $25k income thank you very much. Love living in the midwest (Ohio)
 
I think the intent is to see household income of people who pay for their own flying. You can be making nothing and fly a bunch (just ask a first year regional FO). Similarly situations where one spouse works and the other doesn't, or someone who has an inheritance or other assets that don't count as income but allow funding of the addition.
 
LJS1993 said:
I didn't include less then twenty five thousand because I felt that income level, or lack of, would make flying on a consistent basis pretty much impossible. However one error with this poll is, as mentioned, household size, age, living situation, etc....... But I wanted to keep it anonymous so that would have necessitated more info.
Click to expand...

It's only a partial picture with what you're asking. How much you have going OUT each month is at least as important.

RT
 
Apache123 said:
I voted, but I find it interesting the poll has 150k to infinity but not less than 25k. A friend of mine is a PPL who makes under 25k/yr and still manages to fly an hour a month on his own dime.
Click to expand...
And us out of work rocket scientists, too.
 
Would have been more interesting to ask for household net worth. But harder to keep track of.

I've been in every one of those 4 earnings categories in my life. The higher ones weren't necessarily the nicest - though I don't recommend the lowest, either (not that one often has much choice sometimes.)
 
$ as a measure also ignores hustle factor. These threads seem to assume straight up rental rates or full ownership if you are a charming bloke or a hot chick, and leave the house, you are going to get more sky action then chumps sitting at home asking strangers on the interweb if they are rich enough to fly.
 
Don't know how to answer. Have flown in years when the three jobs were just barely paying for ramen and the cockroach infested apartment and have flown in years where the income exceeded six figures. Not sure once you make a decision to do it if it's about money at all. It's about what you'll give up to do it. At the low end it's sleep and nice meals. At the high end it's fancy cars or houses or whatever the mall crowd buys these days. Dunno.
 
I honestly don't think income matters. Everyone can afford one expensive hobby, for some its golf, others have boats, we have airplanes. Lucky SOBs have all of the above, may they burn in h3ll :)
 
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