boeing 717

Go to K-mart and get yourself a sense of humor. Ill bet its a joy to sit next to you in the cockpit for 10 hours a day.

Westair I understand what you are saying thats a huge amount to pay for flight training and I cant relate because I probably only paid 18000 dollars total for my flying back in the 90's by dumping lavs and pumping gas while in college. But here is another way to look at that, how I would look at it anyhow. Right now a 40 year old first officer at SW airlines will earn around 5.5 million dollars if he/she flies from 40 to 65 years old at current pay rates and that is only flying the average trip hours, not busting your butt by flying extra trips. Thats not BS that is a very realistic number. You would see similar numbers now at Delta with their new contract and perhaps United although not quite as high. Now say that same 40 year old FO spent $150k on education and flying............you see where im going with this???

Typically in that scenario we call in fatigued and go home.

That is precisely how it is supposed to work. You do what YOU want to do for a career..... whatever you think will make you happy is all that matters. I never give advice such as "go to med school" "go to lawyer school" simply because I have flown with a number of doctors and lawyers who got the flying bug and changed careers. Its funny to listen to them talk about their former careers as they will bash it incessantly. If they paid me 1 million a year to be lawer I would tell them to get lost personally id be freakin miserable. You dont shatter some kids dream of being an airline pilot because YOU dont think it would be good for him/her. You tell them the goods and the bads and let them make their own choice. For me there has been very little bad and its all I ever hoped it would be. ##### is a loco and T&C...speak english man!!!!! :) Regional airlines are not all bad. In ANY profession you are going to start at the bottom so why should the airlines be any different??? I spent 5 years at a regional and the first year as a Brasilia FO I made 12000 dollars..... my wife and I were just as happy then as we are now, we had a nice little apartment and life was good just a couple of years later my pay went to 42000 a year and we bought a house. I had 15-20 days off a month and life was good, 4 years after getting hired I was an ATR captain making 75000 a year which for us was a ton of money at the time. So for me it is hard to grasp when people bash this or that its everything I expected and more. If one plans on becoming an airline pilot and doesnt do the research and know what he/she is getting into before they make that huge leap they deserve to be miserable when they find out its not what "they" hoped it would be.

How was I giving you "all" a bum rap?? I was talking about those three specific posts. I am on my 7th airliner and have approx 10000 hours of airline flight time and this is my 4th airline and hopefully the last :) . So Id like to think I know a little bit about the profession. I just think its so absurd that a 17 year old virtual pilot is sitting here telling everyone that working conditions are SO much better in Europe than they are here. Please give me at least 5 specific examples of what you are talking about perhaps cite specific quality of life provisions in Lufthansas pilot contract. I flew with 2 germans at Airtran and 1 Norwegian classmate at Southwest and they would beg to differ, so who do I believe, 3 professional airline pilots who have flown in Europe AND the US or a 17 year old Virtual airline captain?? Now having said, I am sure that there are companies in Europe that are much better to work for than some in the US and vice versa, there are crap flying jobs here and crap flying jobs there. Then you count the fact that if EVERYONE was getting Ab Initio training over there you have to wonder why our flight schools are filled with so many European and Asian students. And the context that you used the word "Cool" had nothing to imply being cool in the cockpit under pressure, you said its not that cool to be a pilot in the US, reread your post. When you grow up and get a job one of these days you will realize that its not about being cool, its about......... 1) How happy you are doing what your doing. 2) How much money you make so you can give your family a good life. 3) How much time you have off (ie your flying schedule) so you can enjoy life and polish your Porsche.

This is some of the funniest stuff I have read in a long time. We have one guy who compares a captain flying a 747 at .78 mach across an ocean at 37000 feet with 400 lives in the back to a ferry boat captain, yea i can see the comparison, lol. The 17 year old kid above who sais its a joke to be an airline pilot in the US when he has never flown for a european company or an american company. A guy who sais that certain airlines "make" you buy a type rating limiting it to rich people, even more laughable And after all the bashing they sit in front of a computer and pretend to be an airline pilot on flight simulator and probably belong to a virtual airline. I needed a good laugh tonight thanks guys. To each his own, if i had to be an accountant id put a bullet through my head.

Its a joke being an airline pilot in the US, please explain that one to me???

If your not passionate about flying then airlines would not be good. It would become very mundane. If you love flying it is great but after years of doing it your not dying to go to the airport and fly, however that would be true in every profession, but the enjoyment never really goes away. It took me about 10 years from private to airlines and I had to bust my butt to get there. It has been a joy and privilage ever since. I just bought a used 997 turbo with cash and have averaged 15-18 days off a month for the last 8 years. Captains here earn between 220 and 300k per year. so please tell me how this job is bad again????

Well im sure that involved many other things such as pushback procedures, fueling procedures, weight and balance procedures etc etc, not all just flying the airplane.

Well I dont know the specifics because I never flew the 73 at AT, but I do know that when they did an analysis of their AOM versus our AOM they found over 1500 differences in how the two companies operate the airplane. Not necessarily better or worse, just different.

The 717 is more modern and automated than the 737; however, if we did not want to use the automation we turned it all off and flew it like a dc-9 which I did often, even down to minimums. Most airline pilots have that option if they so choose so it really has nothing to do with who you fly for. Im all for flying the airplane manually, which I do more than most guys I fly with, but if you have equipment that makes your job easier you should be able to use it when you need it. Have you ever had to do a missed approach in bad weather on the 5th leg of a 13 hour day at midnight??? Thats when you appreciate being able to press a button and let the airplane do the entire go around for you while you pull the flaps and gear up and monitor everything. All pilots get trained on and fly all 4 airplanes.

Crap I hope not I hate single cue!!!!! But they probably will, If I recall right a mechanic once showed me that you can just change it in the MCDU.

I flew for airtran for 8 years and just came over to the southwest side for 737 training, I bought this PMDG thing to practice on before I go into the sim. The 737's that come over to southwest will be changed somewhat to match the southwest airplanes but what southwest has realized is that Airtran was FAR FAR more advanced in the way they operated their 737's than how SW does. AT took full advantage of the automation whereas SW really did not even use most of the automation that their 700's had until 2 years ago and they are slowly getting with the times. Really the only difference i have seen is that they use a single cue FD and AT uses a dual cue and SW has the hud, most of the differences are in HOW they operate the airplanes. But having said that I am a 717 guy and didnt know much about the 737 at the Tran. I had a week off from training and I was going to go back early to practice in the sim, but this thing is so realistic im just gonna stay home and practice in my room. Its pretty amazing, a far cry from the Flight sim I used to play on years ago when I was getting my ratings.