2 Commercial pilots finish flight school in 2003 with CPL MECIR.
The first Pilot Buys an Instructor Rating for $18,000 and is taken on by his flight school as a grade 3 instructor, he is flying mainly Warriors and 172's, his week is pretty quiet and most of his work comes on weekends, when the weather is good, when the Grade 1 and 2 pilots don't have enough time to do the flights.
His pay per week is around $350
After two years of this he gets a charter job doing scenic flights on a bigger SEP C206 but his pay is not much better at just $450 per week, he does this for a further 3 years and then gets a job at a regional airline flying a Fairchild Metro III as a co pilot, his pay in this job starts at about $600 per week, he does this for 3 years and then gets upgraded to Captain earning $1,200 per week.
Now here is where this story gets interesting, over a 10 year period this guy has earned in the region of $321,880 bucks less his instructor rating (18k) less his intial flight training (80k) and he is looking at a figure of around the $223,880 mark over a 10 year period he is averaging around 1800 bucks per month Gross.
Now remember the other guy that finished flight school around the same time?
yes you guessed it he went down the line training route, he bought a Type rating right out of flight school, B737NG that cost him $15,000
He then proceeded with a line training company for 500 hours in the 737 that cost him $90,000 it took him 12 months to finish the line training and then he was offered a job with the same airline as a first officer, bearing in mind he earned no money during the line training so additional cost's of $12,000 for his accom and living.
His initial salary was low but not as bad as his instructor friends! he was taking $1,100 per week. he was flying a lot as well around 100 hours per month he did this for the next 5 years and then managed to score a FO gig with one of the majors, his salary now was around the $2,500 per week mark, after 3 years he managed to get his first command and now makes $4,000 per week.
So when you stack his figures up over the last 10 years he has earned $884,000 less the intial training (80k) less his type rating (15k) less his LT (90K Ouch!) less his cost of living (12k) over last 10 years he has Grossed $687,000 that is almost HALF A MILLION Dollars more than his friend!
This is a true story, however its not quite what you think, the guy that went Bush is a very experienced Captain and continues to fly the Metro III, he gets a good quality of time with his 2 kids and wife and they live quietly in the country side. not to mention he is one of the most knowledgeable pilots I know.
However the Line training guy is Single, he lives in hotels and has no free time at all, he is always flying, he has a stack of money in the bank but nobody to enjoy it with, he has lost touch with most of his friends and is sick and tired of living out of a suitcase, he quite often cant remember what day it is!. his flying knowledge and skill consist of radar vectors and ILS!
Now you tell me who is the better off here!