Commuter airlines' underpaid pilots are plain scary: Connie Schultz

You want cheap fares. When possible you will get underpaid flight crews and little puddle jump planes flying at near thier max ranges. You made your air route not fly in it

I made less than $19,000 last year as a first officer of a regional airline for Northwest which is now Delta. Do you think I am happy with my wage? Would you be happy? This is why I am changing careers and guess what, a fresh 19 year old is going to replace me with much less experience. There never will be a shortage of pilots, but there will be a shortage of safe and experienced pilots. Next time you board a commuter airline ask the pilots how many hours they each have and what they are getting paid. You will be surprised and scared at the same time.

Once again, the problem with pilot pay is there are just too many pilots out there who need to build up time to fly for the majors where the real money is. Too many pilots, not enough jobs. If the commuters could find pilots that would fly for free, just to build up hours, they would do it and not think twice about it.
The only solution is either close these pilot schools down or pilot wannabees need to realize they will be paid peanuts for years and chances of them hiring on at the majors is very slim as they simply are not hiring. The flight schools say the majors are hiring in their advertizing, but students have to understand they are lying, the schools just want their money for tuition.
The schools attitude is if you have to work in a donut shop to make ends meet after gradustion, if you can find a job in aviation, thats too bad.

Major airlines pilots are not making the money they deserve based on their responsiblity either and will take some joint effort between unions to get it rectified. It is not nearly to the degree of the commuter pilots, but I guess a few more high profile crashes and people will get the picture about taking their life in their hands on the commuter airlines.

Of course no one seems to apply the same logic to those that maintain and repair those aircraft. You got a cheap fare, who cares what else.

hamhock wrote:

Of course no one seems to apply the same logic to those that maintain and repair those aircraft. You got a cheap fare, who cares what else.

Luckily the latest scenerio, full scale pilot lands in river saves lives and underpaid commuter pilot crashes is what made the media. While your scenerio, underskilled mechanic fixes plane so poorly pilot cannot avoid distaster hasn't happened. YET. It's amazing people will pay $30+ a day to valet part the car only to get on the cheapest carrier they can find. I'd rather spend my money on safety and long term parking personally.

Pilot rest, may be compromised by trades, as well as living 300 miles or more from their base.
The fact that this commuter company still has it's certification is really the question.

TO; Prost:
If you check the news from the past three years or so, yes, mechanics at commuters have goofed up planes so badly they crashed.
At Colgan, yet again, their mechanics improperly installed the elevator control cables and the plane crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.
Luckily the aircarft was on a repositioning hop and only the two crewmen were killed.
Air Midwest lost a Beech 1900 at Charlotte a few years ago when again control cables for the elevator were improperly installed and the plane crashed on takeoff into a USAIR hangar killng all 21 on board.( contract MX this time.)
Recently up in Columbus, Oh.,an AirTahoma CV-580 freighter crashed on takeoff after heavy MX when maintenence , yet again, improperly installed the flight control cables causing the aircraft to crash killing the 3 crewman on board.
These were all commuter or podunk airlines with poorly paid mechs and probably little or no tech training or professionalism.
I heard a saying a long time ago when I first got into civilian aircraft MX with the commuters. At the time MX was being paid about $6.00 per hour.
The saying went, " When you pay peanuts, you get monkies". Although not true , all the time, as I have seen mechanics at the major American Airline I was with who I wouldn't let work on my sons' bicycle let alone an airplane (and they made some big bucks)the saying is true more often than not.

Coming off of 6 years of flying for the military, it is not suprising these smaller airlines are not willing to pay for my experience and 1800 flight hours when they can get newbies flying for less money. It is a shame that people have to die for the public to take notice of a trend that has been ongoing for many years... though acting as if this is a recent development. Air travel is like mortgages... some people simply shouldn't have a mortgage or afford a home just as the reasonable cost of air travel would not make travel affordable for everyone. Yes, it costs more to truly have the level of experience, skill and safety needed to operate which also brings better service, attitude and customers...

Want to find out what different airlines are paying their pilots. Go to www.airlinepilotcentral.com and click on Airline Profiles on the right of the page and then select regionals, then the airline of your choice. Remember that the pay schedule for any given airline is based on a flight hour pay and not a 40 hour work week. A pilot is not allowed to fly more than 100 hours in a 30 day period. In real life it is about 80-85 hours in 30 days. For example Compass Airlines first year FO (copilot) pay is $24 ($24 x 85 hours =$2040 gross per month) After taxes and insurance the take home pay is close to $1500 per month. How would you like to fly on an airline that pays its pilots less than a cashier at McDonald's? Enjoy!

RWG wrote:

TO; Prost:
If you check the news from the past three years or so, yes, mechanics at commuters have goofed up planes so badly they crashed.
At Colgan, yet again, their mechanics improperly installed the elevator control cables and the plane crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.
Luckily the aircarft was on a repositioning hop and only the two crewmen were killed.
Air Midwest lost a Beech 1900 at Charlotte a few years ago when again control cables for the elevator were improperly installed and the plane crashed on takeoff into a USAIR hangar killng all 21 on board.( contract MX this time.)
Recently up in Columbus, Oh.,an AirTahoma CV-580 freighter crashed on takeoff after heavy MX when maintenence , yet again, improperly installed the flight control cables causing the aircraft to crash killing the 3 crewman on board.
These were all commuter or podunk airlines with poorly paid mechs and probably little or no tech training or professionalism.
I heard a saying a long time ago when I first got into civilian aircraft MX with the commuters. At the time MX was being paid about $6.00 per hour.
The saying went, " When you pay peanuts, you get monkies". Although not true , all the time, as I have seen mechanics at the major American Airline I was with who I wouldn't let work on my sons' bicycle let alone an airplane (and they made some big bucks)the saying is true more often than not.

Every collective has it's idiots. AA, UA, SW you name it are not immune. I'm sure some of these commuters have some top flight wrenchers too. But on the whole, yes, you do get what you pay for.

Prost wrote:

<quoted text>Every collective has it's idiots. AA, UA, SW you name it are not immune. I'm sure some of these commuters have some top flight wrenchers too. But on the whole, yes, you do get what you pay for.

Well, you don't always get what you pay for. How about the wizards at AA and CO who damaged DC-10 engines using unauthorized maintenance procedures which in AA's case led to the most disastrous crash in US history. Likewise, EAL mechanics left the O-rings off of the chip detectors on all three engines of an L-1011 which just barely made it back to land. Well paid mechanics at COEX forgot to screw the tail back together on an EMB 120 which crashed killing all on board. UAL 232 crashed because their vaunted high end maintenance failed to spot cracks in the engine fan disk. Then there was the Alaska MD-80 who's elevator screw jack was not properly maintained, causing a fatal crash. There are lots more goofs that go unreported because they don't cause crashes. Accidents happen because of human error regardless of the pay level. Of course thousands of potential accidents have been prevented by human vigilance so I think we humans will be involved in the maintenance business for a while.

Major irline pilots are still underpaid. Sullys take home pay for the 1 leg from lga to clt would have been around 170 dollars. thats right. A two hour flight at 125/hr minus taxes. I think the 150 passengers would be surprised. If each passenger gave him 2 dollars, Sully would have been better off.