N6724G and Mike B525, the airline industry could use more folks like you. I spent over 10 years in the business world before switching to a pilot career and have loved every minute of it. The schooling, the instructing and the line flying. Pilots who think that there are 9 to 5 , 40 hour a week jobs paying $70,000/ year have their head in the clouds No, the pay does not start out great. But what entry level job does?

I've worked desk jobs where I saw my family less than I do with an airline. If only I were independently wealthy and didn't have to work at all, but alas, work I must. This is the first and only career where I actually look forward to going to work. It has virtually no stress compared to other management positions I have had and when I walk off the plane and head home I have no stress at all. Not worried about quotas, proposals, contracts, or delegated responsibilities not being completed. All I have to worry about is what time I sign in three or four days from now. With this career, when you are off, you are really off. And I enjoy a career that has a combination of manual and intellectual skills. My product is a safe landing and every time a deliver one (even on a calm, sunny day) I feel good even if nobody else notices.

You do have to put up with a bunch of socialists who think that the almighty and all knowing worker should decide what we should fly (scope), when we should fly it (work rules), and how much we should be paid to fly it, despite the fact that they cannot name a single industry that has survived such nonsense. They look under their hotel room beds before they go to sleep to make sure the "management" boogey man isn't going to jump out. But like any discussion, if you find yourself in the cockpit with someone who disagrees with you on a topic, change the topic. I can always find common ground with another pilot, and bitching about my job is not it. They say polite conversation should not involve religion or politics, and union talk is a little of both. Just let people know that you enjoy your job, enjoy your pay, and have certainly had worse of both and change the subject. Plus, I think that the whiners really come out on these boards. Not so many in real life.

It's a good job, with good pay and benefits, and no matter how hard they try the union recruiters can't change my mind.