How much money should I expect to make in the industry??

Ed Haywood said:
Why is being a professional pilot any different than being a lawyer or doctor?
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Typically Dr's and Lawyers are home every night. They are also home for holidays, kids birthdays, etc. Dr's and Lawyers don't find themselves halfway around the world one day, back home for a few days then gone to the other side of the world again, dealing with multiple time zone changes.

Dr's and Lawyers also don't have to worry about a failed medical ending their career.
 
And the same applies to them. If you are only in it for the money, you will not be happy going to work every day.
 
Doc Holliday said:
Typically Dr's and Lawyers are home every night. They are also home for holidays, kids birthdays, etc. Dr's and Lawyers don't find themselves halfway around the world one day, back home for a few days then gone to the other side of the world again, dealing with multiple time zone changes.

Dr's and Lawyers also don't have to worry about a failed medical ending their career.
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You're home every night and make well into the six figures. ;)
 
Half Fast said:
Oh, okay.

I lived in downtown Atlanta while attending Ga Tech. Crime and traffic were awful then (it was around the time of the Atlanta youth murders, https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/atlanta-youth-murders/ ) and they’re worse now.

North of Atlanta is better but it doesn’t become good until you get near Dahlonega.....
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Growth has been shooting up the GA 400 corridor for 30 years now. Dahlonega used to be a sleepy tourist town in the Blue Ridge foothills, but even it is becoming urbanized now.
 
write-stuff said:
Growth has been shooting up the GA 400 corridor for 30 years now. Dahlonega used to be a sleepy tourist town in the Blue Ridge foothills, but even it is becoming urbanized now.
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Oh, I know. My SIL just moved down here from Elijay. We used to visit her there pretty often.
 
Steve Martin:

"You can be a millionaire, and NEVER pay taxes. That's right.

First, get a million dollars. Then, when the IRS says you never paid taxes, remember these two magic words. I FORGOT!"
 
Half Fast said:
Oh, okay.

I lived in downtown Atlanta while attending Ga Tech. Crime and traffic were awful then (it was around the time of the Atlanta youth murders, https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/atlanta-youth-murders/ ) and they’re worse now.

North of Atlanta is better but it doesn’t become good until you get near Dahlonega.....
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I was in high school on the east side of Atlanta at that time. It wasn't so bad. I roamed the town pretty much at will, without any sense of threat. Traffic sucked then, and still does, but what city is different? I-4 from Orlando to Tampa is no better.

My uncle owned a cluster of decrepit pre-civil-war factory buildings just northwest of the Tech campus, which he bought for a song right after the Korean War. It was a really cool place, full of all kinds of real life steam punk machinery driven by belts from a system of pulleys on the ceiling. I worked in his sheet metal shop there in the summers. Movie studios used to rent the buildings to film; the most notable being Hunger Games and The Walking Dead. Now it is an artist's commune and hipster paradise. It got the name "goat farm" because my uncle was too cheap to pay anyone to cut the grass, so he kept goats. He got thrown in jail several times for raising livestock within city limits, which is apparently illegal. Who knew?

IMG_20160721_144636-PANO.jpghunger games.PNG
 
Ed Haywood said:
… "goat farm" because my uncle was too cheap to pay anyone to cut the grass, so he kept goats...
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Reminds of places in Africa where goats are called “grasscutter” and they’re a combination business and food supply.
 
Ed Haywood said:
I was in high school on the east side of Atlanta at that time. It wasn't so bad.
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Stone Mountain area? That used to be a pretty place, but I haven't been there in many years.

GT rented out the Lucky Street YMCA in the heart of downtown as an overflow dorm and that's where I lived for a couple of years. I doubt it's there anymore.

Downtown was pretty bad. My car was broken into several times. A young lady friend was robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight walking out to her car in the GT admin parking lot. Guy I knew in the dorm was mugged and had his head slammed into a brick wall, spent a few days in the hospital. A buddy who lived across the hall from me saw a shooting in the alley below his window one night. The Techwood projects, between us and the main campus, were riddled with robberies, shootings, beatings, etc.

We used to say, "Welcome to Downtown Atlanta, where life is cheap. And parking isn't." And that was pretty much the truth, too.
 
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RyanShort1 said:
If you get stuck below the airlines plan on being in five figures unless you learn to be an entrepreneur and own a business. Apart from the airlines, building your own company is the only way you *might* rival a senior captain.
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I work for the Gov, I make some decent 6 figures. A secured pension on top of my TSP(401K), and I get to carry a gun.

A lot of people get so fixed on the airline. There are Gov pilot jobs out there that make real god money and never have to worry about layoffs and get a pension. DEA, FBI, CBP,
 
TommyG said:
I work for the Gov, I make some decent 6 figures. A secured pension on top of my TSP(401K), and I get to carry a gun.

