any pilots here?

I've got my private and got about half-way through instrument when I ran out of money. Commercial pilots really are glorified bus drivers and the starting pay is atrocious. I realized that I wanted to fly more as a hobby and so I'm going through A&P school right now and plan on staying in GA. From what I've seen lately, unless you know someone in the industry that can get you a job it can be damn near impossible to find work.

 

Well said. I've been flying since the mid sixties and it's not much better now than it was then. I do mostly ag work and the only real improvements I've seen are in equipment and safety features. Ag flying is still a seasonal job with no real security or benefits. Unless you're willing to live like a gypsy and follow the crops there's not much chance at making a good living at it...at least in our area.
I fly about 500 hours a year but that's just an average. Some years it's 1000 hours, some years it's almost none. I look at it now as additional income, not as the primary source.

 

Agree. You can either spend a boatload on training to get an entry level flying job that pays $20K/yr (if you are lucky) or you can get a "normal" non-flying career that pays $60K/yr and live the $20K/yr lifestyle that you would have lived as a pilot, leaving you a $40K/yr surplus that could be spent on flying really cool airplanes for fun.

Don't want to discourage you from pursuing your dreams, but the fact is there are a lot of very qualified pilots out there right now who are unemployed. For most it's a tough racket, except for the exceptionally lucky.

 

And for the record, I would rather do what Brunes does than what I do.

If I were 10 years younger I would consider joining the CG to become a rotorhead. Seems like it would be a lot more fun than flying stuffed shirts around from yacht club to yacht club.

 

I got my ratings through my uncle, he owns a plane with some guys and is a CFII. So i got my ratings pretty cheap, that being said I am out of the industry and gladly. I saw how my friends that were CFi's and those got hired as regional pilots lived and decided it was not for me. My best friend graduated from ERAU with all his loans and had to "Pay" 30k to get a job that would pay for his type rating. after that he only got about 25k a yr. If you like to fly, get rich buy your own plane.