The Price of a Safe Landing, by former TWA Pilot

MOUNT KISCO

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Aug 31, 2005
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March 18, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
The Price of a Safe Landing
By BOB BUCK
Fayston, Vt.

IT'S that time again — time for airlines to make pilot pay the burning issue in labor negotiations. At Delta Air Lines, pilot salaries are in arbitration; at Northwest Airlines, pilots are close to striking.

Why is pilot pay always such a source of contention? Perhaps because it seems so high. After all, a pilot can make as much as $220,000 a year for working only 85 hours a month.

But this is only part of the story. True, a handful of senior pilots make $220,000 a year, but 85 hours is only half true because pilots spend as much time planning flights, looking at weather, studying, training and sitting around airports waiting for delayed flights, as they do flying. The 85 hours is counted only from the time the airplane leaves the terminal until it arrives at its destination. What's more, this is the very top salary; a captain for a regional airline, for example, makes around $60,000 a year.

And it's not as if pilots haven't already taken a hit. The Delta pilots agreed to an annual pay cut of $1 billion, or 32.5 percent, in late 2004. (Now Delta is asking for an additional $305 million.) Their Northwest counterparts agreed to $265 million of cuts in 2004 and $215 million in temporary cuts last year. Now the company wants to cut $145 million more. Pilot pensions are in a similar state of disarray.

This is not to say that pilot pay isn't high relative to other lines of work. The high pay dates back to just after World War I, when airmail service, which was managed by the Post Office, was established. And to my mind, the pay was wholly justified.

Back then, flying was dangerous; no radio guidance, no instruments for bad weather, no de-icing equipment or radar to reveal thunderstorms. Flying was all contact, meaning that you stayed in visual contact with the ground. Trying to see ahead when fog or low clouds forced the pilot lower and lower, with no visibility; pilots lost their lives running into hillsides or unseen obstructions.

In exchange for risking life and limb, pilots were well paid. In 1924, the top salary was $8,000 a year, or close to $1 million in today's dollars. In 1938, when I started flying DC-3's for Transcontinental and Western Air (later Trans World Airlines), we still were paid more for flying at night and over mountains.

As flying became safer, pay was reduced but still remained high. How? The pilots formed a union, the Air Line Pilots Association, in 1931. The key man was David L. Behncke, a retired United Airlines pilot, who fought the airlines' attempt to have one industry-wide contract for pilots. By seeing to it that pilots had individual contracts with each airline, Behncke ensured that each negotiation could build on the one that came before it.

He also helped to keep salaries high by emphasizing productivity as well as safety. Behncke argued that a pilot hauling 400 passengers should make more than one transporting, say, 70 passengers. This was a winning tactic, though I was never certain that it was entirely accurate. Smaller planes are not necessarily any easier to fly. A 747 pilot, for example, takes off from New York and lands in Paris: one flight. A regional jet pilot, by comparison, can wind up making five stops during one day, or night — or making all his flights in the same lousy weather system.

People think that computers have made flying easier — you just turn on the autopilot and relax. Not so. Computers do many things, but they don't know what to do when a line of severe thunderstorms blocks the flight path, nor do they worry about marginal weather at destinations and what to do about reserve fuel and a host of possible situations that can be resolved only through human intelligence informed by experience.

There are simply too many situations that demand a professional in the cockpit. I've flown for a long time, and I can't begin to count the number of times I've heard a colleague say (or felt myself), "I earned my year's pay on that flight."

Here's just one story. In June of 1970, I was piloting a TWA 747 from Paris to New York. Forty minutes into the flight, TWA's Paris dispatch office called to tell me I had a bomb on board. According to the warning call they had received, the bomb was due to go off in 45 minutes.

We turned around and dived toward Paris. We started dumping fuel to get our weight down, but we didn't have time to reduce the weight to the legal landing limit.

Decision time: land and risk going off the end of the runway, or circle around dumping fuel before the bomb goes off? Landing a plane that's overweight takes up runway space. I visualized what was off the runway's end: farmland. I concluded that it was probably worth the risk, even though we'd knock out lights at the end of the runway as we slammed through.

