Hayden Teteak, a former flight instructor who now flies as a regional first officer, goes through the US airline path stage by stage. He looks at what happens to your money, your time and your life outside the airplane.

Student pilot and flight instructor

Training has to find a place in your existing life. You either fit lessons and study around a job or join an intensive programme, which becomes a main job you pay to attend while rent and food keep costing money. As an example, he says ATP currently advertises about $124,000 in tuition for its zero-experience career programme, excluding tests, examiner fees and living expenses, and he stresses that this is one school rather than the price everyone pays. His own private pilot checkride started at 7 a.m. with about three hours of oral examination and two hours of flying, and his first thought afterwards was to call his parents. Instructing was his first flying job. For many people aiming at US airlines, 1,500 hours is the big milestone, although restricted ATP routes have lower requirements. If you are only paid for instruction delivered, weather, maintenance or a student's availability can empty a full calendar. He remembers one day with two students taking their checkrides back to back, at the airport from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., followed by driving Uber until 2 a.m.

Airline training and regional first officer

During airline training, your world gets very small. He finished around 5 p.m., took a short nap, went to the gym, ate and then studied until at least midnight in the hotel. At a regional airline you fly passengers as one of the crew, often under a major airline's brand while working for a separate company. He uses SkyWest as an example, with a published first-year first officer rate of about $93 per flight hour, and explains that pay credit and time away from trips are measured differently. Where you live shapes the job: a commute can mean a flight, a long drive or a crash pad, a shared place to sleep near base that you usually pay for yourself. After landing at O'Hare he still has about 45 minutes to his car and three to four hours of driving. He also explains reserve, holding a line, bidding with seniority and how days off in the middle of the week fit with friends who work.

Captain and major airline years

He has not held the later jobs himself, so he uses accounts from other pilots. A regional captain helps lead the crew and may have more room to pay down training debt or keep an evening free. Moving to a major brings familiar steps again: training, a base assignment and a new place at the bottom of the bidding order, since seniority does not transfer in a normal move. One major airline pilot described coaching Little League while raising two young children and accepting compromises in the trips they could get. Another preferred the schedule of a senior first officer over captain reserve. An 11-year Southwest captain arranged long family vacations while still commuting as a junior line holder. Seniority improves the chance of getting preferred work, but it does not remove weather, company changes, recurrent training or the need to stay medically qualified.