flynavyj

It's awesome that you didn't bite @ the big expenses and little pay that commair was promising you redguy, cudos to ya, everyone should be able to see the light, unfortuantley many individuals come to aviation thinking that you "will" make big bux as a pilot (remembering yester-year or public opinion), and then are "disappointed" some stick it out, some drop out (change majors) etc.

As lots have stated, regionals are typically a stepping stone, there are some people who make it a career and are content with 100k/yr (honestly i would be) if i require more than 100k a year to live, i'm probalby desiring a lil' to much. As far as time spent however, do you think tooling around in a 310/402 will be more desirable than an RJ in the future? Another Q, are you flying around single pilot or crew? That can dramatically change the flight enviornment and you don't make decesions for "yourself" but you make them as a team (to some extent).

Also, don't be quite so quick to jump as to whether an instructor has had to make hard decision, often they're making a decision for themselves and their students, or trying to judge their choices based on their best knowledge of their student, which can be more difficult than simply making a decision for yourself. And as an instructor, i saw it as my duty to my students to ensure that they would allow them to make some decisions on their own, while being sure to push them to fly in weather and on days that they didn't particularlly want to on occasion...why? because it's exactly what they'll be expected to do for the rest of their life.

RedGuy

I don't plan on flying 310/402's forever, these are also stepping stones. I will likely never fly any RJ's since I refuse to fly for the low pay they offer. I don't ever see flying an RJ as desireable, not because of the plane, but the oporators. Some of the planes I've flown where I work now came from commuter and regional airlines. I fly the 310/402 single pilot, but I have flown in a crew. The company I work for flys several types of A/C with only the Cessna's being single pilot, everything else is 2 crew. I started at this company flying co-pilot in Bandits, so it's not like a crew environment is foreign to me.

As for instructors making difficult decisions, you do have to be able to know when a student is ready for what ever part of training they're doing. I instructed on a part time basis for 4 years. However they don't really deal with weather, their flights are all local, and they really do all their flying in good weather. Even what they would consider "bad" weather is nothing compaired to what you fly in flying an unpressurized A/C 135. Then if you hop right into a jet after that, you fly above the weather, so again you miss all that experience.

ChrisH

It doesn't really take as long as you may think. I know guys making close to that who have been at regionals less than 10yrs. It depends on how much time you can credit. As careerpilot pointed out, one of his friends, an FO, made $72K one year.

Regional pay really isn't that bad once you get past first year, and especially once in the left seat. Once you have seniority, 17+ days off per month, and 3 weeks of vacation, making possibly close to, if not $100K, depending on family situation, it may not be the best choice for some to start over again, at the majors, just to fly a larger airplane, and take an initial paycut.

You do make a valid point, however, and that is there are other options than the regionals.

careerpilot

We have hundreds of ex TWA pilots and Flight attendants currently working for us. You might even call us Tweagle.

Kgn6

ccccccccccccccccccccccccccc

Kgn6

8 years EMJ FO........must be bidding reserve to make $32K..........Turbo prop drivers make more than that at that seniority