What would a regional pilot expect to make the first year?

Question

I have been selling real estate in California for about 10 years. I am considering changing my career to an airline pilot since real estate is dead. I have gotten many answers as to the salary of a beginning pilots and they are all different. Does anyone know what a beginning pilot expects to make his first year? And does anyone recommend a career change to a pilot with a family of 3??? Has anyone done it?

Answer 1

I would recommend going through a "college" to get all of your ratings and such, you can then get financial aide and you can also have a side job. Like the people that posted before, dont expect to make too much your first year, your first year is enjoying the feeling of flying, getting comfortable with it as a job, and then year 2-3 comes and you get either a promotion or a raise depending on where you are, market demand, how good you are, etc. It is the safest route to go with a family of three, and you may have to move to an apartment or have a little money saved to pay for house payments, but get a side job and go to college or a school that offers financial aide.

Answer 2

14-28k. get a side job.................

Answer 3

I HEAR YOU! Well I'm very close to regional hiring and am probably getting hired by American eagle or Comair , going to take a Fast track CRJ course..Well the first year you are going to make about 19K-28K depending on what aircraft you fly and where you work at.You need to earn first a private pilot license then a IFR certificate (allows you to fly in bad weather) then a Commercial license(with multi engine) which allows you to fly for hire. After you earn enough hours you can get a job at the regionals. About 850 hours total time and 400-600 multi-engine time.The road their will last as long as you want it and will cost about 50K.......Have fun.

You would have to drop all you have and start over..thats hard , well you can but it will cost a lot and you will not make thaty much ( at least your first year) then you'll start making up to 70K further up.

Answer 4

Its going to take a lot of money to get all the hours. I would suggest saving up and staying in your current position and then continue to work in your job and attend flight school. Its a lot of effort but its worth it.

Answer 5

The link below has starting pay for all the regionals.  Expect to be making less than $20K your first year.  On the plus side you can probably upgrade quickly and be making $40K+ by year 3.  Unless your wife has a good job and/or you have significant savings the first year is going to be VERY meager living.  Of course, you have to get approx $80K to get all your ratings, too.

You won't need 850 hours (and 400+ multi) either.  In today's climate 400-500 total (50-100 of that being multi) is enough to get hired.  PSA's hiring minimums are 300 total time.

On the plus side, it's the best job in the world.  I've had all sorts of jobs (real estate, military, corporate america, etc) and absolutely nothing compares to flying.  If you really love it and can afford it go for it.

Answer 6

I did it, but I was single at the time. Based on my experience, that's going to be a tough career change for you to handle financially, so you had better think very hard about putting that kind of money into flight training instead of something else. On top of that, there are no guarantees that you'll make it to the "majors", which could take up to 10 years, and in the regionals its pretty much a hand-to-mouth existence for the first few years until you make captain. Even then, the pay scale tops out at around $70k in most regionals after 10-12 years.

Regional airline starting salaries currently range from a low of about $16,000 to a high of about $22,000 per year. Don't expect to get paid more than $1000/mo while in training (up to 3 months), and you'll be paying for your own meals and housing. Then expect to sit on reserve status for awhile which does not pay as much as a regular line, depending on the company.  After the first year it gets better, but not by a whole lot. Top copilot pay generally isn't much over $30k.

If your wife doesn't work, or doesn't make a pretty good salary, I hope you have a lot of savings to burn up. I know First Officers wives that cannot work because they have young children and cannot afford daycare. They actually qualify for food stamps. No lie!!!

Answer 7

probably 60.00$ an hour