Originally Posted by
DropYourSocks
Consider that the kingair job advertised, and the upgrade minimums for an RJ command in the US are more or less the same. 2500 total, and 1000 hours of xxx time.
Sure flying the kingair single pilot with no support has it's challenges. But let's not make it out to be harder than it is. Australia is mostly flat, with some of the most benign flying weather on earth. Sure there are storms and fog, but that's really it. There's no real threat of terrain, density altitude performance, cold weather corrections, deicing, runway contamination etc.
Conversely, aussies with 2500 total are now given the left seat of an antiquated RJ, and sent to remote mountain ctafs in winter, or some of the most congested airports on earth. They have more support, but also significantly more threats to manage.
Lastly, RJ fo pays more than every kingair job in Aus. Wasn't always the case, but it is now. RJ command is paying more than Virgin command.
This whole argument smacks of Aussie exceptionalism. Maybe we should just stick to arguing who's the better of GA pilots or Q cadets.
Pay is directly proportional to the supply of pilots willing to do the job. In Australia, there is still enough supply to warrant the level of pay on offer for such jobs. In the US, they don’t have enough, so that’s why they are paying significantly more. But you don’t need me to tell you that.
Flying a jet is by no means hard. In fact it’s some of the easiest flying I’ve done. Just remember a few key things and you’ll be able to get that thing up and down no problems. So don’t try and tell me that because these guys are flying jets, they’re special. Irrespective of the environment.
What is a key difference between these 2 jobs is the support and infrastructure that is provided in the respective environments. I can probably guarantee you that there’s no flight watch in an operations centre that is watching everything that the King Air driver is doing in terms of weather etc., and there sure as **** isn’t ACARS installed in the King Air either. And the poor barstard is probably trying to find some strip in the middle of no where with no aids, and good chance no lighting either.
I don’t see the requirements for the King Air job as onerous, in fact they are shades of what would have been required 10 years ago!
Ohh and no Australian exceptionalism here, if anything I’m picking up some RJ exceptionalism because they can read a checklist on how to de-ice. The number of pilots from Europe that I’ve flown with that laugh when I ask how hard it was to do all the de-icing etc., and explain that once you’ve done it a few times it’s a non-event, tells me that it really is a non-event.