A lot of people get so fixed on the airline. There are Gov pilot jobs out there that make real god money and never have to worry about layoffs and get a pension. DEA, FBI, CBP,
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Yeah, I recognize that those jobs are out there, and I'm doing aerial photography, for instance, but it's not a high percentage deal. There are just so many positions available and there are a ton of new commercial pilots out there and I think that the competition is going to be pretty stiff especially with the hiring slowdown at the regionals. I was trying to inject realistic expectations into the discussion.
 
Half Fast said:
Stone Mountain area? That used to be a pretty place, but I haven't been there in many years.

GT rented out the Lucky Street YMCA in the heart of downtown as an overflow dorm and that's where I lived for a couple of years. I doubt it's there anymore.

Downtown was pretty bad. My car was broken into several times. A young lady friend was robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight walking out to her car in the GT admin parking lot. Guy I new in the dorm was mugged and had his head slammed into a brick wall, spent a few days in the hospital. A buddy who lived across the hall from me saw a shooting in the alley below his window one night. The Techwood projects, between us and the main campus, were riddled with robberies, shootings, beatings, etc.

We used to say, "Welcome to Downtown Atlanta, where life is cheap. And parking isn't." And that was pretty much the truth, too.
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Clarkston, next town in from Stone Mountain. I spent many weekends at the park, mostly up to no good.

There were definitely no-go zones, mostly in the public housing areas. A close friend of mine was career APD. He took me on a few ride alongs in "zone 1", which was the worst area. But most of the town was benign.
 
RyanShort1 said:
If you get stuck below the airlines plan on being in five figures unless you learn to be an entrepreneur and own a business. Apart from the airlines, building your own company is the only way you *might* rival a senior captain.
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@loganjvx Don't listen to him. Once inflation hits hard enough, you'll make six figures. :lol::yesnod::lol:
 
Skip the wife and kids for now. If you don't, be sure they know that you'll be gone for long-ish periods of time and you may have to move at some point.
 
Groundpounder said:
Skip the wife and kids for now. If you don't, be sure they know that you'll be gone for long-ish periods of time and you may have to move at some point.
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No need to skip. Just pick carefully. Married mine two weeks after getting my CFI. We have moved twelve times and will be celebrating 25 years of marriage this summer.

Still don’t know why she puts up with me and this career.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
No need to skip. Just pick carefully. Married mine two weeks after getting my CFI. We have moved twelve times and will be celebrating 25 years of marriage this summer.

Still don’t know why she puts up with me and this career.
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Good point. Same with mine. We don't have kids though, and that has made things way simpler.
 
TommyG said:
I work for the Gov, I make some decent 6 figures. A secured pension on top of my TSP(401K), and I get to carry a gun.

A lot of people get so fixed on the airline. There are Gov pilot jobs out there that make real god money and never have to worry about layoffs and get a pension. DEA, FBI, CBP,
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Shhhhhh, lets not say this out loud until I've secured a position. ;)
 
Somewhere between a lot and a little. Seriously, no one can predict this. You have the potential to earn a pretty good living if all the stars align. The business is cyclical. Don’t be surprised if you are furloughed, your company goes out of business or gets merged with another company. So far for me in my 8 years of flying for the airlines I’ve lucked out and it’s been a great with the exception of Covid. Like anything else, YMMV.
 
TommyG said:
I work for the Gov, I make some decent 6 figures. A secured pension on top of my TSP(401K), and I get to carry a gun.

A lot of people get so fixed on the airline. There are Gov pilot jobs out there that make real god money and never have to worry about layoffs and get a pension. DEA, FBI, CBP,
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genuinely intrigued……
 
Ed Haywood said:
1. Buy a house, live in it, and pay it off over 20-25 years.
2. Put 10% of your income in a tax deferred account every year.
3. Invest in low load index funds and leave the money in.
4. View market downturns as buying opportunities.
5. ALWAYS get the match on a 401k.
6. The day each kid is born, open a college fund for them and contribute to those funds before you contribute to your own retirement fund.
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6) Sorry, but kids are NOT for everybody and college is NOT for everyone either.

The sooner we realize this the better off our society will be.
 
Doc Holliday said:
Typically Dr's and Lawyers are home every night. They are also home for holidays, kids birthdays, etc. Dr's and Lawyers don't find themselves halfway around the world one day, back home for a few days then gone to the other side of the world again, dealing with multiple time zone changes.

Dr's and Lawyers also don't have to worry about a failed medical ending their career.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but being home every night is wayyyy over rated. Sure, they are home more, but do you realize how few days off they have compared to 121 pilots at a major airline (including ULCC's like Frontier). Its not even close. Not to mention they take their job home w them frequently.

I'm fresh off probation (1st year) still junior and I usually have off 17 days a month, flying domestic. Upgrading to widebody, easily 18-20 off flying 3 trips a month.

Oh, and if you live in base, flying wide body, you absolutely can be home almost every night when bidding reserve except in the summer. Most pilots I know only fly a single 3-4 day trip a month, some even less. The only thing one can't do on reserve at home is obviously drink booze.

