Here is my greener perspective form over here in Canada.. not meant to be a gripe, I truly love flying. I’m trying to compare to see if CX is a better path for me.
My previous job was flying the summer season on a light twin, doing fire mapping and low lever LIDAR work. My working conditions were such that I had no days off and was on the road for 6 months straight. My legal “days off” we’re weather days that we couldn’t fly. My flying days were 14hrs a day everyday that weather permitted, and expected to fly every day that I could. My salary was $2800 a month for the summer, and then laid off for the winter.
Now I’m at a regional carrier, who’s name I will not mention for obvious reasons. I fly 80hrs min a month minimum, average 6 legs a day, and make slightly less. I am scheduled to fly 18 days a month off, unless overtime is available. If I make captain I will make roughly 80k a year.
I’m trying to look objectively here and here’s what I see.. At Cathay I will make substantially more, and fly a lot less days.
Living in a major Canadian city, is not cheap I pay $1600 a month for 800sq ft pad nowhere near the airport I work out of. It’s a 2 hour drive in rush hour for me. Granted Hong Kong is more expensive.. so let’s call the increase in pay as a SO a wash for the cost of living.
I used to do long haul flying for a short time as a flight attendant and know all about the jet lag, and sleep cycle disruption. However, the long days I fly and the short rest in between leaves me just as exhausted. It’s a different kind of tired granted.. but I’m going to call that a wash as well.
Living in Hong Kong vs. Canada.. Canada is a great nation I love my country.. I also love experiencing new countries and parts of the world. It’s part of why I love to fly. The temperature for me in Canada today is -35C.. the warmer days hover around -10 at best. What I call winter, that being snow on the ground and temps below 0C is roughly 7 months long. Summers are epic mind you, they’re just fleetingly short. Living somewhere different, especially on days like today, sounds fantastic.
Looking at it longer term, I’ll upgrade.. make more money.. eventually get a base outside of HK.. (anyone know how long of a wait that currently is?) who knows, Australia sounds like a pretty swell place to live. On top of which I’ll get experience on large Jets that puts me in the market for countless other carriers that are just getting more and more hungry for pilots.
Is there anything I’m missing here? Or should consider? Do you CX guys and gals out there think things will improve in time or get worse?
TT 1200hrs frozen ATPL