question about airline pilots life
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: chicago
Age: 44
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
question about airline pilots life
Hello guys
I live in us
I have ppl and wanna be an airline pilot but........
How is the airline pilots life? could i have a family in future? how many day would i be off from my home town?
help guys.....
i love to fly but.......
I live in us
I have ppl and wanna be an airline pilot but........
How is the airline pilots life? could i have a family in future? how many day would i be off from my home town?
help guys.....
i love to fly but.......
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Mare Nostrum
Age: 41
Posts: 1,427
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Your answers are found here...
The Truth About the Profession - Home
I work at a flying school as an instructor and we have some instructors who quit the airlines to have a more stable life working as a CFI. CFIs are home pretty much every night and at the right school, they can have decent pay and conditions.
Can you have a family? Sure, but depends how tolerant your significant other is and how supportive they can be.
Will you be home often? Depends on the company, your seniority within the company, and more.
The Truth About the Profession - Home
I work at a flying school as an instructor and we have some instructors who quit the airlines to have a more stable life working as a CFI. CFIs are home pretty much every night and at the right school, they can have decent pay and conditions.
Can you have a family? Sure, but depends how tolerant your significant other is and how supportive they can be.
Will you be home often? Depends on the company, your seniority within the company, and more.
Most working pilots are flying 12-16 days per month, mostly away those days. It is possible to be home a bit more, but unlikely unless very senior. If the family likes to eat and you are the providing the bread, they'll have to get used to it.
Sounds tough, but it is as simpe as that.
GF
Sounds tough, but it is as simpe as that.
GF
Every airline is different. Some airlines work 3 days on, 4 days off, 4 days off, 3 days on. My old job was 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off. Currently I owe the company 17 days a month. They can be all together or broken up.
You live in Chicago. If your airline based you in Chicago you might spend days on reserve waiting to fly and never leave town. You might get "turns" where you fly out in the morning and get back in the evening (these tend to go very senior.) Or you could be gone a day, three days or a week. Or your airline could base you somewhere else like Denver or Miami. All the same schedule options are there except now you spend part of your last day off traveling to your base to be ready to fly. And when you're done you may have to spend part of your first day off getting home. So three days off might turn into only sleeping in your own bed two nights and only one real day at home.
As to how much you'll make, again every airline is different. Airline pay gets complicated. Normally you have a "guarantee," a minimum amout you will be paid. Say your guarantee is 70 hours and you are paid 30 dollars a flight hour. You know you'll make 2100 dollars no matter what schedule you have. Then you have flight pay. If you flew 60 hours in a month that would be 1800 dollars which is less than your guarantee so you'd get the 2100 guarantee. But if you flew 80 hours that's 2400 dollars so you'd get your guarantee plus 300 dollars. And some airlines have "rig" pay where they pay you for how long you are away from your base. If your rig is one hour's pay for every three hours away from base and you flew two hours, sat two hours and flew back two hours you'd earn 2 hours rig pay. But you got 4 hours flight pay that day so it doesn't matter. Now say you flew an hour, sat around for ten hours and flew an hour back. You earned 2 hours flight pay but 4 hours rig pay so you get 4 hours pay that day. Some airlines pay rig based on each day, some airlines look back at the end of the month and see which of the three categories of pay is the greatest.
Like I said, complicated.
You live in Chicago. If your airline based you in Chicago you might spend days on reserve waiting to fly and never leave town. You might get "turns" where you fly out in the morning and get back in the evening (these tend to go very senior.) Or you could be gone a day, three days or a week. Or your airline could base you somewhere else like Denver or Miami. All the same schedule options are there except now you spend part of your last day off traveling to your base to be ready to fly. And when you're done you may have to spend part of your first day off getting home. So three days off might turn into only sleeping in your own bed two nights and only one real day at home.
As to how much you'll make, again every airline is different. Airline pay gets complicated. Normally you have a "guarantee," a minimum amout you will be paid. Say your guarantee is 70 hours and you are paid 30 dollars a flight hour. You know you'll make 2100 dollars no matter what schedule you have. Then you have flight pay. If you flew 60 hours in a month that would be 1800 dollars which is less than your guarantee so you'd get the 2100 guarantee. But if you flew 80 hours that's 2400 dollars so you'd get your guarantee plus 300 dollars. And some airlines have "rig" pay where they pay you for how long you are away from your base. If your rig is one hour's pay for every three hours away from base and you flew two hours, sat two hours and flew back two hours you'd earn 2 hours rig pay. But you got 4 hours flight pay that day so it doesn't matter. Now say you flew an hour, sat around for ten hours and flew an hour back. You earned 2 hours flight pay but 4 hours rig pay so you get 4 hours pay that day. Some airlines pay rig based on each day, some airlines look back at the end of the month and see which of the three categories of pay is the greatest.
