airline pilots! please tell me all about your job!?

Question

i do have my ppl and im thinkin of going to embry riddle for aeronautical science. i just want to know everything about your job

Answer 1

First, dont expect to get paid much...your first year you will not clear $20k. But after that it does get better. I graduated from UND about 5 years ago with my degree in Aeronautical Science and I'd say...don't bother with the pilot factories. Get a real degree and enjoy your college experience. While you're doing that, go ahead and learn to fly/get all your ratings. Then become a CFI and build some time.

I currently work for a regional airline and have been here for approximately 6 months. Before that I worked for a different airline until the threat of a furlough came up and I quit. I am a First Officer on a CRJ.

My typical day consists of waking up before the crack of dawn. Sometimes like 4am...but factor in a three hour time change and it feels like 1am. Van ride to the airport, standing in the security line listening to the flight attendant complain about something (they are always complaining about something, but you learn to tune them out). Next is warming up the airplane. APU up, power on, pax start boarding. Most of what we do before a flight is setup and double check. We not only check the systems of the a/c for safety, we have to make sure all the necesary paperwork is done and the legal work is complied with so we dont lose our job because the last crew didnt write something up properly.

Copy clearance, enter it into FMS, copy performance date, enter it into FMS. Takeoff. Auto-pilot on...Sudoku out. Spend three hours reading newspaper, doing crosswords, eating pretzels, and drinking coffee, then land. aRepeat up to 7 times per day depending on the lenth of the flights.

Today my flight was from Toronto (CYYZ) to Salt Lake (KSLC) and took 4:26. Thats a long time to be sitting in the cockpit watching the world go by underneath.

But its not all gloom and boredom. We do have a lot of fun on overnights (not "partying" all the time, just fun stuff like overnighting in Jackson Hole and going snowboarding). Surfing in Santa Barbara...lots of cool stuff. You get paid to go on vacation about once a week and you learn to make the most of wherever you end up.

All in all, if you plan on making a lot of money, find something else to do. If you want to raise a family and be home with the wife/husband and kids, find something else to do. If you enjoy going someplace else and doing random new stuff just for the heck of it...being a pilot can be a fantastic job.

There's a nightclub in Oklahoma City that has live bullriding inside it. Not a mechanical bull, REAL LIVE bullriding. I wouldnt know that if I wasnt a pilot. I can also tell you where the best sushi restaurant in Newport Beach is, and where to get a burger in Aspen. Fun times if you can stand all the little annoyances that come with it and still maintain the ability to be safe and concentrate on your job.

Answer 2

Well, I will try to give you a serious answer. The job can be pretty boring but it does give you some breathtaking views that not many others see.

I did go to a university and got my aeronautical science degree while getting my flight ratings. I don't know if I would do that again. The aeronautical science degree doesn't do much for you. I would sugest getting a degree in some other field that interests you. This will give you some other vocation that you could use in case the flying doesn't work out. (You never know what's going to happen in this industry)

I work at a regional, have been there for 8 years and am a captain. It is a fun job but it does get repetitious. You tend to do the same things over and over. Every 6 months or so you will go in the simulator to review emergency items and other abnormal situations. This can be fun. Also, as a captain I have to get a physical every 6 months but first officers only need to get one once a year.

I fly with some really nice people and that makes the job good. The worst part is the management of the airline. They tend to try and take all of the fun and good things out of the job.

A typical day for me involves reporting for my trip and flying anything from one to six flights for the day. Then it will either be back home or more likely to the hotel for the layover. The next day brings more of the same. Our trips are from one to five days with the majority of the trips being four days. We can have anywhere from one to four days off between trips. It all depends on how senior you are and how the computer decides to build your schedule based on what you ask for. I am on reserve so that means that I am on call. If I don't have a trip already assigned, I am on a 90 minute call out. Once they call me I have 90 minutes to get to the airport. Reserve is not fun at all. The schedulers tend to mess with you pretty bad.

Not sure what else to tell you but it isn't really a very complicated existence. If you have any other questions feel free to e-mail me.

Good luck.

