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I guess that all depends upon your dreams. If your sole goal in life is to fly planes and you don't care about your financial future or personal life then by all means fly planes.
However if your life goals include; growing a family, building wealth to care for yourself in retirement and to life a life of your own design then perhaps aviation isn't a good choice.
We can't have it all in life. Aviation absorbs a huge amount of ones life resources. As for myself I would hate to be dying in the back of an ambulance thinking about how I wasted my days in the front of an airplane [ *** man]and missed out on many of the best things in life. Flying is a huge part of my life but it is not everything to me.
A job is supposed to make your personal life possible and not to be your life.
At one time this was a great profession that offered a better life than a plumber.
SkyHigh
You assume money is happiness? I'm not saying it's not a huge piece, but you seem a little fixated.
It's clear this industry has fallen in terms of financial rewards. A) it's still very decent, B) it has unique aspects totally incomparable to any other job.
I went from a management job outside aviation to flying for a higher annual income and now work about 10-20% as much.
I have way more time to live a life of my design. And every day I go to my "job" feels like home.
Last edited by flyingback : 06-14-2008 at 07:43 PM.
In high school health class they wisely taught us that "people do drugs not because the wish to destroy their lives but because drugs are fun". Their point was that by ignoring the consequences and only focusing on the "fun" people were hurting themselves.
The debate over money and its importance has been discussed on this forum many times. Research proves that though money does not buy happiness it does make life easier and more likely find happiness.
Aviation is seductive. It can lure people into the destruction of their personal lives or not to be able to even have one at all. Often it takes most of a lifetime to be able to recognize what has been lost.
I sincerely wish that everyone here (myself included) could reach their dream job while still young enough to benefit from it. In addition it is almost as important to be able to keep that job throughout a career.
The reality is that at some point most people will have to let go of the dream in order to salvage what it left of their lives. Aviation is fun and sadly that is about all that most of us will get out of it.
Skyhigh
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Pilots are paid for what they will do, not for what they can do.
"A job is supposed to make your personal life possible and not to be your life'
50 hours flown so far this year. It's working out well for some that stuck it out and didn't quit. Best part time job around....
You know you keep saying that as if all one has to do is to stick around long enough and magic will strike. I have a lot of friends who are still out there and what should I tell them? Does it take 5 years? 25 years? If they are in their late 50's by the time they make it to a major does it really matter anymore?
You must admit to yourself in private that you hit the jackpot. Back when you got hired at UPS no one would have guessed that it was going to become the king of the hill. Back then UPS was not on anyones dream list. No amount of trying could have gotten you to where you are. Pure luck was a leading factor.
You are one out of one hundred. You are the sole person on this entire forum who truly has hit it big and has it made. You are the king. The odds of someone starting today of reaching the same heights in pay, status, time off and career accomplishments has to be one in a few thousand to nill.
It is inaccurate and false advertising for you to suggest that others can achieve similar results in the future. Maybe you should qualify your statements? What does making it mean to you? I am sure that people will still be flying 757's in 20 years (maybe) and that they will wear uniforms and stay in hotels, but will they earn the same income? Will pilots enjoy the same time off, schedules, union rules as you?
If simply reaching a 757-200 qualifies as having made it then I was there.
Gambling paid off for you however for the rest the house usually wins.
SkyHigh
__________________
Pilots are paid for what they will do, not for what they can do.
"You are the sole person on this entire forum who truly has hit it big and has it made."
Oh Please....
It ain't just little old me....
Every one of this site's leadership has made the big time while you walked away. I'd say each Fedex and UPS pilot has made it to the big house while you decided it wasn't worth your time.
In fact, anyone who is happy with the choice to stick with the career "has hit it big". Each person has their own "hit it big" scale based on their personal opinion. What's worthy to one person might not be worthy to Sky.
Honestly, in spite of Sky's rants, I don't personally know one person who wouldn't do it over. And that includes Aloha's, Mesa's, America West's, Delta's, UPSers, and several guys that keep emailing me at the regionals.
