Salaries

[fdpiper]

I am 36 and contemplating a career change. I always loved flying and have wanted to get my pilot’s license. I have a few ?s I am sure you all are tired of answering.

1. How many comm pilots do not get jobs that actual want a job and logs the hours.
2. What is the average w-2 earnings of a FO the first year and how quickly does your salary increase? ( I under stand there are many variables)

I am not trying to get rich and money isn’t everything but I am married and I have a child due to be born in Nov. I have a decent job with good benefits and I must provide for my family first and formost.

[juskl]

Prior to leaving my prior profession, I was taking home almost 2K every two weeks, that is after all my benefits, retirements, deferred stock, etc.

I have been a flight instructor full time for three months and my largest take home was 720.00 with zero benefits, retirement, etc.

I was and still am able to off set all of this by living off of my retirement accounts from my old career (I took a huge tax hit though for early withdrawl and paid the IRS about 20K)......

My quality of life is the same, because I paid off most debt and am living in an apartment, versus the house, second mortgage, car payments, stuff....

Also, I have no kids, recently divorced and am able to just worry about myself.

The reality is that if kids were in the picture for me, I never would have been able to leave my old career to make this work. But that is just my situation. Others here have made the whole thing work.

You may want to go at things part time at first though and make sure that this is what you want to do. I already had my commercial for several years before I made the leap... And I am glad that I did. All I had to do was finish up my CFI and was fortunate to get hired from the place that I finished up.

I have said this many times, but if you just consider your early flying years as a paid internship, where you have sooooooo much to learn and a steep learning curve, it will all hurt less and you will have more fun with it.

From talking to friends flying for regionals and others on this site, first year FO's start in the mid 20K per year and go up from there. You will make money eventually, but it will take a bit.

The cool thing is that there is soooo many directions for your career to take and soooooo many jobs out there for those with the necessary time and experience. But getting the time and experience is what it is all about. Like anything there is the good, bad and ugly..... But honestly, (though only getting 16 and hour) watching the early morning go by when you have a squared away student doing quality touch and go's and you not having to do much but enjoy the view, it a pretty cool way to make a living.....

Good luck to you......

[LoadMasterC141]

I would do some searches here for that subject. Wheelsup did a fantastic job of accounting for his first year pay here:
http://forums.jetcareers.com/pro-pil...l-get-you.html

You can also checkout Airline Pilot Central and look at salaries

[fdpiper]

I can keep my job and do the training part time. ( only work 10 days a month)
I am not in a hurry.

The salaries are hard to figure out. I have seen everything from $12,000 to $40,000 a year for starting pay for an FO. Not being in the business I do not know the ins and outs of the pay scales and who is full of BS.

How Hard is it to get a job once you have the hours?

[LoadMasterC141]

Use the link and goto Airline Pilot Central. The payscales are what they are. Also at that site, you can see min guarantee, per diem rates, most junior Captain hire date (Give you an idea of upgrade to Captain time). Also there are regional minimum hours required.

12 to 40k is a rather broad range. I would say, without per diem, it is more like 18-27k first year. Maybe 24-35k the second. Again, have a look at the actual payscales at APC. Use the calculator and slide it around to min guarantee and you can get a basic idea of pay.

I would say, as long as you are a fairly normal human being, that chances are good that you would get hired at or close to the min required hours right now; the regionals seem to need pilots alot more than they have in the past.

[shooter13]

Let me ask,
What do you do 10 days a month?

[fdpiper]

I am a firefighter/ paramedic