Quote from Lucrum:
I'm the chief pilot/director of ops of our flight department, albeit a small one.
That's as high as I can get. The airline boys sit in the right seat as a copilot for a decade or more before becoming captain. Almost non of them will ever be the chief pilot of their airline. I've been a captain on various jets since I was 23 or 24(don't remember).
The jets I fly, while smaller, require exactly the same training and skill to fly as the bigger ones. And except for carrying fewer head of cattle will do anything the bigger ones will do, plus operate out of much smaller fields. And they're more fun to fly.
I make a six figure salary plus health insurance paid for in full and fly about 120 hours a year, average airline guy does around 900 - 1000.
I wear jeans and a polo shirt, they wear those silly uniforms. And they have to deal with gay male flight attendants and a bureaucratic hierarchy, I don't.
Yesterday I did a contract trip for another company. It included a total flight time of 1:20 and a total duty time of 2:30. I'll get paid $500.