This is pathetic.. $16,000 BEFORE taxes.. McD's pays better.. Yeah , by the way, 10,000 pilots will retire in 3 years, come and pay me $50,000 for your training and you will have a guaranteed interview with my airline.. Pilots working part time on a second job to make a living? Nobody talks about that in FLYING magazine ads. :-) BAHA Fan of Evan Perez writing the real life of pilots.. _____ From: B787300@xxxxxxx [mailto:B787300@xxxxxxx] Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2004 5:10 AM To: skyone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [Sky-1] Airline tailspin puts pilot in a spot Airline tailspin puts pilot in a spot By Evan Perez The Wall Street Journal Posted Tuesday, November 02, 2004 Pilot Troy Kane is a long way from the dream job he thought he would be enjoying by now. Last weekend, he flew 19-seat turboprop planes from Milwaukee to the Wisconsin cities of La Crosse and Green Bay, both hourlong trips, for Skyway Airlines. The planes have no lavatory, no autopilot and no flight attendants, meaning Kane has to do the fasten-your-seatbelt demonstration before taking his seat in the cockpit. The job pays just $16,000 a year, but the 33-year-old pilot is happy to have it. Skyway, a unit of Midwest Air Group Inc., was the only airline to even offer Kane an interview after he was furloughed from Delta Air Lines shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Kane had just taken his "check ride," a training flight that was supposed to be the last step before getting to pilot big Delta jets, with a starting salary of $50,000. He would be making $119,000 this year under Delta's current pay scale. "I never actually got to wear the uniform," he said. "I went from the top of cloud nine to the pits of despair." Thousands of pilots' careers have had rough landings because of the financial crisis gripping U.S. airlines. The carriers have piled up losses of about $23 billion in the past three years. As a result, life in the cockpit isn't nearly as highflying as it used to be. About 8,700 of the pilots at major U.S. passenger and freight carriers, or nearly 15 percent of the total, are on furlough, says AIR Inc., an Atlanta career-consulting firm for pilots. Kane holds the particularly unfortunate distinction of being the last pilot hired at Delta and first to be furloughed, putting him last on the list to come back as other pilots leave or the airline expands. The new Delta contract is likely to bring more bad news for pilots like Kane. Delta would be able to eliminate the existing pilot-recall schedule under which the airline is required to recall 30 to 50 pilots a month. Delta agreed only to bring back furloughed pilots by 2008. Kane was expecting to be back by roughly August 2006 under the current schedule. Furloughed pilots would get priority on jobs Delta outsources to its regional carriers, but "the longer I stay on the sidelines, the less attractive I would be to getting hired somewhere," he worries. In the meantime, being stuck at No. 809 on the Delta furlough list limits Kane's chances of getting another job at an airline other than Delta. Many airlines won't hire furloughed pilots, since they could leave on short notice if the job they've been waiting for opens up. "I was very fortunate that at least Skyway would give me a chance," he says. Before the Sept. 11 attacks, Kane and his wife were planning a new life. They hoped to buy a home in Peachtree City, Ga., a well-to-do city south of Atlanta that is known as Delta company housing because so many former and current Delta workers live there. Now, though, Kane is getting a divorce. "From all the job changes and moves, and my mood changes, we just grew apart," says Kane, who works part time as a mortgage salesman from his Milwaukee apartment. Despite being so far away from his dream job, Kane says he can't imagine doing anything else for a living. "I love to fly more than anything," he says. He began flying in college, deciding to become an airline pilot after three years as an accountant, which left him miserable. The most he ever made was $41,000, in his last year at Delta. "Would I do it for a lot less?" asks Kane. "Obviously, because I am." SkyOne--The Airline News Channel To Post message: Skyone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To Subscribe: Skyone-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To Unsubscribe: Skyone-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx List owner: Skyone-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Skyone URL: http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/Skyone Yahoo! 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