[Joeaksa]

Rick,

One of my old copilots contacted me a couple of years ago. Tried like the dickens to get me to come and fly with him. He was doing contract work flying Boeing 747's. It would have cost me about $9,000 to get type rated on the "whale" as we call it, and thats reasonable. Was actually thinking about it then asked him how much he was getting paid. Very proudly he said $7,000 a month and that burst my balloon because I was making at that time $12k a month flying private jets. We pay our experienced copilots more than he was making as a Captain on the B747 but he is on contract, and not full time with an airline.

Now before everyone gets all excited about this, my cost for recurrent training, and I do this once a year or do not work, was $14-19,000 for a 5 day session in the classroom and sim. Yes, at least $5000 a day to "re-train" and be certified for the same airplane I have been flying for 10 years now.

Then you realize that you have to work off that $14-19k expense, and doing so means that you will spend about 7-8 months a year on the road. Some of the places are nice, like London, Berlin, Moscow and so on, while others like anywhere in India, Saudi, Africa and so on you are taking your life in your hands. I did it for a long time (4+ years) and its a rough life.

One last thing, I am at the twilight in my career, and with around 17,000 hours TT and 5 type ratings. I should be making good money as retirement is right around the corner. I am the "old grey haired fart' in the left seat that they put the new copilots with to learn. Still in the corporate world would want to see you guys making at least $50k to start and frankly after you have some good time in the jet, would like to see $70k a year. Again thats the corporate world, not airline.

Joe A