I've seen $70,000/year and up claimed for aircraft pilot wages. In reality, for most pilots, much less?

Question

I have talked to a few commercial pilots in the Arizona and Utah area that claimed they made $35,000 to $50,000 per year. Much less than a plumber.

I would like to study for commercial flight, but I need to earn at least $60,000 to pay the mortgage on my home and payments on my car. What venue should I study? And how many hours to get to that earning?

Unfortunately, I DO have these payments now. I am older and have been in my career for 15 years. Just looking for a change while still be able to pay my bills.

Answer 1

The general rule in aviation is that everyone is paid much less than what they should be for what they do. Another general rule of aviation, as with any industry, is that the more experience you have at what you do, the more you can make. (GA fuel sales gets a bit confusing, trust me, I got out of it to get into data center construction.)

Every flight instructor I've met is paid about 35%-40% of the instruction and aircraft rental for the actual hours logged on the Hobbs of the airplane, not much above minimum wage for ground instruction, and is typically unpaid while they manage the flight school office.

A pilot I know flying RJ's for Delta is only making about $30,000 a year, having finally made captain. (He paid for his flight training, worked as an instructor and had enough commercial multi-time for them to hire him.)

Currently the best way to get into the higher paying pilot positions with the airlines is to get a college degree, join the millitary as a pilot and let them pay for you to rack up several thousand hours of flight and training time.

There are a few freight companies using RATTY old PA-28s, Aerostars, Cessna 310's and 402's to fly frieight. The requirements for Telesis, for an example, is a single, IFR, commercial and 500 hours. CTA, on the other hand, requires 1000 hours, multi engine, IFR and commercial.

I've been asked to work on the aircraft of both. I won't touch Telesis aircraft, and shop policy was always to document everything wrong in the area we were working in with CTA planes.

Unless you're up for having the millitary retrain you how to fly and spending the next 10-20 years flying transport category on officer's wages, getting and making a living that will support your needs is probably not a viable option.

Every pilot I've met earning $100K or more per year has been a former military pilot, or come from a v-e-r-y rich and patient family.

Simu-Flight in Dallas offers simulator based corporate jet training; you can get your type rating in the aircraft and go fly the real thing for the first time as soon as you get your certificate. Simu-flight is also expensive.

An ATP requires at least 1500 hours of flight time and you typically don't get into what the local GA FBO's refer to as big iron until you've got an ATP. You can be commercial without the ATP, meaning right seat on smaller, older, corporate jets if you've gone to Simu-Flight and bought the type rating.

Another general rule is that nothing comes cheap. Fuel, parts, pilot ratings; 10 years ago I paid $95 each for nuts for my company's old HS-125.

Best bet, stay with what you're doing, take some courses to upgrade your income, fly when you can afford it and work your way to bigger, better and faster aircraft.

Best of Luck

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

knowing you don't have this mortgage & car payments now. I recommend you goto a 4year college get a degree in aironautics/flight school. Example Kent State University in Ohio has this.

Or you other option is if you are smart in Math, Physics. Goto College get a Major. Join AF ROTC (helps pay for college) or join AF after you graduate. Take the Air Force officer exam to become a AF Pilot. You'll be an officer right out of college. Girls like that. After only 6-8 years of flying you can finish your career with Great Benefits, and a polished resume that anyone needing a pilot will want you. Of course AF Pilots have great benefits and Pay as your rank goes up. You might not want to leave the AF. Hoped this helped. I also provided links.
Link 1 is about the AFROTC
Link 2 Is about the AF and Ranks etc,
Link 3 payscale per month for officers
I could use 10pts. thanks

Answer 4

You will spend upwards of 50k getting the ratings in place to give you the opportunity to be hired. Pay attention here: only the 'opportunity'. The reality is, you will spend several years struggling to survive to gain the experience needed to become attractive to the majors. At which point, as a new hire first officer, your salary expectations will soar into the low 20's per year. After you've been in place for a couple years, and show ability, you'll make captain of a smaller commuter plane, and your salary will suddenly jump into the mid 30's.
To get into the 60's will take a minimum of 5 to 7 years. Providing none of the Arabic extremists do something stupid and convince people it's unsafe to fly.
After you get hired by a major. The days of international captains making 200k+ is over. As those guys retire, they will be replaced by guys topping out at barely over 100k. The airlines realized several years ago that the union had forced wages WAY out of line with reality, and they are doing everything they can to get them back down.

Answer 5

You might want to consider a specialization in powerplant (those who actually build the planes) for a commercial pilot, if you are aiming for 60Gs min, then you will have to be flying a jet airliner, and ofcourse to get there you should have accumulated really considerable flight time

Answer 6

250 hrs. minimum to get commercial license
1500 hrs. minimum ATP (airline transport pilot) license (though not required to fly for hire, most regional airlines require it.)

Many pilots get their commercial license and then work as a instructor to build up the hours.
The number of hours to get a job that will get you $60k
varies depending on the industry. But safe to say at least 4 years.

Answer 7

If you wish to make a small fortune an aviation start witha large one. Pay in the vast majority of pilot jobs is very, very poor, which is why I do a job that pays well so I can fly my own airplane where I want to go. Flying is a job that you do for love (of flying), not money.

Answer 8

First year over 30,000. & up. After 10 years 100,000. to well over 200,000.It depends on the airlines. They all have different salaries. Get in touch with different flight schools & check out the cost. You can see what to major in for an airline pilot.

Answer 9

you wont be making $60,000 for at least 10 years after you get hired by an airline... and getting hired is harder than you think... also, you must pass a stringent background test and if you have ever been arrested, charged with a DUI or have several license suspensions, you can kiss your chances good-bye...

Answer 10

if you fly a 747-400, you could probaly eran up to $200,000