End of 2022 Salary Survey
01-18-2023, 04:34 AM
#421
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jul 2007
Position: B737 FO
Posts: 709
I'll chime in from the neglected step-child side of the aviation industry. 135/133 (longline) utility/firefighting helicopter work. 15+ years.
$170,000 base pay
$11,700 flight + bonus pay
$1900 per diem
$5000 IRA 3% match
$188,600 Total gross compensation
Slow fire year so only about 300 hours flown. Schedule is terrible when it exists at all, work 200+ days a year usually. Flying can be good fun but still question my career choices. Mostly due to losing a few good friends to crashes. An impossible task to improve the safety of these contraptions to anywhere near 121 safety. I'm glad y'all keep pushing for better pay and QoL because it has slowly forced our industry to adjust too.
$170,000 base pay
$11,700 flight + bonus pay
$1900 per diem
$5000 IRA 3% match
$188,600 Total gross compensation
Slow fire year so only about 300 hours flown. Schedule is terrible when it exists at all, work 200+ days a year usually. Flying can be good fun but still question my career choices. Mostly due to losing a few good friends to crashes. An impossible task to improve the safety of these contraptions to anywhere near 121 safety. I'm glad y'all keep pushing for better pay and QoL because it has slowly forced our industry to adjust too.
And as others have mentioned, no shame in bailing to 121...if ever there was a time to come over it's now. I for one always appreciate flying with pilots that have a different background from the norm and the experience they bring.
01-18-2023, 12:43 PM
#422
New Hire
Joined APC: Feb 2022
Posts: 3
Stay safe out there. You guys do extremely important but quite dangerous work, often in very austere environments. I always laugh when fellow airline pilots tell me how tough we have it.
signed,
a prior rotorhead that jumped to the 121 world.
signed,
a prior rotorhead that jumped to the 121 world.
I spent a good chunk of my career working under part 137. I never made nearly the $ as you now do. I found it much more fulfilling than the 121 flying I currently do. I really miss it. Kinda feel like I sold my soul for a 16% DC.
I’ll gladly have a boring job that pays 300k+ a year over a fun flying job that pays crap…
Thanks for sharing. Interesting. Why not come on over to the 121(boring) side?
As others have said, thanks for what you do for all of us. No amount of money will replace the satisfaction of an important job well done. That said, there is no shame in switching to 121 so your kids can go to the college of there choice.
Very interesting, thanks for sharing. I'm glad some pay raises have reached the helicopter world. Just curious, what was pay like ~10 years ago?
And as others have mentioned, no shame in bailing to 121...if ever there was a time to come over it's now. I for one always appreciate flying with pilots that have a different background from the norm and the experience they bring.
Thanks for sharing. Interesting. Why not come on over to the 121(boring) side?
As others have said, thanks for what you do for all of us. No amount of money will replace the satisfaction of an important job well done. That said, there is no shame in switching to 121 so your kids can go to the college of there choice.
Very interesting, thanks for sharing. I'm glad some pay raises have reached the helicopter world. Just curious, what was pay like ~10 years ago?
And as others have mentioned, no shame in bailing to 121...if ever there was a time to come over it's now. I for one always appreciate flying with pilots that have a different background from the norm and the experience they bring.
I know fire guys who make six figures working the fire season 2 weeks on 2 weeks off and skiing the winter on unemployment.
01-18-2023, 08:38 PM
#423
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Apr 2013
Posts: 523
Smart moves! I went the other way. Was an FO for $20k/year for a bit before seeing greener grass in rotorcraft. Whoops. Heli flying gets pretty tedious too. Lots of negative customer management and oversight at the moment and keeps getting worse.
~10 years ago I made $60-80k for the same work. Top pay I knew of back then was just under $100k. Now lots of base/1st year pay around $105-110k with pretty easy to achieve $130-140k. A big improvement but still plenty of room to grow if we're to keep anybody vibrating around in helicopters! I do think about rejoining your ranks, thanks for keeping threads like this one around and keeping the information out there! I have a side hustle tied to helicopters that is currently worth enough to keep me rooted in place or I would have tried to make the jump. If I keep reading these posts one of these years y'all will convince me!
For sure there are pretty decent fire and utility jobs out there for a few lucky folks. I am happy with the money I make but I'm not skiing on unemployment at the moment haha.
~10 years ago I made $60-80k for the same work. Top pay I knew of back then was just under $100k. Now lots of base/1st year pay around $105-110k with pretty easy to achieve $130-140k. A big improvement but still plenty of room to grow if we're to keep anybody vibrating around in helicopters! I do think about rejoining your ranks, thanks for keeping threads like this one around and keeping the information out there! I have a side hustle tied to helicopters that is currently worth enough to keep me rooted in place or I would have tried to make the jump. If I keep reading these posts one of these years y'all will convince me!
For sure there are pretty decent fire and utility jobs out there for a few lucky folks. I am happy with the money I make but I'm not skiing on unemployment at the moment haha.
01-18-2023, 09:03 PM
#424
Line holder
Joined APC: Nov 2013
Position: On the bus,seat 0A
Posts: 3,330
I added the comment about experienced people making mistakes as a disclaimer. But I see that could have been interpreted differently.
01-20-2023, 10:34 AM
#425
New Hire
Joined APC: Jan 2023
Position: 737 Captain
Posts: 6
Southwest 19 Year Captain
870 Block
W2 $581,468
NEC $87,220
Profit Sharing $21,394
Total Compensation: $690,082
Just working the free market economy here at SWA. This was my best year. Always am a bit of a high time flyer and know a few tricks of the trade which I am always willing to share with my F/O's. It is definitely a blessing but can also be a curse if you have workaholic tendencies.
870 Block
W2 $581,468
NEC $87,220
Profit Sharing $21,394
Total Compensation: $690,082
Just working the free market economy here at SWA. This was my best year. Always am a bit of a high time flyer and know a few tricks of the trade which I am always willing to share with my F/O's. It is definitely a blessing but can also be a curse if you have workaholic tendencies.
01-20-2023, 09:01 PM
#426
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Nov 2017
Posts: 2,113
Southwest 19 Year Captain
870 Block
W2 $581,468
NEC $87,220
Profit Sharing $21,394
Total Compensation: $690,082
Just working the free market economy here at SWA. This was my best year. Always am a bit of a high time flyer and know a few tricks of the trade which I am always willing to share with my F/O's. It is definitely a blessing but can also be a curse if you have workaholic tendencies.
870 Block
W2 $581,468
NEC $87,220
Profit Sharing $21,394
Total Compensation: $690,082
Just working the free market economy here at SWA. This was my best year. Always am a bit of a high time flyer and know a few tricks of the trade which I am always willing to share with my F/O's. It is definitely a blessing but can also be a curse if you have workaholic tendencies.
01-21-2023, 06:24 PM
#430
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Nov 2020
Posts: 1,891
Southwest 19 Year Captain
870 Block
W2 $581,468
NEC $87,220
Profit Sharing $21,394
Total Compensation: $690,082
Just working the free market economy here at SWA. This was my best year. Always am a bit of a high time flyer and know a few tricks of the trade which I am always willing to share with my F/O's. It is definitely a blessing but can also be a curse if you have workaholic tendencies.
870 Block
W2 $581,468
NEC $87,220
Profit Sharing $21,394
Total Compensation: $690,082
Just working the free market economy here at SWA. This was my best year. Always am a bit of a high time flyer and know a few tricks of the trade which I am always willing to share with my F/O's. It is definitely a blessing but can also be a curse if you have workaholic tendencies.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
