As an airline pilot one of the greatest benefits I received was the ability to sit next to a guy who was perhaps 30 years my senior and use the month to completely get to know him or her and take careful measure the depth of their dissatisfaction and despair, to dissect the story of their lives into individual decisions at key moments. In a quest to understand the forces that got them there.

Climbing the ladder of aviation you pass thorough the layers of the bungled and the botched in hopes of reaching the top where you can then break out into the sun. I can understand why those who were stuck on rungs far below were apathetic or depressed,. The goal was to achieve the promised land.

Increasingly however as the years and decades passed the promised land has gotten farther and farther away. Companies that just a few years ago were the envy of the industry are now just a shade away from being a regional airline sweatshop. Commonly now the ladder stops short of reaching the sun. The fallout of a life spent in an under preforming career can be catastrophic.

I am a husband and father first. I love to fly but hold a holistic approach to my life. I can not afford to let my passion for aviation impair other aspects that I value. Others are out there who are like myself. They value home, family, friends, financial security and a healthy lifestyle. It is they whom I write to in hopes of saving them from making a bad decision for themselves or at least to carefully do the math with their eyes wide open before making the sacrifice.

Some are pilots who are married with children while others are husbands and fathers who fly for a living.

Skyhigh