Like I said, complicated.
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: chicago
Age: 44
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
thanks a lot
Are you happy with this kind of life?
Consider that i am done with 1500 hours of flight time and now i am an airline pilot
how many years would i need to be senior to choose what kind of flight i want?
Are you happy with this kind of life?
Consider that i am done with 1500 hours of flight time and now i am an airline pilot
how many years would i need to be senior to choose what kind of flight i want?
If you want to get married be sure to find someone who can support you. You will start out making very little money and will probably become unemployed several tomes during your career. I was lucky and was never laid off, but I am the exception. The way I explained my job compared to someone who works a 40 hour week is that they work about 160 hours a month. As a pilot I was on duty for about that much. I was paid for about half that as the amount of actual flying time I got, and I was away from home about twice that. The number of days off is nice, but you have to take care of all those little things that most people during the 16 hours they are not away from home everyday. Then when you reach a certain age you become unemployable whether you want to retire or not. As far as time to advance or get hired by a major airline it is all pure dumb luck. With all that I can not imagine having had a different career.
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: United States
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The big shiny jet isn't for everyone. I have had two friends just hang up the spurs to go back to flying turboprops around. God knows how they can live on the pay, but I guess some people can't put a price on lifestyle.
Good luck with whatever path you choose. It certainly is a nice view up at F350 at night though.
Good luck with whatever path you choose. It certainly is a nice view up at F350 at night though.
PPRuNe supporter
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Planet Earth
Posts: 1,677
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Can you have a family?
Why yes, many of my friends have several!
Of course, not all in the same country, I am also one that has downgraded to a corporate gig, but I enjoyed every minute of my airline experience, mine was as a contract driver.
Good points about the contract world is more real flying experience, many times having no luxurious dispatch / infrastructure like a major US carrier, but I flew to destinations all over the world and had a much faster upgrade to the left seat.
I believe that having a job with the majors would be a great career nowadays, great new technology, the best training, and do to a lack of new pilots, a very stable future.
I chose the corporate gig since I could live in my own house again.
Good luck!
Why yes, many of my friends have several!
Of course, not all in the same country, I am also one that has downgraded to a corporate gig, but I enjoyed every minute of my airline experience, mine was as a contract driver.
Good points about the contract world is more real flying experience, many times having no luxurious dispatch / infrastructure like a major US carrier, but I flew to destinations all over the world and had a much faster upgrade to the left seat.
I believe that having a job with the majors would be a great career nowadays, great new technology, the best training, and do to a lack of new pilots, a very stable future.
I chose the corporate gig since I could live in my own house again.
Good luck!
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Dubai
Posts: 93
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Way too broad a question. Ask me five years ago at a regional, I had 11 days off a month, commuted, and made 35 dollars an hour. Ask now, and I am home in my bed 20 days a month, get picked up from the company and make six figures with no taxes my first year. If you talk to a UPS, SWA, or United pilot you will get a different response than a Mesa or Republic pilot. If you are starting out in the States at a regional airline, just getting started, it is a tough road ahead. But you have to put the time in. Build the logbook up and good luck.
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: chicago
Posts: 359
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
dear farnama:
the perks of the job used to be quite good...maybe work 10 or 12 days a month, great hotels when you did have to overnight. the pay used to be excellent
and then 9/11 happened. and then cheapo airlines happened.
You really have to work pretty hard to get the good stuff and the good stuff ain't what it used to be.
I will put it to you this way...if you can find a job that pays more than 100 k and keeps you home all the time...you might want it over the modern airline pilot.
you could always instruct on saturdays if you have to fly, but then you have certain liabilities if something does go wrong.
I can't tell you what to do...I was offered a deluxe job 30 years ago, not in the airline industry and knowing what I know now, I would have taken it and never looked back, except to buy a used airliner because I would have made that much money.
the perks of the job used to be quite good...maybe work 10 or 12 days a month, great hotels when you did have to overnight. the pay used to be excellent
and then 9/11 happened. and then cheapo airlines happened.
You really have to work pretty hard to get the good stuff and the good stuff ain't what it used to be.
I will put it to you this way...if you can find a job that pays more than 100 k and keeps you home all the time...you might want it over the modern airline pilot.
you could always instruct on saturdays if you have to fly, but then you have certain liabilities if something does go wrong.
I can't tell you what to do...I was offered a deluxe job 30 years ago, not in the airline industry and knowing what I know now, I would have taken it and never looked back, except to buy a used airliner because I would have made that much money.
