Original Message

Pay is a big portion of the pie when housing in most of CA is well above 500-750K for a ok home.

Also to the military guys saying get over the low pay issue.  It will take a long time to get over because it all stems from Vietnam era pilots working for nothing because they had no other skills when they left the service with no retirement.

The industry developed a dependency on this style of work to make more money. When the military quit putting out as many pilots the the civilian sector had to fill in the gaps.  As well as cutting back on flight time and using sims very heavily to cut costs.

And yes today pilots still will take jobs that they shouldn't for low pay, and the vast majority is military because of the retirement they receive.

Just remember, just because you have combat time, or long line time, does not make you special and a better pilot than anyone else.

Man this industry is full of egos that make working in the industry almost intolerable.