Thankfully, we landed safely. The passengers were evacuated down the slides while still far from the terminal. (Officials didn't want us nearby in case we blew up.) The only injury was a fracture in a flight attendant's ankle. They never found a bomb.

Airline pilots go through stuff like this all the time. This is why they deserve to be paid decently (if not extravagantly). It's for this reason that I hope the union will remain strong as it works with Delta and Northwest (and whoever's next) on problems of pay, retirement and safety. As they talk, pilots, I know, will do their job of getting airplanes from departure to destination safely. After all, the pilot is on board, too — a fact that should be respected, but not taken for granted.

Bob Buck is the author of "North Star Over My Shoulder: A Flying Life."
 
Now if only the leaders of the pilots union would read his stuff maybe they wouldnt be too quick to roll over.

The pilots should also remember that their safety also lies in the hands of those who service the machines they operate whether its the mechanics who fix them, the clerks who load them or the cleaners that check the cabin for weapons etc. Mention should also be made of the contribution of flight attendants and the watchful eye they keep for potential threats.

Just as pilots work hard flying their planes through bad weather airline ground workers are typically working outside in such weather. It holds discomfort as well as dangers for them.Pilots are worth every penny they get, and they get most of them. Other workers are not as fortunate.

Pilots should be greatful for the fact that they had one union that was specifically for them. Their high pay right from the beginning gave them the resources to form such a union. It puzzles me how their unions oppose any attempt by other airline workers, even other FAA liscenced airmen, to do the same. Despite all their skills, all their investment and all the risk, pilots are taking hits in pay like everyone else. Perhaps if they actually tried to change their strategy and actually support other workers, not neccisarirly the unions that grabbed the rights to represent them, they would fare better.

As Mr Buck mentions flying a bigger plane does not mean that you have a harder job. Pilots are the only workers that get paid more for working on a bigger plane. Mechanics get the same whether they work on a 737 or 777. So does everyone else. The disparity in pay that pilots have allowed within their ranks will be their undoing. The fact is that the market has no concern for seniority and if $60,k has been established as the rate at which they can get a pilot to opertae an aircraft then the industry will try and get that rate for all their aircraft.

So the fact that NWA is going for round three should not suprise anyone. The fact is if they give, and they probably will, NWA will be back for more, and more, and more, after all they have a long way to go to get down to 60K.
 
So the fact that NWA is going for round three should not suprise anyone. The fact is if they give, and they probably will, NWA will be back for more, and more, and more, after all they have a long way to go to get down to 60K.

Northwest is not "going back for round" whatever in the same fashion as United, Delta, etc. NWA's Pilots have known all along what the company wanted, and both sides were well aware that the first pay cut(October 2004) was an interim agreement until concession deals were hammered-out with the other unions.

As for the article itself, I agree that airline Pilots have a lot of responsibility place on their shoulders and should be paid accordingly. However, the same could be said about Paramedics, Policemen, and Firefighters, yet you don't see them commanding $225K (or more) per year. Indeed, a Pilots may face a situation like the one described in the article once in his/her career (if at all), while the other professions I named may do so on a daily basis. They may not save 500 lives at once, but will protect many, many more over the courses of their careers.
 
The bottom line is that airfares have been at historical lows when adjusted for inflation. Finally, this year, we see an upward trend. With all due respect to the pilots, the company must somehow breakeven in this crazy environment.

We won't go back to the old days (with relatively high salaries) unless you can convince the public to pay a minimum of $800 with a full fare of $1600 roundtrip for coast to coast travel. If fares went up that much, I would say that we would have FAR fewer people traveling. Airlines would have to decrease to the size that they were in 1978. Unless that happens, pilots will not see $200K+ salaries for many years to come.
 