As for loss of medical....most major airlines have LTD for exactly that. Usually 60% (or more) pay that is tax free until age 65 (or 67 if that passes).
 
loganjvx said:
Hello all,

As an up and coming career pilot, I am intrigued by the financial aspect of being an aviator for hire. I was never in it for the money, and as a DPE friend of mine said “I fly to get 1000’ between my rear and the runway every day, nothing else”. With the time passing and the day coming closer and closer to that elusive R-ATP, I am starting to question “how much I can really expect to earn in this field?”

Friends of mine in the industry who are at varying points in their respective careers have given me a wide variety of answers to that question. I have heard answers talking about base pay, per diem, over seas time, overtime, etc. A big part of that is bonuses and how companies use bonuses as a way to “entrap” you for an “X” number of years. I assume this varies from company to company, but what does this look like for people at different stages in their careers?

I am not looking for anyone to tell me how much they make every year, because that would be distasteful and a rude question on my part. What I am trying to ascertain is a general idea for how pilots are being compensated with where the industry is at right now. I will have student loan payments, my girlfriend to-be wife, and children to contend with all within the next 10 years.

Lastly, what financial advice would you offer to a kid who is coming into an industry that will see more money then they know what to do with at a young age?

Thanks POA,
Logan
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AI is coming and there is going to be a glut of pilots in less than 15 years. Plan you second career for the AI world now.
 
There were some (few) inventions whose benefits were so apparent that they replaced the prior technology almost immediately, such as smokeless powder. There have been many inventions that took years or even decades to truly take over or create a market, such as gasoline internal combustion engines.

I put AI in the later category.
 
beestforwardspeed said:
Sorry, but being home every night is wayyyy over rated. Sure, they are home more, but do you realize how few days off they have compared to 121 pilots at a major airline (including ULCC's like Frontier). Its not even close. Not to mention they take their job home w them frequently.

I'm fresh off probation (1st year) still junior and I usually have off 17 days a month, flying domestic. Upgrading to widebody, easily 18-20 off flying 3 trips a month.

Oh, and if you live in base, flying wide body, you absolutely can be home almost every night when bidding reserve except in the summer. Most pilots I know only fly a single 3-4 day trip a month, some even less. The only thing one can't do on reserve at home is obviously drink booze.

As for loss of medical....most major airlines have LTD for exactly that. Usually 60% (or more) pay that is tax free until age 65 (or 67 if that passes).
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No it's not. I work 16 days a month (ok every 4 weeks) and am home every night. No working weekends, no working Fridays. I wake up at 7:30am, never earlier (unless it's for something non-work related), and I'm home before 5pm. Never have to miss anything like school plays, birthdays, etc. It allows me to have hobbies that are a weekly commitment, on any night of the week I want (and wife is OK with). Can't do any of that flying for the airlines. Oh, and I'll be retired by 55 unless I choose to to working. Not going to disclose income, but flying for the airlines is a pay cut.

So how is this airline thing while sleeping on garbage mattresses in a hotel while getting a whole 2 extra days off a month better?
 
I was fortunate to have a 35 year career actually making money flying airplanes, the last twenty plus years as a wide body captain. I never once asked how much money I would get paid in an interview. From CFI, to 135, regional, then majors I just wanted to fly. The climb to the airlines entails a lot of training and check rides. You will spend years away from your family. I absolutely loved the job and I have a strong and supportive wife.

I have mentored many young pilots over the years. Some are wide body captains themselves now. Some couldn’t hack it. The first question you have to answer is can you fly an airplane? Everyone wants to be a pilot making big bucks living on the water or on a golf course or in the mountains. Can you manage a machine going through the air at eight miles a minute? Can you manage the people, weather, and mechanical issues pilots face everyday? Can you handle the fluidity of the economy and questionable decisions made by your corporate management?

One of my mentors as a young man told me “Never do anything for money, always try to be the best at whatever you do and money will follow”.

Good Luck and Fly Safely!
 
I missed birthdays as well as Christmas, Easter, New Years, anniversaries, chicken pox, weddings, Halloween, swim meets, wrestling matches, etc. But I did get two weeks off a month, not necessarily where I wanted them, and almost the entire summer off!
 
being home every night isn’t crucial but it is nice. For me though, its not even being home every night, it’s the fact that I don’t have to deal with the hassle of traveling for work. I loath the traffic around major airports. If I flew for the airlines, at some point I’d crack and you’d see me on the news attacking a gate arm with an axe.
 
EdFred said:
No it's not. I work 16 days a month (ok every 4 weeks) and am home every night. No working weekends, no working Fridays. I wake up at 7:30am, never earlier (unless it's for something non-work related), and I'm home before 5pm. Never have to miss anything like school plays, birthdays, etc. It allows me to have hobbies that are a weekly commitment, on any night of the week I want (and wife is OK with). Can't do any of that flying for the airlines. Oh, and I'll be retired by 55 unless I choose to to working. Not going to disclose income, but flying for the airlines is a pay cut.

So how is this airline thing while sleeping on garbage mattresses in a hotel while getting a whole 2 extra days off a month better?
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Good for you.
 
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