As low as the cycle has gone, there are those who find it worth their time to be optimistic for the future. One of those guys will have my job in 12 years....
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Go here to see how I became a UPS pilot:
"You are the sole person on this entire forum who truly has hit it big and has it made."
Oh Please....
It ain't just little old me....
Every one of this site's leadership has made the big time while you walked away. I'd say each Fedex and UPS pilot has made it to the big house while you decided it wasn't worth your time.
In fact, anyone who is happy with the choice to stick with the career "has hit it big". Each person has their own "hit it big" scale based on their personal opinion. What's worthy to one person might not be worthy to Sky.
Honestly, in spite of Sky's rants, I don't personally know one person who wouldn't do it over. And that includes Aloha's, Mesa's, America West's, Delta's, UPSers, and several guys that keep emailing me at the regionals.
As low as the cycle has gone, there are those who find it worth their time to be optimistic for the future. One of those guys will have my job in 12 years....
Some of my points on this forum are about definitions.
Definition of success in aviation. Some people will continue to take a beating in this industry until they have lost everything. Is that success? Is it a good idea? When does logic and self preservation come into play? Not everyone will make it to FedEx. It's a fact. Whats more who says that in 15 years FedEx will even be the place to be by then? How does making it to your dream job at 50 make it a successful career in regards to the other facets of life?
To me the definition of success in aviation is to be able to earn more money and have a better and more secure life than if you hadn't gone through the effort it took to get there. To me a career that demands as much as aviation should offer a substantial return other than just job satisfaction. Most people who want to should be able to get hired at UPS while still in their 20's.
Definition: If an occupation does not offer compensation that is worthy of the investment that it took to get there then it is a hobby. I will not argue that your friends who have just been laid off at Aloha are not happy with their profession. My point is that when compared to most other professions aviation looses far more than it gains.
When considering the odds and comparing aviation to other ways to spend your life is it still a valid profession or just a working hobby with a hail Mary chance at the big time?
SkyHigh
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Pilots are paid for what they will do, not for what they can do.
My vote goes with skyhigh, if I had it to do over I would have done something else. But for now I am stuck albeit planning my exit. By the way even cargo airlines still have lost spending power since the 1978 bench mark. What a UPS or FEDEX captain makes in inflation adjusted terms now does not compare well with the earning power of a captain at Flying Tigers or Trans International. Or Saturn, or Slick Bros. Or the rather significant amounts of UPS contracted cargo moved in the 1970's by World Airways, or Overseas National, or Airlift International. The huge dive taken after de-reg has many conducting an excercise of "The reasonable frog is the one who gets boiled".
I don't want to get out of aviation without a pretty good fight first. It's a pipe dream, but I would personally love it if all of us 121 pax pilots stopped going to work for a week or so.
Who cares whether it's legal or not. We all know management doesn't play by the rules, why should we? You gotta hit 'em hard w/ what they can understand, this coming to the negotiating table and negotiating in good faith has gotten most in this profession nowhere.
We can't expect meaningful change in this industry if we're not willing to take great risks and make great sacrifices. We can't just sit by and wait for it to happen, we're all going to have to make it happen.
Just read that the median CEO salary in this country is about $8 million/year. This sort of greed has got to stop. I can deal w/ the high oil prices and other difficult changes we've seen in this industry over the last several years, however, I cannot come to terms w/ the fact that despite all the sacrifices employees in this industry have made, the CEOs and upper management types have walked away w/ their bonuses and other perks. Take a look at United, that's the most tragic story I've seen in my career so far.
Well the best thing we can say about all of this is that its..OPINIONS .... and opinions are like your posterior ....everyone has one.... and their are ( in my opinion ) only three that matter... MINE ( for me ) my wifes.... and my god's..... the rest of them ... are just that someone else's.
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*** man]and missed out on many of the best things in life. Flying is a huge part of my life but it is not everything to me. 
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