...this op-ed piece is interesting and quite idealistic. While it would be good, for some, to be paid by the risk level associated with one's work, that simply isn't realistic in a capitalistic society. Additionaly, it didn't get to the fundamental issue that if a pilot at airline A can do it for less, is that because they are a worse pilot? I would imagine South American and Chinesse pilots make less than US pilots...why is that? Because they're less safe? Not necessarily. Lastly...the "we actually work more than 85 hours" schpiel may be true, but I think you could apply that same logic to just about anyone in the US today...especially people in the airlines...
 
<_< With all due respect to my fellow exTWAer, I do have a couple of questions! When a pilot puts his aircraft into "autopilot", who is flying that aircraft? The answeer to that is Maintenance! And how often do they do that? ;) It's a differant world out there today! No more flying by the set of your pants! But I do believe the pilots earn every bit of the money paid them just to be there when that autopilot go'es bad!!!But,as usual,the lowly mechanic dosen't get the respect, or pay, that go'es along with the reponsability he shoulders every day of the week!
 
<_< With all due respect to my fellow exTWAer, I do have a couple of questions! When a pilot puts his aircraft into "autopilot", who is flying that aircraft? The answeer to that is Maintenance! And how often do they do that? ;) It's a differant world out there today! No more flying by the set of your pants! But I do believe the pilots earn every bit of the money paid them just to be there when that autopilot go'es bad!!!But,as usual,the lowly mechanic dosen't get the respect, or pay, that go'es along with the reponsability he shoulders every day of the week!

MCI...as a 36-year F/A for TW, I think I can speak for thousands of other F/A's when I tell you we never thought of you as "lowly". We had great respect for our mechs. We used to joke that only you guys and 500 knot duct tape kept our older planes flying. So chin up, there are a lot of us out here who remember you fondly.
 
MCI...as a 36-year F/A for TW, I think I can speak for thousands of other F/A's when I tell you we never thought of you as "lowly". We had great respect for our mechs. We used to joke that only you guys and 500 knot duct tape kept our older planes flying. So chin up, there are a lot of us out here who remember you fondly.
<_< ozcobber--- Thanks for the encouragement! I think we all need it every so often! That's one thing I've noticed about our new employer. No matter if your a pilot, F/A, ramp, or AMT, no matter how hard you bust your bones for these people, you never hear a "Thank You!" out of them! It's always what can you do for us!?---- By the way, I've got you beat on seniority!! ;)
 
...this op-ed piece is interesting and quite idealistic. While it would be good, for some, to be paid by the risk level associated with one's work, that simply isn't realistic in a capitalistic society. Additionaly, it didn't get to the fundamental issue that if a pilot at airline A can do it for less, is that because they are a worse pilot? I would imagine South American and Chinesse pilots make less than US pilots...why is that? Because they're less safe? Not necessarily. Lastly...the "we actually work more than 85 hours" schpiel may be true, but I think you could apply that same logic to just about anyone in the US today...especially people in the airlines...
No you get what you can command, CEOs demand and get huge salaries,however other CEOs for the most part are the ones deciding how much CEOs get paid. Its like they have the best union going and no court in the land is going to order CEOs to continue working under terms they did not agree to-unlike airline workers.If the pilots were free to strike like most workers in this country I suspect that they would be doing even better than they are.So would most other airline workers.

Now as far as the 85 hours, and I'm not a pilot, and I've even taken a few shots with this at the arrogant ones,if they punched in from when they actually started performing work on company property till they leave company property they put in a lot more than 85 hours. Most other workers punch in when they walk through the door and punch out as they leave. A pilot may walk in at 8am, walk out at 5pm and only have three hours of flight time.
 
Northwest is not "going back for round" whatever in the same fashion as United, Delta, etc. NWA's Pilots have known all along what the company wanted, and both sides were well aware that the first pay cut(October 2004) was an interim agreement until concession deals were hammered-out with the other unions.

As for the article itself, I agree that airline Pilots have a lot of responsibility place on their shoulders and should be paid accordingly. However, the same could be said about Paramedics, Policemen, and Firefighters, yet you don't see them commanding $225K (or more) per year. Indeed, a Pilots may face a situation like the one described in the article once in his/her career (if at all), while the other professions I named may do so on a daily basis. They may not save 500 lives at once, but will protect many, many more over the courses of their careers.

