Originally Posted by
scumby
My 2 cents about paying to fly......When we decide to become a pilot, we have to pay money for a school with the hopes of getting on as an employee after your qualified. Thousand of dollars are forever gone, some spent wisely , some spent stupidly.
That's true for anything... If you want to learn a new skill, you need to pay somebody to train you for it. As far as spending money stupidly, you have only yourself to blame for that. There's more than enough information out there on the internet to discover how to train effectively, how to choose the right instructor/school, etc.
Finally, after months you get all your rating and have no money to even pay for towel paper. What's next ? Buy a plane with partners ? Be a airport rat and do anything to get stick time ? Now, after you paid thousand of money to get here, you just get more money from the money tree (at least my exwife thought I had one). Parents,friends, banks, etc.
I didn't have a money tree or rich parents. I worked for my money, and continued to do so while training. You have only yourself to blame if you got into a bad spot financially with banks, parents, or ex-wives.
You decide to get the best buck for your money so you search the internet. It's the magical ball that will help you. So, you decide to join full throttle. You went to a PTF school. You picked that tree dry and now you have the hours to actually get a job. But, at what price ? Companies like Great Lakes, Seaport, Vision, Scenic. Wow, you hit the big time.
If you've prepared yourself financially to work for these companies, what's the problem? The pay scale at these places is hardly a secret, and I was able to determine that I couldn't afford to work at those places. So guess what? I didn't work at those places...
One year later you go to the Regional and you say "I MADE IT". then years later, you have a furloughs under your belt. This could take 4-7 years if the stars were to aligned perfectly. Your in debt thousandssssss of dollars for what a dream.
Getting furloughed is always a possibility in this industry, but that's hardly a recent thing. Ever read "Fate in the Hunter"? Have you researched the history of the aviation industry since deregulation? With the exception of a decade or two since the Wright brothers invented this stuff, there's always been a risk of getting furloughed.
What I'm trying to say here is we're all paying for training. From getting our licenses, CFI jobs that are less then Taco Bell. Commuter jobs that you're eligible of food stamps.
Every professional aviation job I've had pays more than Taco Bell and disqualifies me from food stamps. Even my CFI and regional airline gig.
Oh, then you finally get that interview with airline ZZZ. They like you and say you need a type rating to work here. Paying for type ratings. Hell yeah, there goes more money.Then after all this time and effort you get your 2nd Furlough letter or the company went out of business.
This doesn't make any sense. The only US airline I know of that requires you to have a type rating to work there is Southwest. I haven't heard about too many Southwest furloughs lately, and I don't think they'll be going out of business anytime soon.
Great, you get to start at the bottom AGAIN. Hopefully, your saving a jar full of coins, you'll need them. Then the next job interview comes after you've been furloughed for almost a year, Couldn't afford to fly as you were poor as ******. The interviewer ask to see your logbooks and says your short on our minimums of 50 hours in 6 months. What now ?
That is quite a sob story. If it were me, I'd dust off my CFI certificates and start flying to meet their minimums. I'd also make sure I understood the minimum requirements for the next job I interview at.
You hear through APC , XXX airline will hire me if I become PTF. Then I'll have the hours to go to a crappier airline. Which means paying for training. so, to conclude this , we all pay for training by getting the required licenses, rent planes to build time, try and CFI, , PTF schools and the School of hard knocks. I don't care how he/she got the ratings, experience,qualification. All I care about if I have to leave the cockpit to go to the bathroom, that person better do a excellent job. I know pilots that shouldn't be pilots. They are horrifying but had quality training. Could you trust them when you went to the bathroom ? Hope it's a short flight. So, does where you were trained really make a difference , yes. Is every pilot trained as a PTF bad. NO, it has to do more with natural skills, judgment, personality, and drive to be a good pilot. So paying to fly, we all are guilty of that.
Ok, so what you're saying is that there are good pilots and bad pilots out there, and that if you're flying with a bad pilot it's best not to leave them alone while using the bathroom. I can't argue with that logic.
Except the military pilot. Everything is handed to them with white gloves and hot tea. (I'm enlisted, just like to stir up the pot a little bit) I don't prefer PTF pilots but it's the nature of the beast.
So you admit you are just trolling (e.g. "stirring the pot")?
Whatever the case, your post some across as very whiny and you feeling sorry for yourself. Apparently aviation didn't work out for you, but sometimes in life we have to make our own luck. In aviation, that is particularly so. It is EXTREMELY foolish to jump into professional aviation with a lot of debt and no backup plans if you get furloughed/fired/laid off.