A new low?

[small penguin]

The plumber deserves to get paid more of course! (note the sarcasm) There are too many airline pilots for the amount of seats available. Thus the fighting and bickering. And the low wages. The industry is in a shitbucket anyways.

A plumber on the other hand, like an electrician, or other 'blue collar' jobs, are in an industry where there arent enough of them to meet demand. Why else can they charge you 60 dollars an hour to fix your kitchen sink leaky pipe.

Airline pilots AREN'T Gods!

[Wacko]

Keep in mind that a plumber, after a few years, can start his own business and charge whatever s/he pleases... granted, they have to stay competitive but they have the prospect of working for self... I've been saving my wooden nickels since finishing my CPL.... alas, I am still about 980000000 nickels short

[square]

You can work for yourself in aviation too, I know a guy who operates one Navajo by himself with no other staff, maybe his wife does his phones but that's it. And he flies a lot.

[Meatservo]

Cat, It's fine to be humble, but give me a break. No-one is trying to put down plumbers or welders or anyone else here, but the comparison is not apt. Anyone who thinks a plumber has a better lot in life, is welcome to go be a plumber. I'm sure it's not particularly challenging. I for one am willing to give this "pilot" racket a few more years before I give up. I still find it exciting.

Penguin, when you are on his/her plane, he/she is YOUR god, whether you like it or not. So it is, and so it shall ever be. Sorry to infringe upon your self-worth, but at certain times, in certain places, some people ARE more important than others. I don't have a clue where you might have learned otherwise.

[ottawa,kan]

I do a lot of irrigation plumbing. Thank god that's all clean water!! Plumbers get paid only for the work they do. Shitty work. Pilots get less because of all the glory. Imagine being at a bar, or meeting your future father-in-law. Do you want to be introduced as a plumber or a pilot?? Sure it doesn't pay the bills, but gosh you look GOOD in that pretty white shirt.

[Kelowna Pilot]

Pilot wages are a reflection of (unregulated) supply and limited demand, and the fact that pilots have no formal organization that represents and defends their interests.

The other factor is that movement is grinding to a halt, and may start to go into a reverse flow soon. This is already happening in the US, and it's just a matter of time before it hits Canada.

Once employers detect that the ball is back in their court, you can expect further concessions and wage reductions.

[trey kule]

The supply and demand , I think, is only part of the challange. The fact is a pilot with a bare commerical and ratings is not really employable in many instances. The challange then, is to get someone to take them on and accept the added risk to give them experience. It is getting harder as the "bush" is gettting relatively smaller. The result is that many companies simply hire them as FO's to put a warm butt in the right seat. Train them only to minimums, and pay them accordingly.

Will it change? I have my doubts. No course is going to provide the necessary actual flying experience, and the cost of providing that training is almost prohibitive. Lufthansa and BOAC have tried it in the past (and present) with limited success.

It is a fact of the industry. And for the life of me, I can not understand how working the ramp helps.

[Four1oh]

I don't believe some of you people. You could have the opportunity to drive a multi-engine turboprop with only 1500TT and 500 PIC? Who GIVES a SHIT what they're paying? Not so long ago, you couldn't get hired as an FO with those hours!

Thats an excellent attitude to have,, way to keep the industry in the shitter.

It's an attitude that will get an ambitious 1500 hour pilot some very valuable experience, but I don't expect someone as enlightened as you to figure that out. Don't worry, in a few short years during the next downturn, they'll be demanding 8000 hours of experience to fly a twotter at that wage.

[KAG]

I think some on here need a reality check. First off 46K for a 1500 hour King Air CPT is ok pay and bottom of the barrel mins. Wasn’t two years ago some on here were bitching about north Caribou’s mins being too high (thanks to contrail) and the pay then wasn’t that different if not lower.
Lets also not forget it wasn’t all that long ago seeing that same job posting would have at least a 3K TT with 1000 multi PIC attached to it. Yes it’s not the premium paying Beech job, then again, at 1500 hours you’re not a premium single engine pilot let alone a multi turbine captain. Take it for what it is, a great start in a great company the with possibility of flying bigger machines (1900's, dash 8's and jets) at a good wage.

Stop bitching.

[Wacko]

Stop bitching.

[Scuba_Steve]

Cariboo has a pay scale that tops out near 70k on the king air fleet, once you meet some of our more stringent customer qualifications. Although if you were still on a king air by the time you reached 3000-4000 hours I would be amazed, you'd likely be on a 1900, Dash, or a Jet.

I've been here almost 2 years now and they have upped the pay significantly, twice.

[ragbagflyer]

Seriously, this isn't a bad offer for the opportunity it gives. I'm a big supporter of better pay for a lot flying jobs but I see this as a fair offer. For somebody like me with 1600 hours of mostly bush PIC but very little multi time it's a good way to leapfrog into better waters. One year at this job and either north caribou ups your pay or you go direct to captain with another company. I can make a little more at some float jobs but those are hard to come by when the winter rolls around. I imagine it also opens a lot of doors if you want to get into the international expat game. I'm sure it would easily cover all the bases required for an atpl too. I'm not of the opinion that you need to fly with an experienced captain for thousands of hours to learn all the tricks. Float drivers mangage, helicopter pilots manage etc. As long as a pilot does't push the boundaries to aggressively and has a good supply of support from the more experienced guys I think they can manage and slowly become comfortable with the more challenging flying. If company culture is such that a less experienced pilot isn't reprimanded for not trying a sketchy approach or really short strip then it can work. Basically, this is exactly the job I need right now. My resume is in.