So this is the career path the average civilian UA pilot takes, and I'll use some of my personal experience as an example. I'll let the military guys comment on their path as I didn't go that route.

Basically, in order to be competitive as an airline pilot, you have to have a 4 year degree. In addition to that, you have to pay for your flight training in order to obtain the certificates necessary to fly commercially, which normally includes your commercial pilot certificate and your flight instructor ratings. So in addition to 4 years of tuition, the typical civilian wannabe airline pilot is shelling out anywhere from $30,000- $50,000 nowadays to obtain all his ratings. Some more if they go to a "high end" school, some less if they go to a local airport.

So now this newly minted pilot has graduated from college and obtained all his ratings. He has about 200 hours, which back when I was building flight time, was nothing. He also has 10's of thousands of dollars of debt beyond his 4 year degree. Out he goes out looking for a flight instruction job. Salary expectation for a flight instructor working full time with ZERO benefits (no health, 401K, vacation, etc.): maybe $15K/yr. I made 10K/year my first year out of college, and around $12K/yr my second year out of college and I graduated from a very well respected Aeronautical University in the top 3% of my class- and I was lucky compared to many of my peers at the time! Even though I worked full time, I could have qualified for state assistance if I had chosen to collect it- most flight instructors could at that time.

At this point in his career, our pilot will instruct away building flight time for the hope of making that $200K/yr. at a major airline he reads about in the paper! He'll do that for about 2 or 3 years, lucky to break $20K/yr. if he works 6 to 7 days a week. Eventually he'll earn enough flight time to apply to a regional airline like Mesa, Air Wisconsin, Republic, etc. When the typical UA pilot was out flight instructing, he probably needed around 2,000 flight hours to get on with a regional airline. This pilot needs regional airline flight time in order to get on with a major airline.

So this pilot gets his 2,000 flight hours after a few years of instructing. He's probably in his mid to late 20's, is a college graduate, and so far is lucky if he's broken 20K/year. But he gets hired at a regional airline, and he'll probably get a raise- he can now expect to earn a whopping 20-25K/year as a regional F/O with benefits (finally health insurance!) . My first "crappy airline" job paid me $1500/month (mid 1990s dollars) with benefits and I felt like a millionaire!

So this "average" UA pilot hopeful is working away at a regional airline. It will probably take him a few years before he can make Captain at his regional airline, so while he waits for that Captain upgrade, he's pulling in maybe $25K-$35/year- with 35K/year defitinely on the high end/above average side. When he finally upgrades to Captain at the regional, he's probably in his late 20's/early 30's, and will finally break the $50K/year mark, and that's if he is at a good regional airline. And keep in mind that while this pilot is working at said regional airline, he is working HARD. It can be very difficult flying, although it has gotten better now that most regional airlines have RJ's.

However, to get hired at a major airline, you have to have 1000's of hours of Captain flight time/experience- and hopefully the economy is doing well and his regional airline employer needs Captains. We'll assume that pilot upgrades to Captain in a reasonable amount of time with no delays. He will work for a few more years as a regional airline Captain, probably working his butt off as a junior Captain, and will earn in the neighborhood of $50K/year to maybe 70K/year on the very high end. Not bad money, but one has to keep in mind that this college educated professional worked for many, many years at wages that qualify a family of 4 for state assistance AND is probably carrying a lot of debt. Hopefully, this pilot put off plans to start a family (like I did) or marries well

So our average regional airline Captain has worked away for a few years, and finally has an interview at a major airline like UAL. He's probably in his early to mid 30's, and has 1000's of flight hours and years of experience flying aircraft. He gets that dream major airline job at UAL: starting pay- around $30Kish per year. Note that this "promotion" is a pretty significant pay cut.

Once he gets to an airline like United, he'll probably work as a First Officer for around 8 to 10 years. It will probably take this pilot a few years to get back up to what he was earning as a regional airline Captain. After several years on the UA property, the pilot can expect to probably make in the high 5 figure range, and IF this pilot makes Captain someday at a major airline, he'll might (if he's lucky) be in his very late 30's but probably will likely be in his early to mid 40's and will break the 6 figure mark. If this pilot is lucky enough to complete a full career at one major airline, he MIGHT be senior enough to make widebody Captain and make approximately $180,00/yr. Again, the odds are very much against the average pilot that he will ever attain that position. And if he does, it usually isn't for more than a few years at the end of his career.

And that above path assumes the "perfect" career progression for the average guy. If there is an economic downturn (remember that if the economy coughs, the airlines catch a cold!), said pilot may be stuck flight instructing for a few "extra" years because if the major airlines aren't hiring, they aren't hiring regional airline pilots. And if regional airline pilots aren't getting hired at majors, the regional airlines aren't hiring. And if the regional airlines aren't hiring, you're stuck as a flight instructor.

Working as a Captain at an airline that goes out of business? Sorry, you have to get rehired at another airline and you start all over again! Your airline goes bankrupt? Sorry, you're starting over again somewhere else along with that starting $30K/yr salary mentioned earlier. Accidentally "ding" an airplane or violate a FAR and get a blemish on your record while building your flight time for that major airline dream job? Sorry, you probably aren't getting hired at a major airline now. Bust a checkride somewhere during your career? So sorry, that's going to hurt your career expectations!

In conclusion, yes the top end pay scales are quite high, but the financial sacrifice the typical pilot has to make in order to earn those salaries is quite high as well. It's a risk/reward thing for those of you familiar with financial planning- you take a risk pursuing the airline pilot career, but expect to be rewarded for the risks taken.

If you've been reading in the media about the pilot shortages the regional airlines are currently experiencing, you'll see that the "risk/reward" relationship is way out of balance as a lot fewer young people are choosing to persue this profession for that reason.

Hopefully some of you found this interesting.