There is no way that an airline pilot can be compared to a policeman,fireman,or paramedic.Totally different type and amount of training and investment made to make someone qualified to become a cockpit crewmember.
Are you even aware of how much 1 hour of flight training cost in a Cessna 172,much less a twin engine jet?
Firefighters,police,ect.are public employees payed by the taxpayers.Airline pilots work in private enterprise in which the market dictates the salaries and not the taxpayer.
Airline pilot's salaries are much more than safety issues alone and the market will dictate the wages and benefits.
I was on a DC-10 flight several years back and we hit a thunderstorm over El Paso,Tx.and it was throwing the DC-10 all over the sky.I did not hear anyone on the aircraft complain about the pilot's compensation.
Airline pilots deserve every dollar they can earn.If pilot's wages are cut to low levels compared to traditional wages then AMT'S will make VERY LOW WAGES.
AP= $90K/yr
AMT=$30K/yr.
 
There is no way that an airline pilot can be compared to a policeman,fireman,or paramedic.Totally different type and amount of training and investment made to make someone qualified to become a cockpit crewmember.
Are you even aware of how much 1 hour of flight training cost in a Cessna 172,much less a twin engine jet?
Firefighters,police,ect.are public employees payed by the taxpayers.Airline pilots work in private enterprise in which the market dictates the salaries and not the taxpayer.
Airline pilot's salaries are much more than safety issues alone and the market will dictate the wages and benefits.
I was on a DC-10 flight several years back and we hit a thunderstorm over El Paso,Tx.and it was throwing the DC-10 all over the sky.I did not hear anyone on the aircraft complain about the pilot's compensation.
Airline pilots deserve every dollar they can earn.If pilot's wages are cut to low levels compared to traditional wages then AMT'S will make VERY LOW WAGES.
AP= $90K/yr
AMT=$30K/yr.

First, you seem to misunderstand the gist of my post. The writer of the article asserts that airline pilots deserve higher wages solely because of the responsibilities of other peoples’ lives placed on their shoulders. While I’m not disputing this per se, I’m simply saying that, relative to other professions with similar responsibilities for life and limb, I believe they are overpaid by a considerable margin.

Second, to say that pilot pay is dictated by the market is totally erroneous. Until United filed for bankruptcy in 2002, wages for major airline flight crews were driven almost exclusively by the pattern bargaining the writer mentions. Pilot pay became disconnected from market realities in 1978, when the industry was deregulated; since then average airfares have continued to decline, while flight crew wages have continued to increase.

Finally, I do in fact know what the rental rates are for Cessna 172s, Lear Jets, etc. However, it’s irrelevant because many of the pilots complaining about pay cuts had their training paid for by the military and, by extension, taxpayers (many of whom continued to subsidize their wages by buying airline tickets).
 
First, you seem to misunderstand the gist of my post. The writer of the article asserts that airline pilots deserve higher wages solely because of the responsibilities of other peoples’ lives placed on their shoulders. While I’m not disputing this per se, I’m simply saying that, relative to other professions with similar responsibilities for life and limb, I believe they are overpaid by a considerable margin.

Second, to say that pilot pay is dictated by the market is totally erroneous. Until United filed for bankruptcy in 2002, wages for major airline flight crews were driven almost exclusively by the pattern bargaining the writer mentions. Pilot pay became disconnected from market realities in 1978, when the industry was deregulated; since then average airfares have continued to decline, while flight crew wages have continued to increase.

Finally, I do in fact know what the rental rates are for Cessna 172s, Lear Jets, etc. However, it’s irrelevant because many of the pilots complaining about pay cuts had their training paid for by the military and, by extension, taxpayers (many of whom continued to subsidize their wages by buying airline tickets).

I guess if the cost of training a pilot for airline skill level is irrevelant then the airline management should go down to the local street corner for day laborers and hire some illegals to fly the flights for that day.It would save them a lot of money in wages and benefits.