Answer 3

Many people are in love with the "glamorized" version of being an airline pilot, not life AS IT ACTUALLY IS. In all reality, doing the job is often NOT what many imagine it to be. It is decidedly LESS glamorous! I have a friend who gave up everything to become one, yet after a mere 4 years as a pilot got out of commercial aviation as it was not all they had thought it would be and could not stand the low wages- even though they proclaimed they were "Living the dream..." initially. Nonetheless, it is a job unlike any other with a view that is impossible to beat. Here is an example of what I mean here- http://www.geocities.com/av8trxx99/CrewDay.html

Read my website about flight training and airline pilot career questions and you will have the basics of what airline is like.
http://www.geocities.com/av8trxx99/FAQ.html
In all reality, you will be making a barely livable wage, esp if you have a family or student loans from ERAU to pay off. (After 4 years I still didn't net $30,000/yr.) You will be gone for at least 4 days a week and you won't be around for holidays.
If life in a hotel (300+ hours a month away from home) sounds like an adventure, you crave being in an airplane at any cost and you won't mind overnights in cities like Fresno, Green Bay, Tulsa, St Louis ect ect then go for it. You truly have no illusions about the career, have realistic expectations and will not be culture shocked when you finally make it online as a pilot for a regional carrier (where you start out).

Also, DO NOT need to go to ERAU and pay upwards of $80K-100K for a degree in aviation to become a pilot! Airlines could care less what you got your degree in. They only want you to have one- in any subject. Do yourself a favor and get your degree as affordably as possible in a subject that interests you then do your flight training on the side. Being as debt free as possible going into this career will be a blessing!

Answer 4

I can't tell you about working for an airline, as I'm not quite there yet, but I am actually attending ERAU at this very moment. Actually, if it matters at all, I'm set to graduate in less than two weeks with my BS in Aeronautical Science. I personally feel that the education I've recieved here has been fantastic and I'm sure it will prove extremely valuable, but at the same time I wont disagree that it was immensely expensive. I can't preach a comparison between ERAU and other acredited aviation programs and degrees in terms of quality vs. cost, but I'm sure there are cheaper alternatives out there. As the ERAU alum posting ahead of me stated, the airlines aren't going to care where your degree is from, as long as you have one, and you have the skills they are seeking. And as the UND guy ahead of him wrote, don't expect to get rich quick coming out of school, especially if you paid through the nose to attend. I'm looking at coming out of school more than 70 grand in the hole, and probably making $15/hour during my first year as a CFI. I'm told to expect good things after a few years, but certainly not at first.

ERAU has top notch training and education, and if you are interested in a degree in aviation, by all means you're well off to look into it. But don't be fooled (as I was some years ago) into thinking it's the only good option. The school is great, and the flight training is fantastic. The Riddle fleet (at least here in Daytona anyway, I'm not sure about Prescott) will be all G1000 equipped by fall, and we're replacing our multi-engine Piper Seminoles with Diamond Twin-Stars starting this week actually. (Although the Diamonds will be nice, I'm rather fond of the Seminole myself. I actually earned my commercial multi in a Seminole we had on loan from UND after that Christmas day tornado took out a few of ours last year). Also, ERAU now has a capstone course which is now required as part of the Aeronautical Science degree program which is designed specifically for easing the transition into a regional airline type environment, in which we train in a CRJ-200 FTD and offers us the chance to recieve our high altitude endorsements that way.

I don't want to sound like I'm trying to twist your arm to attend Riddle, but at the same time I don't want to shy you away from it either. Once again I'll state that it's a great school, and I keep reading about all these ex-Riddle guys and flight instructors who keep getting pulled up into the regionals like wildfire, but at the same time it's VERY expensive to attend. (If you can get some of your flight training accomplished before attending a university, that will help keep costs down once in school). Just keep in mind where you think you want to get to eventually, what alternatives there are to getting to that point, and then take the route that's best for you. Good luck to you in whatever you decide, and maybe I'll see you around campus in the next few years if I'm still here instructing or something.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

mainly pilots are needed is that they need someone to take off and someone to land the plane... once in the air, auto pilot will do everything

Answer 7

I get in plane, I fly plane, I get out of plane,I get in plane, I fly plane, I get out of plane, I get in plane, I fly plane, I get out of plane, I get in plane, I fly plane, I get out of plane,I get in plane, I fly plane, I get out of plane...
[yawnnsss, snores, snickers]