Originally Posted by
SkyHigh
We all have only our experiences to draw upon. I have kept track with peers from college, flight instructing, bush pilot air taxi and into the regionals. Perhaps fewer than 10 % are even still flying. Two of my best friends died in airplane crashes. Just last summer I turned down a job because they wouldn't promise me regular days off and they guy who took the position died in a crash just months later.
Perhaps I have had an unusual run. I think that successful pilots owe more to luck and contacts than even they realise. Though I do not yet have the statistical evidence to prove it my premise that there are at least 100,000 licensed and experienced professional grade pilots out there who have had to let the career go for similar reasons as myself. They are not counted anymore once their medicals lapse. I have been in contact with one of the FAA's top statistician who shares my thoughts and is trying to prove the same thing.
SWA is fine for many people. It doesn't fit me or my life. I am sure that there are plenty of companies you have chosen to avoid. Why don't you pursue a SWA job?
Skyhigh
You know what? Keep this up and you're going to have to pay those of us who respond to your posts for this therapy. Twisted as it is, you're looking in the wrong place for people to hand you a plate of cookies, a glass of milk and pat you on the head saying "...it's OK Sky, it's not your fault, all the others are just jealous they're not you..." That's what mommy figures are for, not real pilots.
From what you've posted here, you've paid a mere fraction of the dues that I and many here have yet you whine more than all of us combined...what's up with that? Get it over with, hang it up and move on. I for one wouldn't want you in my right seat...in the middle of an emergency you'd likely break down, get out of the seat and go in the back to lament how unfair and cruel life is to the jumpseaters. Move on dude.