Originally Posted by
Al Aska
No, just retire so we can make a living in a much more expensive world! I would hope you would be happy in the after flying life. Do yourself a favor and enjoy what time you have left.
If you can't make a living find something else to do. YOU chose this profession. I guess you and the other whiners on this forum are special. You are the only ones in the industry who have ever had to struggle and sacrifice. Now, let me make sure I understand this. You are demanding that pilots who have also struggled and sacrificed to get to where they are today to just quit, so you can find happiness and success?
Do you actually think that you are the only ones who have had to fly for sub standard wages, commute hundreds of miles to work, live in a crappy crash pad with 20 other pilots, never be home with your families and friends and work just about every holiday?
How about watching your airline being bought or merged with another airline, losing your seniority and eventually your job as a result? Having to start all over at the bottom of someone else's seniority list at first year pay, knowing that all of this could happen again?
This industry has been like this since it was started. Yeah, 9/11 threw a monkey wrench into the works and made it really hard. So did deregulation in the 80's which resulted in bankruptcy for several airlines and the loss of a lot of pilot jobs. Some chose to stick it out, coped, found other jobs and started all over again. Many chose not to and found other ways to make a living. The cycle will continue, good times and then some other event will make it hard once again.
You don't have to hope for my happiness. I'm very content and happy now while I have a job in this industry and will continue to be happy when I don't. I went thru much of what has happened since the 80's and 9/11 and both had adverse effects on my career. I've had to start over twice at the bottom of another airline's seniority list. I don't work for a major, don't have retirement other than a 401K, sometimes work crappy hours and gone from home for 10 days or more at times. I do make a decent living but it was over 20 years getting here. Guys at the majors make a hell of a lot more than me, have better benefits and more time off. I'm happy for them, glad they made it. I'm not sitting here everyday, miserable and mad at the world because they are there and I'm not.
The reason I'm not like you? Because I came to realize that life is very short and you don't base your happiness on a job, because that's what it is, a job. I'm fortunate that I have a job that I enjoy and can make a living doing it.
Did I aspire to land a job at a major airline and be making $200K or more at this point? Sure I did, but due to circumstances I could not control, I did not and it had nothing to do with my qualifications.
Thank you for your concern about my happiness, although I suspect your concern is more about your happiness. I will enjoy what time I have left also, whether I'm flying or not. My sincere hope is that you and your peers can find happiness and contentment without expecting others to give it to you. Because if you can't, you will be miserable till the day you die.