Hi Pre3sg. My crew was leaving DFW Airport about a year ago. The FO knows a furloughed Delta pilot who gives sim. and IOE training to brand-new CRJ FOs at airline 'Carbuncle'.
The IP was a passenger and walked up the jetway with us, told us that one guy was a CPA accountant in his previous job.
The guy had spent tens of thousands of dollars at Gulfstream in Florida. You basically get your ratings and YOU PAY to fly in the right seat of the Beech 1900. The airline pays you some per diem, but no salary. This Gulfstream program has become infamous among some pilots.
Anyway, that former Gulfstream pilot tried very hard to make it through the CRJ program at a very demanding US regional. But flying in Florida gave the guy almost no instrument experience and he could not keep up in the simulator. He might have spent $20,000 or more training at Gulfstream. What a heart-breaking experience, I suppose. Remember-the airline reportedly paid him NO salary during standard, revenue flight.
What a deal for the company!
This one regional which flies only CRJs has fired numerous pilots lately and according to the wife of another IP (she was our Lead Flight Attendant), the company will give a good bit of extra help to the lady pilots but the guys are often out of luck if they stumble badly in training. One of our captains told me that his son had more than a few hundred hours and was fired because he was not ready for his oral exam. The company pays almost nothing in Initial Training, and at least one new hires came straight from a single-engine Cessna 172, but have no idea whether he/she made it through to IOE etc. Quite a leap from a Cessna at 110 knots to a CRJ at anything from 500 mph down to ILS, VOR, BC LOC and NDB approaches at 130 knots-with flaps inoperative, probably 180 knots Vref: most CRJs have no slats. How about a single-engine ILS at 140 knots to minimums at 1800 RVR and land in a crosswind?
But what chance do many 300-500 hour pilots have training at 0600 in a regular sensitive simulator using many assorted types of checklists, normal and abnormal to comply with and an FMC to also learn?
Over here, Mesa Airlines has produced a very shiny, slick, large brochure which tries to recruit pilots into some sort of training package to fly either the EMB-145 or the CRJ. They make it look quite attractive and require no high school degree! Only a GED, which is considered nothing in the US, but they prefer no criminal history..... They don't mention that if you are paid, your pay is about minimum wage after having spent a gigantic heap of your money-or that of a wealthy relative.
You can be better paid driving either a fairly small delivery truck, school or city bus in Seattle, WA, than flying in the right seat of several US carriers' B-727 or DC-10 jets, for the first three years or so as First Officer. Hard to believe? Look at "airlinepilotpay.com", or, even better, "willflyforfood.cc" (click on pilot pay scales) and other sites. Most companies have no retirement fund and YOU pay at least %20 of any medical bills, plus large deductibles, are paid by YOU. Many medicines are not covered, even with my airline's better medical plan....With may airlines, don't get too sick or have a wife get hurt in an accident. When some low-life smashes in your car's side window, hoping to find something in the console between the seats, that will be about $200
, which you might not want your insurance to know about. Few businesses here require a guy with a credit card to provide a photo id. This is another dirty secret of the US system; a Walgreens' Manager told me, to my face, that this huge drugstore chain does not ALLOW its sales clerks to check a photo id. some credit cards require it, but what if your picture does not match? What will they do-challenge you? Don't expect too much.
And pay for a baby or two?
With this and a wife or girlfriend who can not work, you could qualify for govt food stamps.
You might do okay, but please check various sources and cross-check the different angles and options. You might want to avoid simply reading the glib brochures showing very young pilots with very shiny gold stripes, and company offers to train you (they won't pay for the training...and many are desperate for pilots with some good experience). Many thousands of laid-off, highly-experienced pilots can not afford to even work as modestly-paid ("direct-entry") turboprop captains. Many that I've worked with find better-paying jobs on the ground.
One guy who will get laid off-again (after only a year back with this large airline)-plans to teach CRM to doctors and nurses, based upon his several thousands of hours in twin turboprops and transport jets!
If you are very young and are willing to have no spare cash for a few years and are single, then there are possibilites and it might work fairly well-good luck over here.
